I found a decade old thread about scar regeneration with topical iodine that died out, I happened to use it successfully recently so I want to give it some renewed attention.

My scar was a surgical scar on my face, about 2 inches long - I don't have acne scars but the same principle should apply to any type of scar.

I started out with trying topical Lugols 5% iodine applied with a q-tip to the scar, twice a day approximately 12 hours apart for about a month - nothing seemed to happen. The iodine would start to fade after about 18 hours, evaporating into the air. I also experimented with using plastic tape to cover the iodine - and nothing different happened there either except some of the iodine would stick to the plastic, making it hard to tell when none was left on the skin.

I believe the mechanism by which it works is by slow and constant iodine being absorbed deeper into the skin, triggering cell death on damaged tissue, such as scars. It seems to happen from the bottom-up rather than the top down, so layers of the dermis that are not visible will heal first.

Then, I started applying thick silicone gel sheets (they are see through) after applying the iodine. This had the effect of drastically increasing the time that the iodine disappeared from the skin because it kept the skin much more moist. The silicone pad also seemed to increase the amount of iodine that entered the skin based on the new effects it had but I cannot prove this. I had to start applying the iodine 3 times a day. Once just after waking, once about 8 hours later, and again just before going to bed. So, I applied it every 8 hours. Even doing so, the iodine would often be mostly gone after 8 hours. It did not take long - approximately 4 days of doing this, until some pretty drastic changes started happening. For one, the entire area became very red, warm, and my skin was starting to peel similar to after a sunburn despite not getting any sun. The main effect I noticed though was that my scar - which was atrophic in the middle and bumpy on the ends - flattened out a very noticeable amount both by visual checking and feeling with my fingers.

In short, by using topical iodine applied to the skin with no silicone covering it, the healing was so slow as to be imperceptible - Dr Berry, who wrote the original article on scar regeneration from topical iodine, did not use silicone and seemed to think it could take up to a year of constant around the clock application for scars to regenerate using topical iodine or plastic coverings alone. I work from home so despite it being on my face this is possible, but it was very slow. As best as I can tell, the silicone covering method keeps the area moist and drastically increases how fast the method works.

The area will be very unsightly using either method - more unsightly using the silicone, but the duration required would be much less.

I also used Dr Berry's trick of running a cheap vitamin C pill under hot water then rubbing the wet pill on my scar to remove the iodine - so I could go to the grocery store, since my scar is in visible area. This would not remove the redness but does remove the orange/yellow appearance of iodine on it.

I view the body as a closed system, so I want to elaborate on the other variables that could have effected this outcome.
First, I take a multivitamin/multimineral which included 100% of the daily value of iodine, and I also add liquid silica to my water which supposedly helps hair and nails (and skin?) grow. I take very quick showers and I put the silicone covering back on right after. I only use tallow soap, no chemicals whatsoever. I don't think scrubbing the area with soap every day would be very good for the process but I'm not sure. Most importantly, during this entire time, I was in a state of nutritional ketosis - verified with ketone blood test strips of having a ketone level of 2.0 - 3.0 and a blood glucose level of 80-95. The reason I mention this is that in a ketogenic state much of my body was experiencing heightened levels of autophagy - which is a fancy word for breaking down damaged cells and recycling them. Contrary to fasting, doing so with a ketogenic diet prevents my body from experiencing the stress and negative sides of prolonged water fasting, plus, water fasting is harder to do mentally in my opinion.

I ate virtually no carbohydrates and no dairy - both of which I believe are important for different reasons - no carbohydrate to lose weight, and no dairy to balance hormones. My meals consisted mostly of high fat sausage - fresh or frozen so that it did not contain a ton of sodium. I added an electrolyte mix high in potassium (has other things in it but I use it for the potassium) and liquid silica to my spring water - the two things I cannot seem to get by eating "high fat carnivore". In addition to this I also take ancestral supplements fish eggs and desiccated beef brain / beef liver pills, but only one a day instead of 6 a day like they suggest. I do this just in case the more processed multivitamin doesn't have everything I need in them or is not bio-available in some way. Other than these things, nothing else entered my mouth or stomach, not even tooth paste.