Whenever you have trauma where the skin is punctured, torn, cut, or gouged, the skin will have to heal itself. The good news is that you don’t have to tell your body to heal itself; the healing will occur automatically. Your body is programmed to heal the skin whenever you experience a wound.
The complete healing process takes several months. If you took a photo of a wound daily for a year, you would be able to capture the different healing stages on film. One major thing you would notice is that the wound first forms a scab, which eventually falls off and creates a scar. The scar actually changes color over time.
In the beginning, the wound and forming scar is red or reddish purple. The area that is wounded sends out messages to the body to send in blood flow to help healing. Part of this new blood flow is created by the spontaneous development of new blood vessels to deliver nutrients and growth factors to the wounded area. The development of new blood vessels is called angiogenesis. The extra blood supply makes the healing skin more red than the surrounding normal skin.
Besides new blood vessels sprouting up around the wound, your body creates inflammation chemicals and growth factors to enhance healing. The wound needs this initial inflammation to start the healing process. Inflammation also makes the initial scar red or reddish purple in color.
However, when this inflammation phase lasts for too long, it can actually prevent optimal healing. The longer inflammation lasts, the more the inflammation will interfere with healing.
As long as the body continues to make the inflammatory chemicals, the wound will be red or even bright red. Once the wound progresses through the other stages of healing, the resulting scar starts to form and the redness begins to fade. Scars can take up to 18-24 months to heal properly and fade as much as possible.
What to Do If You Want to Decrease the Redness of a Scar
The key to improving healing is to supply everything that your skin needs to heal optimally. This includes taking care of the injury appropriately, eating the right foods, and using the right scar treatment.
Whichever product you decide to use, research the ingredients to make sure they improve scar healing and don’t interfere with healing in any way. For example, one ingredient consistently found in the very best scar removal formulas is dimethicone silicone. Multiple studies show that silicone is the gold standard treatment for scars which is why doctors recommend it for both new and old scars. Other ingredients that specifically decrease redness are licorice extract and some stable forms of vitamin C.
Have you noticed your scar change color over time?
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