How to Reduce the Appearance of Stretch Marks Naturally

Many things in life contribute to the addition of stretch marks to the female body, such as growth spurts, weight gain, weight loss, puberty etc.  But one major life-event that can almost guarantee to leave its mark on your precious skin – pregnancy!  Stretch marks also happen to be amongst the leading list of items that women dislike about their bodies.

Facing the Truth

Unfortunately, even with all of the beauty creams, laser treatments and special oils out on the market or at the drugstore, there still has yet to be a remedy that removes them completely.  However all is not lost in the beauty world, and even though a cure does not yet exist, there are still several things you can do to reduce their appearance greatly.

First and foremost the greatest piece of advice is to stop comparing yourself to the unrealistic bodies that are portrayed on beauty magazines.  Women’s skin in particular is airbrushed to within an inch of it’s life on magazine covers, after all.  The sooner you can come to terms with your imperfections, the quicker you can look past them and see your worth without perfection. 

Every single human on the planet has insecurities about who they are and how they look physically, so don’t hide who you are in a brown paper bag.  Accept yourself as is and bask in the uniqueness of who you, are because if you can’t do that, no amount of beauty tips or treatments will make you feel any more beautiful.

The Importance of Water

The first step in reducing the appearance of the stretch marks on your body is to start with your diet.  Now I am not going to give you a list of foods that you should and shouldn’t eat.  It’s much more simple then that.

All you need to start doing is watch your intake of water.  If you are not drinking the recommended 8-10 glasses a day, then you need to start now.  Water is the easiest natural resource to come across and yet so few of us actually use it to our benefit.  Don’t just drink water just when you are thirsty.  If you have hit that point then you are already dehydrated.  Keeping your body well hydrated will do wonders to your skin. 

Drink above and beyond what’s the acceptable limit and watch how your body purges itself of impurities by simply flushing them out.  Your skin shouldn’t be dry or ashy if you drink enough water – it should glow and radiate without hundreds of dollars invested in beauty treatments.  Water will help accomplish this no matter what your skin type is.

Creams and Lotions

Next there are several things you can do with the topical application of creams and lotions.  The most popular product on the market today that claims to reduce the appearance of scars and stretch marks is Mederma.  Don’t however think you need to spend the pretty penny that such a product costs.  Look around at your local stores and find the non-name-brand items that are featured around Mederma.  The cost of these products can be significantly less then the name-brand products and more often then not produce the same results.

Check the active ingredients in them and compare the labels to see that they are fairly similar.  Also look for creams that contain green tea as it has known natural healing agents, which is also present in Shea Butter.  You can also get similar results with going with the less concentrated lotions instead of the expensive creams.  But these lotions tend to require more applications and take a longer span of time to produce visible results.

Vitamin E Therapy

Another form of stretch mark reduction therapy is found in the use of vitamin E.  It is fairly inexpensive and can be found at any supermarket or drugstore.  You can buy the gel capsules and either break them and apply the vitamin E directly to the affected area, or take them orally and absorb their benefits internally.  Both have been discovered to aid in the appearance of stretch marks.

Exercise Your Imperfections Away

Now a more complex and generally time-consuming recommendation is to increase your daily form of exercise.  This works on several levels.  First, exercise will increase your daily rush of endorphins and thus make you feel better about yourself overall even without directly affecting the visual aspect of your stretchmarks.  

Secondly, its an obvious aid in weight loss and this not only increases your self esteem, but in most people it will also reduce the appearance of the stretchmarks as well.  However, in some cases of extreme weight loss it can momentarily or permanently increase the appearance of stretchmarks depending upon the severity of change.

Tanning Wonders

Lastly, the easiest and quickest (if temporary) fix to reduce the appearance of stretchmarks is to head to your local tanning salon and treat yourself to a sunless spray tan.  However, do not partake in the UV tanning beds.  These may make you think that you are getting a more permanent form of reducing the appearance of your stretchmarks, but in truth you are only permanently damaging your skin and increasing the speed at which it ages.  Both of these things will make your stretch marks physically worse over time rather than better.

Stick with the spray tan. Even though its not permanent and can be costly it will give you a wonderful all over glow, and while it lasts will make you almost forget you ever had stretchmarks in the first place.  Great for weddings, honeymoons and college reunions!