Sincere Advice

I know how it feels at that moment you look in the mirror, either at a specific angle or under certain lighting, which accentuates your scars. Your mood changes immediately. Even if you were in the lightest of spirits and having the best time you could imagine, your head suddenly spins, your heart thumps a bit faster and you spirits fall. In a matter of seconds, your mood transforms so drastically. You want to just crawl into bed and pull the covers over your head where you feel safe. This feeling, it's all too common for me.

What gets us out of bed? Hope. Even the tiniest hint of hope is what we need. Sometimes that yearning for hope is what makes us all believe too easily. This is where we have to be careful.

Needling was the craze on these boards 5 years ago and I'm sure it's still a hot topic. I was so desperate that I actually went to a tattoo artist (Black and Blue Tattoo in San Fran) to get "needled." It did nothing for my scars and actually created a few new ones and exaggerated an existing one. I wish I had never gone.

Recently I did a search on Black and Blue Tattoo and saw that they advertise needling as a scar reduction method. The fact that they actually advertise it sickens me.

So I've learned. Don't just dive into any fad related to scar treatments. Do your research. More importantly, go to professionals who are qualified (have education and experience in) the field they are working in. Just, please, do your research and be careful.

retin-a?

I've been a browser for about a year and have been doing lots of research via this board and other areas. I have some scarring on my cheeks probably what I would consider rolling based on descriptions and pictures i've seen. I've talked to about 5 dermatologists and each one of them have said to avoid invasive methods (I'm olive complextion). Their recommendation was to use retin-a and while the process can be very very slow, it does remodel the skin and can greatly improve scarring. Has anyone here used retin-a for over 1 year and seen improvement in their scarring? I'd love to hear your comments and feedback, if anything to give me some hope.