Without any delay, let's get right into the topic. First, let's identify the types of acne scars.
There are different types of acne scars. The most common ones are shown in the following pictures:
P.S. I would like to thank my bestie for providing her pitted scars pictures and allowing me to use them in my blog.
So, What Causes Acne Scars?
Acne scars develop as a result of injury to the skin's tissue and skin's natural healing process. After a breakout, healthy skin goes through a natural regeneration process. However, scarring occurs if the process is incomplete or contains abnormalities.
The Types of Acne Scars + The Cause:
1. Post Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation are flat discoloration marks on the skin ranging from red to pink, brown or black, depending on skin tone and the depth of discoloration. They usually appear after the pimples have healed.
The Cause: When your pores get clogged, bacteria around the hair follicles enter the skin and thrive within the clogged pores, thereby causing inflammation, which is responsible for the redness and swelling of a pimple. This inflammation triggers an increase in melanin production which results in hyperpigmentation.
Good thing about them is that they are temporary and will fade over time. You can speed up the healing process by using a topical product designed to lighten marks and improve scars. My recommendation is Hiruscar Post Acne Gel.
2. Boxcar scars are round to oval shaped sunken scars with steep vertical edges.
3. Rolling scars have a wave-like (~) or undulating appearance.
4. Ice-Pick scars are deep narrow scars that make skin appear as if it was pierced by an ice pick. They can be large in size and often look similar to enlarged pores.
These scars usually have a sunken appearance on the surface of the skin, which are also known as atrophic scars, pitted scars and depressed scars.
The Cause: When the pocket of inflammation within a pore ruptured and skin tissue get damaged, the body tries to repair the damage by producing collagen. During the healing process, the body produces too little collagen and, in addition to the loss of underlying skin's structure such as fats and muscles, it causes concave scars to form.
5. Keloid scars are dense, raised scars and are thicker than surrounding skin.
The Cause: When the pocket of inflammation within a pore ruptured and your skin tissue get damaged, the body tries to repair the damage by producing collagen. During the healing process, the body overproduces collagen which forms a raised tissue on the surface of the skin.
Pitted scars and keloid scars are permanent and will not fade over time. Topical treatments like Hiruscar Post Acne Gel can only help to improve the appearance of such scars, but not heal them. The only way to eliminate such scars is to undergo procedures such as laser, (micro) dermabrasion and chemical peels.
Although it isn't possible to heal pitted scars and keloid scars through topical treatments, you can prevent them from forming.
How To Prevent Pitted and Keloid Scars + My Recommendation:
The best way to prevent such acne scars is to reduce the damage done to your skin. So don't pick at or squeeze your pimple, even if it pops on its own or you popped it by accident. I recommend to use Nexcare Acne Patch. Just paste a patch onto the popped pimple. What the patch does is it suck out all the remaining pus from your zit, reducing damage done to your skin and thereby preventing keloid and pitted scars from forming.
So these are my quick explanation on acne scars. All in all, so long as you leave your pimples alone (don't pick at or squeeze them), you will keep permanent scars at bay. Be sure to keep that in mind.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you find this post helpful. :)
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