They are quite deep scars, I don't think that anything besides chemical peels, laser treatments can help you.

Even with those it will take a while for them to heal. Good luck man.

Thanks for the reply

I'm considering chemical peels and will update with any results.

Chemical peels may not cut it for you though so don't count on them alone. You need to get to the deeper layers of your skin which chemical peels will not do, especially if you're doing home treatments, which I never think is a good idea personally. Also, your skin tone is lovely! If you can avoid causing redness or pigmentation problems you will thank yourself, trust me on that! Lasers were a nightmare on my pigmentation/redness.

I see moderately severe rolling scars and maybe a few moderate boxcar scars. I can't see any icepick though. Would you agree? I too suffer from rolling and boxcar scarring and am the same age as you. Before I had my treatments I classed my scarring as moderately severe. The only thing that has helped me has been the Dermaroller and I am so amazed by my results that I am literally running up mountains to scream about my success to anyone who will listen, hehe. Now, I look in the mirror and I see mild acne scarring. No word of a lie.

If you'd like to know more about it I'm always happy to discuss.

Hi Fox,

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.

What treatments are there that can go deeper than chemical peels? I'm guessing only laser treatment?

I'm not sure I would agree that my skin tone is lovely, but it's not often I hear something good about my skin so I will take it, haha

From looking up the scar types, I would say that yes, you're correct, I mostly have rolling scars and a few boxcar scars. Also some red marks that tend to take about 3-6 months to fade without any treatment.

So you don't think the laser treatment helped you at all? Have you had anything besides laser and dermas? It's good to hear of your positive results with the dermaroller From what I've read on here though it kind of swells your skin so that if you stop using it, you might lose the results?

Cheers

Fractional co2 + subcision would probably be your best bet.

Hello willg, I had laser last november and believe it did helped but as much as I would have wanted... Besides it is really a strong treatment for which you need to wait a year to heal properly. Also peelings are very strong and doing them over and over again it just wont give you the result you want. I recommend you to save some money and go for surgery whenever you can if they really bother you.. Otherwise have patience!! Good luck

Hi Fox,

Thanks for the info, I really appreciate it.

What treatments are there that can go deeper than chemical peels? I'm guessing only laser treatment?

I'm not sure I would agree that my skin tone is lovely, but it's not often I hear something good about my skin so I will take it, haha

From looking up the scar types, I would say that yes, you're correct, I mostly have rolling scars and a few boxcar scars. Also some red marks that tend to take about 3-6 months to fade without any treatment.

So you don't think the laser treatment helped you at all? Have you had anything besides laser and dermas? It's good to hear of your positive results with the dermaroller From what I've read on here though it kind of swells your skin so that if you stop using it, you might lose the results?

Cheers

No the Dermaroller will penetrate deeper than chemical peels also, as will subcision, dermabrasion (outdated and scary!) and some (more aggressive) lasers. Unfortunately my Fraxel Re:Store treatments were a joke. I don't think the doctor really cared about my skin as he barely inspected my scarring and wasn't really interested in answering my questions. I am being honest when I say that I saw a 10% improvement in my acne scarring, out of 5 sessions. I am not against lasers, but I do think that you really need to do the research and ask a million questions of your doctor to determine whether it is right for you. This is something I failed to do.

That swelling you mentioned about the Dermaroller is crazy. People do at home treatments and love the way their skin looks when it is swollen so they roll more often than they should to keep their skin in a state of trauma! It's a big no no. After each of my treatments my skin was swollen for around 3 days, then my skin went back to looking like it did before treatment. Over the course of 6-8 weeks though my scars started to fill in, times this by 5 treatments and... wow! Patience and understanding is key. There is no quick fix. My scars have not and will not come back! Home treatments are something I would never consider nor advocate though. The Dermaroller is a medical device and used incorrectly can cause further scarring and/or infection. These people who do their own treatments take a big risk every time they put roller to skin!

Subcision, as others have mentioned, is also an excellent option for you. You really want to get under those scars and break the tissue/tethering that binds the top layers of your skin to the bottom layers. During subcision you should here "popping" noises which indicate that the doctor is breaking these tethers. This then allows your skin to be raised to the normal level and doctors can combine subcision with a filler like Restylane in order to hold the skin in place while it heals. There is also the suction method which people do post subcision which is basically a gentle vacuum placed on the scars to pull the skin up and prevent the lower layers from re-tethering. There is a member here by the name of Mr. Matt who has generously documented his subcision results! Look him up!

I really think you'd see awesome results with the Dermaroller and subcision (for the deeper scarring). Once your scars are more shallow then you could look at your chemical peels as they would be more effective on shallower scarring.

The redness you mentioned is not scarring so, like you said, it will go away even if you do nothing. Retin-A and light scrubs can speed the process up though if they bother you.

xx