Although stretch marks are difficult to eliminate once and for all, there are effective ways to prevent them and reduce the visibility of existing ones. Complete removal of stretch marks is ensured only by surgery, but home remedies can make them fade so much that they become almost invisible. We present several effective methods and recipes for natural creams to help fight this defect.
What exactly are stretch marks? This is damage to the dermis, whose task is to keep the skin supple and elastic. They look like red lines that turn white over time. Unfortunately, their complete removal would require surgical intervention.
If you don’t want stretch marks, you must avoid it
In order to prevent the appearance of these unsightly lines, it is worth knowing the main causes of their formation. These are:
Sudden weight loss or weight gain
Taking too much adrenal cortical hormone in medication,
Rapid growth, which happens, for example, in adolescents during puberty (inevitable …),
Too much production of the hormone of the adrenal cortex, which occurs in obese people and during pregnancy.
To sum up, sometimes stretch marks cannot be avoided, such as in the case of pregnancy, but you can use preventive methods during pregnancy. The “friend” of stretch marks is the yo-yo effect, i.e. rapid drops and jumps in weight, which should be avoided by using the right diet.
What to eat?
A diet rich in vitamin K will help in the fight against stretch marks. It is effective and will bring many additional benefits to the body. You will find it primarily in dairy products, liver, tomatoes and green leafy vegetables. Zinc, which is rich in pumpkin seeds, nuts, sprouts, green leafy vegetables and seafood, will also add elasticity to the skin.
It is also important to drink adequate amounts of water – at least eight glasses a day. It’s also good to exercise regularly, as movement strengthens your muscles and helps keep your skin supple.
Make your own stretch mark cream
If you want to get rid of this problem in a natural way, be sure to buy lavender oil. Apply it to stretch marks three times a day as it has a brightening effect, which will make them much less noticeable. While it won’t completely remove them, it’s definitely worth using regularly.
Another way is to massage 30 ml of any oil into the skin – e.g. almond, jojoba, argan oil, with the addition of three drops of chamomile and seven drops of lavender. You can also try homemade stretch mark creams:
Cream with aloe – store it in the refrigerator. Mix the oil of four vitamin E capsules, two vitamin A capsules, half a cup of olive oil and a quarter cup of aloe vera gel.
Cream with apricots and cocoa butter – also store it in the fridge, tightly closed. Heat and melt 2 teaspoons of beeswax, mix with a teaspoon of wheat oil, half a cup of cocoa butter, a teaspoon of vitamin E capsule oil and a teaspoon of apricot kernel oil.
If you are pregnant or struggling with overweight and want to prevent stretch marks, preventively lubricate the skin of the abdomen and breasts with shea butter, vaseline or cocoa butter.