When dealing with minimizing a scar, whether from surgery, an accident, acne, or other injuries to the skin, many people wonder if they might need a nighttime scar treatment. There are many scar treatment creams on the market, and several promote themselves as special nighttime care. There is no reason to buy a special nighttime treatment cream. Instead, you should use a high-quality cream both day and night to reduce the appearance of your scars.
The Importance of Nighttime Care
It is important to treat your scar at night for several reasons. First, the skin loses the most amount of moisture at night, and moisture is essential to healing scars. Therefore, you want to use a cream at night to keep the area moist. Additionally, the body undergoes most of its healing process during sleep. By using a cream that promotes the skin’s natural healing processes at night, you can take advantage of the time the body is naturally relaxing, restoring, and healing itself.
While it is important to treat your scars at night, there is no reason to have a separate cream to do so. There is no special ingredient that only works at night. Instead, you just have to use the same quality ingredients you use during the day, but apply it at night before bed.
The Best Ingredients for Treating Scars
There are many scar treatment creams available on the market, and many include ingredients that don’t help. Worse yet, some ingredients can do more harm than good. For example, vitamin E is a popular ingredient for skin care, but studies have shown that up to 1/3rd of users develop contact dermatitis. This means the skin can turn red, itchy and flaky. Kojic acid is a popular lightener, but it can lead to hormonal disruption and skin sensitivity. Hydroquinone is another popular ingredient for treating dark scars, but it can actually be toxic and has been shown to have carcinogenic effects. For this reason many countries have banned use of products containing certain amounts of hydroquinone.
The best ingredients to use in a scar treatment cream are stable forms of vitamin C and natural pigment lighteners like licorice extract. Vitamin C is an antioxidant that fights against damaging free radicals, promotes skin collagen growth, and helps the skin to properly heal, all of which help reduce scarring. Licorice is a natural skin lightener that also protects the skin. The combination of the vitamin C and licorice extract can create a powerful natural and soothing scar treatment.
Following the Right Scar Treatment Protocol
When you are working on healing a scar, you want to follow the best treatment protocol. You should apply the topical scar treatment at least twice a day. One of these times should be right before you go to sleep to ensure the area remains moist, as well as to promote the natural healing that occurs during sleep. Another important time to apply the cream is first thing in the morning. Most scars may never completely disappear. However, by using the right treatment you can greatly reduce the appearance of your scars.
Have a question about your scar? Leave a comment and we’ll be happy to answer.
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I have scars on my belly from 3 previous surgeries. Is it possible to soften the internal scarring through massage/manipulation of these scars. They’re ugly on the outside but apparently the internal scarring is playing havoc with my elimination process each day.
Hi Ellie, Yes, it’s important to perform aggressive scar massage for this very reason. Scar massage means firm manipulation of the scar, moving it around to break it up from the surrounding tissues. This post should help: http://scarsandspots.com/how-do-you-soften-scar-tissue