eh, didnt work for me, but I didnt follow the directions to a t. I didnt apply any ointments and I couldnt get it to bleed like the op said it should. Dont know if this would have a big effect on results. I might try it again in the future though and try to follow the directions better.
Ok I really dont recommend this
I did it and created a wound, there was no raised scar for about a week
Now my scar on my nose feels more raised then ever
It looks really uneven
Worst of all it is bright pink
I have a lovely pink RAISED scar on my nose and who knows how long til it fades
I am hoping the scar will shrink down a bit but for now
I really need to know how to help fade the pinkness without doing further damage!
Appreciate any replies!
Curing acne is complex, but makin a hypertrophic scar go away should be much easier for scientists.
Anyways, back on topic,
I had a pimple that I was very very sure would turn into a hypertrophic and it probably would have if I didn't mess with it, it was like a firm red bulb, I tried various things, breaking multivitamins tablets and spreading the powder, I dont think that did anything,
I tried popping it with a peg and messing with it and making it bleed, I thought my own blood would be the best way to heal it so yea, then i squeezed it or something, I somehow prevented it from becoming one... I also remember trying my own saliva as a spot treatment, but I don't think that helped much, maybe it did.
now that picture of you with the red scar was not much different from what i'm talking about, and I was able to flatten it completely by just gently picking the excess of with my fingers, I'm taking 100% flat, it became a red mark and it has now faded 80% (5 months later) and will continue to fade to 100%. Mine was on the cheek however, and My guess is the cheek is not as stubborn? as the nose?.
but please don't get your hopes up, maybe I got lucky, I became religious at the time as well, maybe he helped. 
I've been putting apple cider vinegar onto my hypertrophic scars and now they are wounds with a soft piece of skin on top (like a blister). It looks much worse than before...I'm tempted to pick off the piece of skin on top of my scar, but I'm afraid it will scar... I'm really scared that I might have messed up my skin...anyone?
I read this thread awhile ago and tried to imitate his method with concentrated lemon juice instead of vinegar. Since my hypertrophic scars were on my jaw lines, I had a hard time seeing where to rub. Let's just say it was a hard procedure for me, but I definitely saw significant improvements. The problem with using q tips is they are harder to control. So I came up with a different variation of this procedure. I used cotton pads and lemon juice instead. I rubbed the area with hypertrophic scars with pressure that I felt was not too uncomfortable for my skin. Yes, the normal skin surrounding the scar got rubbed, too. The raised scar began to bleed before the surrounding skin. I stopped rubbing when it started to bleed. Put Neosporin on the spot. I think it's really important to not go too deep to the point where you bleed a lot because more scar tissue might grow on top of the scar. That's just my idea, I'm not sure if that would really happen. However, my results show that slight bleeding with thin scab is more effective (I had multiple hypertrophic scars, so I could make comparisons). Let the scab form and let it peel on its own. Another thing that I did differently than this guy is I only do the procedure once rather than doing it for several days. If you can make your scar bleed the first time, a scab will form within an hour. It's not right to rub on the scab because it will make you bleed even more, and more chance of scarring. After your scab falls off, wait a week before doing it again. Experience tells me that if you do it immediately after the scab falls off, you will bleed a lot because it's still healing. Each time I complete the process, the scars got flatter and flatter. It's definitely more effective than silicon gel or whatever.
i am trying this now and i know this post is like two yrs old but im wondering did this really really work for anyone....i am on my 2nd day and there is no scab. my top layer of skin on the scar is off and i have just experienced some bleeding but no scarring at all. iam afraid this is going to leave a dark brown mark that well take months to get rid of.
i am using apple cider vinegar instead. idk peanutbutter never posted the final results. idk if i should continue or not. mines is on my nose on the side and its been thre for years idk how to get rid of it. i dont want to have to get injections =(
Lets cut the introduction, lets cut the drama of past failures of trying to get rid of hypertrophic scars, and lets get down straight to business...
THE SOLUTION
What you need:
1) White Distilled Vinegar
2) Q-Tip
3) Aloe Vera
4) Antibacterial Cream
5) About 1-2 weeks of downtime (unless you dont mind going out in public while its healing)
The steps to getting rid of it:
1) Dip the Q-Tip in the vinegar
2) Apply the Q-Tip against the hypertrophic scar and rub against it for about 10 seconds
3) Use the dry side of the Q-Tip and rub the vinegar nice even onto the scar. Dont be shy about it, rub against it firmly, not hard, but firmly enough to where you're not bending the Q-Tip. It is important that you do this in order to penetrate this scar and get into it. Do this for about 10 seconds as well.
4) Redip the vinger side of the Q-Tip into the vinegar and reapply it onto the scar with just as much firmness as you did with the dry side, but do it for about 30 seconds.
5) If you're doing it right, the scar will become white, or encircled by a white line. You may also bleed (this may not happen the first few times) but all of this is just signs that you're on the right path.
6) Apply Aloe Vera and/or Antibacterial Cream to the bump about 15-20 minutes after you're done. You should expect scabs, BUT DONT PICK AT IT, YOU MAY SCAR. Let theese creams do the "picking" for you.
Do this twice a day for about a week, or until you feel the bump has dissapated. Here's how my process went, I am currently on day 8.
day 1) nothing
day 2) nothing
day 3) texture of bump becomes scabbed, but otherwise nothing
day 4) stays scabbed with no signs of improvement
day 5) bump is really red. and after applying vinegar in the evening, for the first time, theres a little bleeding (and from there on out there would be bleeding everytime I applied the white distilled viengar).
day 6) wake up in the morning with a red marked bump. I mean, BRIGHT RED. Its still hard to tell whether the bump has eroded or not because of the scabby surface. It did feel a little smaller. In the evening, I bleed a lot. I decide to apply aloe vera 10 minutes after due to this (from here on out I applied aloe vera)
day 7) Groundhog Day. See day 6.
day 8) MILESTONE DAY. Today is day 8. The bump looks terrible, perhaps even worse than it did before. But I realize that the bump is no longer hypertrophic. It only feels hypertrophic because of the dry scab formed. The Bump is GONE, but the scabby, red, inflamed, remains. It looks like its going to take at least a couple weeks for it to be gone. I still intend on applying aloe vera from here on out until i feel its gone, but I am done applying the white distilled vinegar.
I am not the first one to do this vinegar experiment. And all of those who tried it before me were 100% satisfied with the results. Please be patient with the process.
Day 1 - Before
Day 8, Healing not Complete
Though it remains unsightly, the healing is not complete. I will apply neosporin and aloe vera from here on out until it completely heals. Otherwise, you can tell the hypertrophic scar is no longer hypertrophic.
2nd Round - done twice a day from 11/25/08-11/30/08
I've been applying a lot of aloe vera and then anti-bacterial cream. And I intend on doing this twice a day until that bright redness subsides, and the "wound" heals.
EDIT: DONT USE ALOE VERA OR ANTI-BACTERIAL CREAM TO THE AFFECTED AREA. IT IS TECHNICALLY AN OPEN WOUND. APPLY HYDROCORTISONE CREAM INSTEAD.
interesting.
thanks for the post!
I got my nose pierced in the middle of August, and maybe a month later, I got a 'bump'. I did some research and found out it was a hypertrophic scar. I did what is suggested for nose piercings; saline washes, tea tree oil, hot compresses, but nothing seemed to work. it eventually got considerably large, so i tried rubbing vinegar on the bump yesterday. I've only used it twice since, but already the bump is pretty much gone, and I'll probably only need to apply vinegar (with pressure) for a few more days. the only difference I've done, is apply the vinegar for 30 seconds, rub a minute, apply for 30 secs, rub a minute. mine bled profusely right away, and scanned over overnight.
thanks again, I'm pleased with the surprisingly short almost-recovery, and perhaps I'll post again when my scar is healed completely.
I think this is one of the posts I read that lead me to a solution that has worked perfectly on all my hypertrophic scars. Just wanted to say thanks and add some steps that should help people.
I have tried I think every natural 'cure' before from tea tree oil to ACV to vitamin e and espsom salt baths and scar oils. Some seemed to reduce the scars but they would always come back.
I have used this solution on 18 hypertrophic scars and they have all disappeared and not returned after 6 months. Their only memory is a faint white flat scar for a few of them, only noticeable on close inspection.
Additional material needed - hydrocolloid bandaids. These are bandages that seal tightly and stick to a wound and form a gel coverage on the wound, causing them to heal faster. These are essential. They are slightly expensive but worth it, other bandages from my experience work no where near the same. Some brands are better than others, I found the house brand of Shoppers Drug Mart to work much better than a national brand. These bandages are about 60 cents each so a bit more expensive than normal, but for me to get rid of these scars is more than worth it. You can also cut up bandages and use smaller portions on different size scars - as long as it will stay on there securely and extend well past the edges of the scar.
Also it's best to have firmer not fluffy qtips, hard to explain but I found actual qtip brand not as good as house brand qtips. You don't want the qtip cotton falling apart in usage.
- Apply the vinegar with the qtip as before. Really soak the scar for a few minutes, it will start to soften up a bit. Use the dry end of the qtip to soak up extra vinegar that leaves the wound area or it will dissolve other skin.
- Begin rubbing the across the scar. The scar will slowly dissolve as you rub it. Rub in all areas of the scar.
- Warning - eventually you will hit blood vessels and it will sting a fair amount initially. It's not a steady stream of blood but more a slow porous flow from the areas the scar has dissolved. Use the dry end of the qtip to absorb excess fluids. You will probably need to use 2-3 qtips on a scar. The stinging seems to go away fairly quickly as the area numbs.
- Continue rubbing the scar and removing tissue until it is all gone and then some. What I mean is there should not only be all raised tissue gone, but you should remove the tissue slightly below the normal surface of your skin. I mean very slightly you don't need a big hole in your skin. Also go very slightly outside the edges of the original scar. What does this do? I don't know but one time when I left the slightest trace of the original raised scar tissue it didn't heal properly and I had to fix it again.
- When all tissue is removed, apply pressure to the wound with qtip(s) or other sterile bandage. This will slow the bleeding, it's not a lot but should be almost stopped before applying bandages. Might take 15-30 minutes to slow down. You do NOT want it dried up though.
- When bleeding has slowed, clean area with water and wipe dry with qtip.
- Apply hydrocolloid bandage, covering it completely. The reason I say the the wound should not be dried up because these bandages work best when absorbing wound fluid and forming a gel, keeping the wound wet and causing it to heal much much faster than normal. You may want to apply another bandage cross wise to secure the bandage on there.
- Leave overnight. The bandage gel will form. If the gel covers most of the bandage ie to the edges you need to change it. It has absorbed too much fluid and the edges will not be sealed to keep out bacteria and speed healing. Remove the bandage and apply again. In either case whether it needs to be changed or not, make sure there is a cross bandage keeping it on there securely.
- Leave it alone. For a long time. These bandages can be kept on for several days and seem to work best with the gel formation you get from an open wound. You can shower with them and they should stay secure but of course the more you expose them to the more chance they have of coming loose. I was careful in showers not to irritate them, if you can keep them from getting wet and soapy it's probably best.
- After 5-7 days re-apply a bandage. If there is still moisture from the wound that is good.
- After another 5 days re-apply a bandage. If it is dried up (most likely), applying the tiniest amount of polysporin on the wound. When I mean tiny, I mean you should be able to see the glimmer on the wound but not any volume to it, make sense? If you apply to much of it, it will spread to the edge of the bandage causing it to be unsealed.
- Continue applying bandages with polysporin for 30 days minimum. I read somewhere that plastic surgeons keep compressed bandages on for at least 24 days so that's where I got this from. Some I kept on for 30 days, some I continued for 60 days when they didn't look totally healed to me.
- Apply a very light coat of vitamin e every 2-3 days for 2 months following.
That's it, long message but it's not that complicated. I believe these bandages are essential to the proper healing, and keeping them on long enough. I removed one only a few weeks in when it seemed ok but it came back and I had to remove again. As I said I just have some barely noticeable flat scars in a few of the areas and most are completely disappeared. The skin is soft again in all the areas, no hard scars. To me it's a miracle after being plagued with the raised scars for years. I hope these instructions can help out others.
Another note - use these bandages on all future scars - they speed up healing and prevent scars.
rss, thats very interesting. can you share more about your past hypertrophic scars, like size and location? also, what color were they when you removed them and how long did it take to get the scar tissue off? what % acidity white vinegar? any pictures?
i have some hypertrophic scars that i'd like to get rid of as well
anyone else tried it? i have so many raised hypertrophic scars on my chest and they are all red. rss, pictures would be very helpful if you have any. are they still red now after your treatment and after it healed up? did you do the 8 days or do you mean you continued to use the vinegar until you "dissolved" it all? thanks..
i tried this on my scars which were 8 years old on my nose, i had nearly 5 to 6 scars on my nose,tried every doc with no proper use. finally dared to try vinegar as i got sick of hiding myself. i applied white vinegar without diluting soaked my scars with q tip,other skin got soaked too,then after 2 to 3 min of soaking i started rubbing with dry part of the q tip, for 2 to 3 min,kept repeating the process 5 to five times continuously it become bit white as the chemicals were soaking my skin.
first day it got really red but nothing more.second day same with more pressure til it hurts.more red on second day. third day i bleed a little but i dint stop.made all the scars bleed and stopped.did it for 2 more days and that's all i managed to penetrate inside my scar and remove all the outer part of the scar tissue. then i stopped.
i applied aloe Vera everyday directly.then over a week it scabbed i removed the scabs over my scars alone and left the rest of the normal skin to form scab. one scar seemed raised still after stopping the treatment so repeated on tht alone once. that's all i left it to heal to see the result and to do further later on.after a month the scars healed and 90% of my raised bumps were gone. I've never been so happy. now its very minimal which is noticeable only under very close contact . if u have any question ask me.im so glad i did it . i can show my face without any shame now .
Hi! New here! I've been searching for different methods to help improve the positive results from using vinegar. I found this thread (and a few others here that I've read) and saw this topic so I thought I'd add my experiences with white vinegar. I've moved up and performed my first dermal rolling tests on a couple of small and light hypertrophic scars on my tummy in hopes that helps remove the excessive dead skin cells in my scars...time will tell as I just did this tonight. I'll update on that in a week or so.
Ok, so here I go, sorry for the wall-of-text, but I've a bit to add. Ok, I'm male and I'm 44... I had cystic acne when I was a teenager and some scarring. I've also had some cystic acne about 10 years ago due to bad diet, being out of shape, smoking, etc... For a good while, from 18 to 33 or so my complextion was a bit oily, but my complextion was fine. Recently, I've tried distilled white vinegar my way to treat a couple of different things. I have hypertrophic and keloid acne scars all over and I also developed some dark aging/sunspots on the sides of my face, right at the boney part of the cheekbone. So far I've been doing the following for about three weeks and I have noticed definite and encouraging improvement.
I wash my face and areas I'm gonna treat and pat dry. Once or twice a day, I take a piece of tissue paper and douse with undiluted distilled white vinegar. I very lightly wipe or tamp it once over the dark hypertrophic spots to get the target areas slightly moist. Maybe 15 minuters to a couple hours later I'll wipe with witch hazel and then a moisturizer. That's it.
Here are the results of 3-4 weeks of vinegar treatment:
My sun spotting on my cheek bones are almost gone maybe 10-15% left... it's not noticeable unless you look really closely. The sunspotting on the side of my nose has improved about 50%. One thing very important to note, that I found out the hard way... after treating skin with vinegar, stay out of the sun or apply sunscreen. I sunburned and the areas I treated with vinegar and those areas were noticeably red and irritated for about 4 days compared to the skin that I did not treat. My skin looked absolutely horrible after that until it healed. Always use sun screen on any area you treat with vinegar that will have direct contact with sunlight... it prevents the area from getting burned and becoming irritated.
A large and dark keloid scar on my lower back by my kidney about 20x12mm in size actually had visible and tactile small ripple texture in the middle showed a lot of improvement... The actual scar tissue has been reduced to nearly half the size, though discoloration of at least 80% of that area is still visible. Most of the texture has dissappeared and the skin is much softer and thinner. Overall it's very much smoother. In removing the ripple, it was about 75% effective and overall probably a 25% improvement in overall apperance. The actual scar is visibly smaller, by half and this is an old cystic acne scar, probably about 10 years old. It would probably look better, but I did try to agressively scrub it at one point a few days ago hoping to get rid of more scar tissue. I caused that area to bleed a little. That only made it look and feel worse in the days after. Once it heals, I'll never try that again.
I've tried various methods to remove that excessive scar tissue, scraping, cutting, exfoliating and nothing else really worked long-term. The thing that proved least effective in my white vinegar experiment was trying to scrape or rub the actual area. That only made it worse. I see a lot of people who tired this experiment were looking for fast and dramatic results and when I experimented with this, it only made things worse.
Vinegar is acidic. Skin is sensitive and irritates easily. My thoughts are that you should just lightly dab the area with vinegar and do nothing. Acid takes time to work and if you use too much you're causing trauma not getting rid of it. Let the acid do it's work. You're not supposed to pick at acne, right? I don't think you should be picking/scraping/irritating the scar skin either... causing your skin to bleed from using too much vinegar or agressive rubbing/scraping is traumatic to your skin. Remember, you're already putting acid on it. Scraping/picking/rubbing a scar or wound only makes it worse. I firmly believe, and from my own experiment, is that you want to disturb the skin as little as possible or you'll negate any effect from any treatment.
I am also using this treatment on a boxcar type scar, not from acne but from a branch poking my calf while I was on a bike ride. The scar has slightly shrunk. It's also not as deep as it used to be. I was showing more signs of improvement until I tried scratching the excess skin off after the vinegar wipe, doing that only caused more scar tissue to form. I don't think this discolored scar will show much more improvement, but I'm fairly certain there has been an overall 40% improvement in excess scar tissue as the scar is nearly flat, but the discoloration only slightly, but noticeably improved. Of course, temperature and activity level will make scars look better or worse, so it's likely no scar will ever truly be undetectable.
I do have a number of smaller and really old hypertrophic acne scars from my teenage years, and after 3-4 weeks of treatment, they do appear a little smaller and less noticeable. It's not a dramatic change, but it does seem to be a permanent improvement.
On a completely unrelated note, I had some sort of persistent folicle/pore rash on my back that had been moving around a bit but was there for several years... nothing I tried would get rid of it. Iit was decently sized... maybe an area 10 inches by 5... sometimes it would get better on it's own and sometimes it would get worse but it never fully went away. After I applied the vinegar to the scars near that rash, it completely went away after several days of treatment on the scars. I've done nothing to the rash area since I started the vinegar wipes and never directly applied the vinegar to the rash, but it's been gone for a couple of weeks now *knock on wood*.
Anyway, from what I've read, vinegar on the skin will remove oils and restore a natural and slightly acidic PH to your skin and using the method I described I've seen results. I didn't bother to take before/after... but I think this is more of a long term solution and I don't think it has yet reached it's efficacy.
I say, ditch the scrubbing and bleeding and don't hold the acid to your skin for very long, a second or two at most. It seems to take at least a few hours before you feel anything different, so just a tiny dab and let it work... no scrubbing or anything else that would further irritate the skin.
Hi guys
I just wanted to say a big thank you for this 'experiment'.
My story - I took roaccutane when I was 16 & was left with lots of white lumps on my upper arms and upper back. My face was not impacted which is odd as this is where my acne was. I was told not to go into the sun whilst on roaccutane. I followed what I was told.
I think this was the problem..although I can't explain why the marks are just on upper arm & upper back & not my face. I'm putting it down to the fact that I could keep my body covered with clothing majority of the time whereas my face was often exposed.
Anyway, I saw doctors & dermatologists who all said I was stuck with these for life. Nothing would ever make them go away! They labelled it perifollicular macular atrophy.
For over 10 years I was ashamed & embarrassed to ever show this part of my body (which could have made the situation worse as once again those areas where never exposed to sun light)!
I did notice in the summer time that the marks were not as obvious (but still there).
So I went on with life & with the cards I was dealt. BUT then I came across this 'experiment' - THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!
This experiment worked for me, so far I have only tried it out on a few spots as a test...but it's totally worked!!!! It will take some time for me to clear them all but it works!!!!!!
This feels like a miracle as now I will have the confidence to be me & not hide or cover myself up. I can dress like I have always dreamt & can go to the beach & just relax.
I CANNOT THANK YOU ALL ENOUGH!!
I think it's fantastic that there are people out there who are considerate to come onto these sites & let others know what has worked for them so thank you from the bottom of my heart xxxxxx