Scars and sun exposure
 

I'm wondering, does too much sun exposure (i.e. tanning or sun burning) darken scars? It seems that the ones on my forearm have darkened quite a bit as I've been outside for long hours this week, despite the fact that I didn't get a huge amount of color on my arms. I had this discussion with a friend who's also SI and she said that hers seem to darken as well when she spends time outside. Is it because the scar tissue is sensitive or something?

Thanks. :-)

Oh, oh oh - this happens to me too! I wanted to make a new thread about it too, but I'll just write it here - is there anything I can do to stop the scars from going much darker in the sun?

I thought the sun was supposed to lighten them :S Well anyway, my forearms got burnt and where the scars were they peeled loads.. two/ three weeks later and they are still flakey.

I thought sun was good for scars and I have heard that from drs but I guess as the skin is sensitive it may cause some peoples scars to darken.

x

I don't have particularly visible scars.. they are a light brown colour i guess. When i go into the sun they turn red and become more obvious.

But i think i'm just backwards. As far as i'm aware, scars don't tan nearly as much as unscarred skin, so they usually show up as whiter against a tan.

^ Thats what has happened to mine, yeah.

I find that 'brown' scars tend to darken and 'white' scars tend to lighten (or, more importantly, they don't tan whereas the rest of my skin does!).

The only thing I can really suggest is putting sun cream on your scars so they don't burn or get sore. As for them becoming more obvious, I'm not really sure there's much you can do as that's just your skin's natural reaction to sunlight.

Em x

It would depend a lot on how old your scars are.
Skin is very senstive and is not as protected if it is scar tissue due to the types of layer of the skin. I would like to add tat you should be really careful about over exposure to the sun and sunburning especially.

Have you tried putting sun cream over them? This may help stop them from darkining.

If you live in the UK, I would highly recomened a lotion called P20. It is around £10 a bottle but it lasts ages. Its like an oil that you can put on in the moring, and then you dont need to bother putting it on again all day, even if you are in water. It does enable you to tan through it, however, it blocks the harmful rays. Might be worth a try on your scars.

If you do try it, please let us know how you get on.

Take care
Kim

Thanks much for the replies. :D

The area I was referring to had scars that were mostly 4 or so months old. I did wear sunscreen on my arms but I didn't put much on my scars because: 1) I had to apply it after I left the house, which meant that I already covered them with foundation so I didn't want it to smear/run off; and 2) I did read that the sun should lighten scars, so I wanted to reap that benefit (lol).

But now I'm glad to know that other people have experienced this as well. Do you think that it just depends on the person, or is it just a matter of the scars' age? Thanks for the recommendation, I don't live in the UK but I might look it up anyway because it certainly sounds useful.

It depends on both the persons skin type and the age of the scars, as well as there original depth/width and such.

Im sure some makeup comes with suncream in it. Might also be worth having a look at.

I going on holiday in a fortnight, and it's the only time I really get self conscious about my scars. They're quite old, between 18 months & 7 yearrs. But as my arms tan a lovely brown they don't, they're already white to start with.

Last year when I was in Egypt I used the approach of a really high factor sunscreen, down side, i didn't get a noticeable tan, plus side, nothing got more noticeable.

I was expecting them to fade eventually, but the ones I've got are determined to stick around.

*shrugs* I find mine lighten in the summer and become more obvious in the winter