Stretch marks is a common skin problem, where some pinkish, purplish, or silvery white lines are visible on the epidermis as the result of broken skin tissues on the dermis beneath the skin surface. Stretch marks may happen to both women and men, although it is more common on women. Genes, diets, weight fluctuation, and pregnancy are some inducing factor causing stretch marks. Hence, individuals may develop different level of susceptibility to stretch marks occurrence. Getting rid of stretch marks is not easy. Instead, these lines cannot be easily eliminated permanently. Some treatments may work well to suppress its visibility, yet there is no exact way to remove it completely. Skin tanning is one of debated treatment related to stretch mark removal. Many people expose themselves to the sun, hoping that it works for the stretch marks to go away.

Is tanning good or bad for stretch marks

Sun tanning is an activity to have the skin darkened by exposing it to the sun exposure. Sun tanning or what is sometimes referred as sun bathing, is beneficial when you are exposed to sufficient, healthy sun exposure. This is the kind of exposure which provides your body vitamin D that is useful for bones development. However, excessive exposure to sunlight or ultraviolet will not be good for your skin.

Some people think that sun tanning will be beneficial in removing stretch marks. Yet, this is not definitely acceptable. Stretch marks occurs because the skin tissues beneath the dermis tore. This is caused by a rapid or a massive rapid gain, such as in pregnancy. This turns into pinkish scars initially, and changes into silvery white eventually. While sun tanning might give an idea to darken these lines and make them more unnoticeable, the fact is quite different. Sun tanning will not make your stretch marks less visible or magically disappear. In some cases, tanning makes these stretch marks even more noticeable, instead. This is possible because your stretch marks do not tend to tan like the other skin area when exposed to sunlight. Stretch marks possess a different structure with other skin area, which makes them difficult to change color even when tanned. As these are also resulted from damaged skin layer, production of melanin in stretch marks-affected areas might also be inhibited. Melanin production is triggered when people are tanning. Therefore, inhibited production of melanin beneath the stretch marks areas causes limited change over the marks when tanned, which make this activity ineffective for stretch marks removal.

What can be done to make stretch marks less visible?

Many people argue that tanning is one useful treatment for stretch marks removal. In fact, this is not one hundred percent correct. Stretch marks are unique and have different characteristics from the surrounding skin areas, which makes it harder to tan. If you have severe stretch marks and are dying to see it disappear, some cosmetic covering or what-so-called as self-tanning can be considered. Self-tanning is covering your stretch marks using cosmetics which will make the color of the stretch marks and its surrounding areas even. This is harmless and simple, as it does not expose your skin onto excessive harmful ultraviolet ray. Self-tanning cosmetics are widely distributed in the marketplaces today. The price ranges also let you choose the most suitable one for your body and skin problems. Self-tanning idea is concealing the imperfect areas which is caused by stretch marks occurrence. There are concealers, loose powder, and pearly cream out there which can give perfect effect even on your stretch marks-affected skin. This is definitely cheaper than expensive laser surgical and safer than heat-tanning or sun-bathing which gives you the risk of sunburn and skin cancer. This also has less side effects, because when you think you are allergic to certain products, you can stop its application on your skin anytime. Although not permanent, self-tanning might be considered as many people have found it effective to conceal the imperfect thighs with stretch marks.