One of the reasons why I hate acne so much is because of the aftermath. It's not like "ok, it's over. You can go on with your life". It's more like "ok, it's over but we've given something to you as a reminder of us". So I've had the worst period of acne behind me, so now i'm going to feel really shitty about my scars. I wonder.. when my scars are gone, will I find something else I don't like about my face and overconcentrate on that specific thing? I think we are all striving for perfection.
However, there are times of the day where I don't feel like total shit about my scars. I'm okay with my scars in the daytime when I sit somewhere inside and I'm okay with my scars in caf©s because of the soft lightning.
The problem is that I don't actually know how bad my scars are. In some photos you can't hardly see them and I think they are mild and in other photos where I stand under direct overhead lightning I look so awful. I hate it.
Here is an example with good lightning where I'm thinking "okay, this shit ain't that bad!"
Next day I'll make an other picture with natural lightning and quit a bad angle and you'll see my scars more but i'm still like: OK, I have some scarring, but It's not a problem. I can live with this. For example:
But THEN I'll make a picture when it's dark outside and I'll stand under overhead lightning and it's really awful. It's like I have completely different skin. For example:
It's mentally frustrating. When I'm on a date or something.. I'm always aware of the lightning.. believe me, this doesn't help with dating.
I've had 5 fraxel session and they did some good. I think they've improved some scars for 50%, some for 60%, some for 20%, some for 5% and some for nothing. I have a appointment on monday to discuss a dermal filler. Anyone had good experiences with that? And is it true, that after a few years your scars will improve because after every session you'll also produce more collagen?
Hopefully someone can help me with this and hopefully I'm not the only one who is stressed about lightning, car windows etc. and can't stop checking out their scars..
Sorry for my English btw, it's not my native language
Your scars are very mild, even in the worst lightning. Living with scarring has made me despise it and I probably think it's a much bigger deal than normal people. However, I think you look very good. Even in the last picture you seem to hate you look good. I don't think the scarring makes you any less attractive. It sounds cliche to say they give you character, but I think they do. I'm being as honest as I possibly can here and I'm not just trying to make you feel better.
I know exactly what you mean by being aware of the lightning all the time, I'm the same way. My scars are worse than yours, I've posted them on here if you want to see them. I think most of us want perfection, but if my scars ever improve until they were the same as yours, I'd be happy.
If you're anything like me you might be thinking something like "these pictures don't show how bad they are in real life". But honestly, you will think it's 100 times worse than anyone else will. I wouldn't waste any money on fillers.
Do you have any pictures before your Fraxel treatments? Would be interesting to see.
@FriskyCreekI saw you made your pictures under the fleshlight of your phone. You really highlight them in that way. In your last picture you can't even tell you had acne. But I do the same thing: take photos under the worst lightning with the worst angle.
Unfortunately my phone broke down and I lost all my pictures from before the fraxel. However, the doctor made a photo of me before any treatments were done, so I'm gonna contact them to ask if I can make some new photos to see the difference.
@rey de reyes, Why so bitchy about it? It is only ok for people with severe scarring to be insecure about it? People with moderate acne are not sad enough and should just live with it?
Also, it looks so much betterduring the day time than night... In the morning I don't even care, after 6 pm they start to show again. Anyways, you'll figure it out. Have you tried any other treatments than fraxel?
I try to stay away from lightning that make them lookawful it will just make medepressed. And, what's the point really? It isn't like we aren't doing all we can.
I know that for you this is real, but they don't detract from your looks or anything.
On 3 december 2015 2222, FriskyCreek said:I know exactly what you mean by being aware of the lightning all the time, I'm the same way. My scars are worse than yours, I've posted them on here if you want to see them.
Your scars are definitely not worse, although you had better quality pictures up close.
Dude, I know how you feel, whether scarring is severe, mild, or light, it can have a huge effect on our self esteem. It took me a long while, but I'm not as self conscious about my scarring as I once was, and my scarring is WAYYY more noticeable than yours is. And yeah lighting is the first thing I think of wherever I'm at, but we really have to try to be optimists in these situations. I mean, there are some ACTORS who have more noticeable scarring than yours and these people make a living off of having camera a few inches away from their face. Brad Pitt, for example has scarring from acne that is similar to yours and is also kinda noticeable in certain lighting, and the ladies STILL love him!! I'm willing to bet money that 90% of people in the scars forum (myself included) who would kill to have your skin dude. So while lighting is frustrating, you gotta understand that when comparing your situation to others, it's not really bad at all. I attached a pic of Brad Pitt for reference. Whatever he's doing in the picture is a little odd, but the lighting shows the scarring on his cheeks and temples. PS I know Brad Pitt is ladykiller and all, so you may feel that comparing you to him isn't fair, but it's not like you're Willem Dafoe or anything (No offense to Willem Dafoe). Well, I meant this to be a short comment, but it turned out longer than I thought lol, I hope this helps you or anyone that may happen to read this. 
6 hours ago, Mr Andrew said:Dude, I know how you feel, whether scarring is severe, mild, or light, it can have a huge effect on our self esteem. It took me a long while, but I'm not as self conscious about my scarring as I once was, and my scarring is WAYYY more noticeable than yours is. And yeah lighting is the first thing I think of wherever I'm at, but we really have to try to be optimists in these situations. I mean, there are some ACTORS who have more noticeable scarring than yours and these people make a living off of having camera a few inches away from their face. Brad Pitt, for example has scarring from acne that is similar to yours and is also kinda noticeable in certain lighting, and the ladies STILL love him!! I'm willing to bet money that 90% of people in the scars forum (myself included) who would kill to have your skin dude. So while lighting is frustrating, you gotta understand that when comparing your situation to others, it's not really bad at all. I attached a pic of Brad Pitt for reference. Whatever he's doing in the picture is a little odd, but the lighting shows the scarring on his cheeks and temples. PS I know Brad Pitt is ladykiller and all, so you may feel that comparing you to him isn't fair, but it's not like you're Willem Dafoe or anything (No offense to Willem Dafoe). Well, I meant this to be a short comment, but it turned out longer than I thought lol, I hope this helps you or anyone that may happen to read this.
Thanks a lot man. I really appreciate it. I've asked some people who stand close to me to compare my scars to the scars of Dane Cook, Bill Murray, Olivier Giroud and Edward James Olmos and they all said I had milder scars. They said I had scars similar to Olivier Giroud but in a milder form. But in my head it so much worse then all of them. In my head I have severe scarring and I also think they are just saying it to make me feel good
I've got like 100 pictures of my scars in my phone in the most horrible lightning and the worst angle. I don't know why I do this, because it's useless and it'll only get me down.
Also, my consciouness is not helping in the dating world. The last three dates I had with different girls were really fun, but for some reason they all said: "I had so much fun, but i'm not looking for anything so it would be better to stop it". And ofcourse, I'm blaming this to my scars which makes me even more insecure. Had a great date even yesterday till the last 5 minutes when she got her bike under some fluorescent lightning and I f*cking knew: my scars look so horrible now. And now she's acting lame. It's really f*cking with my head.
However, here are 2 more pictures.. One in daylight where I'm very happy with and one in the worst lightning where I feel so horrible about.
u have scars and they are visible and all but from any angle u see they dont make ur face look bad at all .. without beard i cant say but with beard they look fine ... but if u wanna try something i would suggest subcision + needling .. combination treatment its kinda effective ..
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3996784/
and now in place of microneedling u can have rf needling ... specially infini .. many docs are saying its really effecive
I know the feeling. Every time I look into the mirror, my gaze goes straight to my scars. It's all I focus on.
I've heard good things about subcision and suctioning. Look up Mr Matts posts. Lots of good info.
Hmmm, I don't think the scars take away from your looks. I can't imagine anybody not wanting to date someone because of something they have no control over. If that's the case with these women, then maybe you dodged a few bullets. It just shows that they are shallow, superficial b*tches. I hope you're not bringing up the scars during the date(s). If so, don't do it anymore. 
I honestly probably wouldn't even notice your scars if I saw you in person. I'm not just saying that to make you feel better. You mentioned Dane Cook having scars, and I was thinking "What? Dane Cook has scars?!" and had to look up photos of him (I had a crush on him when I was a teenager, lol) I seriously never noticed. They are visible if you look for them specifically, I just never noticed. Same with Brad Pitt, never noticed until someone mentioned it. We are our own worst critics, but I get it. Nobody looks at me from 2 inches away under fluorescent lighting but myself, but it still bothers me how shitty my skin looks under those conditions.
Everyone's skin looks bad under the type lighting that the last picture was taken in. Every flaw is visible. But you know what? No one has perfect skin. There are countless celebrities with mild-severe scarring that have great lives. Do not let your MILD scars control you. Take Bill Murray for example. His scarring is significantly more severe than your mild scarring, and guess what. He's a considered a comedy legend and has over 5 kids! He's also been married... twice! See, we often blow our own "flaws" out of proportion. Self-acceptance is a very important thing.
Man i know.. Certain lights makes my skin looks like shit, like back ligh, elevator light, direct sunlight etc... I hate it, and yeah some celebs have them like brad pitt but that dude looks like damn angel with or without scars 
On 12/3/2015 at 11:44 PM, FriskyCreek said:Your scars are very mild, even in the worst lightning. Living with scarring has made me despise it and I probably think it's a much bigger deal than normal people. However, I think you look very good. Even in the last picture you seem to hate you look good. I don't think the scarring makes you any less attractive. It sounds cliche to say they give you character, but I think they do. I'm being as honest as I possibly can here and I'm not just trying to make you feel better.
I know exactly what you mean by being aware of the lightning all the time, I'm the same way. My scars are worse than yours, I've posted them on here if you want to see them. I think most of us want perfection, but if my scars ever improve until they were the same as yours, I'd be happy.
If you're anything like me you might be thinking something like "these pictures don't show how bad they are in real life". But honestly, you will think it's 100 times worse than anyone else will. I wouldn't waste any money on fillers.
Do you have any pictures before your Fraxel treatments? Would be interesting to see.
I always walk my head down cause lighting.. Its sometimes makes me nervous, lighting makes me bad man..