Scars often serve as a reminder of past injuries. When you have a scar, especially one in a prominent place, you wear the story of an injury or surgery directly on your body. Learning to accept your scars as a part of your past helps you deal with the permanent impact they've left on your body. Therapy and support make it easier to learn to live with, if not love, your scars. If not, talking to a health care professional concerning the types of scars you have gives you the option to deal with scars in a more physical way.
Step 1
Learn to live with your scars as part of your persona; embrace the individual qualities they give to your appearance. While some scars are upsetting and need to be removed, mild scarring on your body tells a story about your past and lends you an individual appearance.
Step 2
Visit with a therapist to talk about your scars and how to deal with them on a daily basis. This is especially beneficial if your scars are the result of a painful incident in your past. Your therapist helps you find ways to appreciate the experiences and the scars as learning and strengthening experiences.
Step 3
Talk to friends, family members and other supportive people in your life about your scars. If you have prominent and noticeable scars, telling their stories might help you feel less self-conscious about your appearance and the way your scars make you feel.
Step 4
Cover less severe scarring with makeup to give you more confidence; put your best face forward. Makeup works best on recessed scars, since they're easier to fill. Dab a high quality cream concealer into the scar to bring it flush with the skin. Set the makeup with a mineral foundation over top of the scar, so it looks less noticeable overall.
Step 5
Schedule an appointment with your dermatologist to discuss less invasive ways to deal with scars. Resurfacing treatments -- such as microdermabrasion, laser resurfacing and chemical peels -- work to make the scar less noticeable as it becomes flush with the rest of your skin. This treatment works best with scarring, which creates a divot in the skin, such as acne scarring or mild surface scarring from surgeries.
Step 6
Explore your option for injections if your scars are puffy keloid or hypertrophic scars that rise above the surface of your skin. If you choose this option, your dermatologist injects the puffy scar with cortisone or steroids depending on the type of scar you have. These shrink the appearance of puffy scars to relieve annoying itchiness and redness while reducing the size of the scar. If your keloid scar is smaller, cryotherapy is sometimes used to freeze the scar off, much like a wart.
Step 7
Talk to a qualified plastic surgeon to talk about various methods of scar revision therapy. If you have large, deep scars that won't be affected by dermatological treatment, a plastic surgeon might be able to help by essentially cutting away the damaged skin completely, replacing the scarred tissue with grafts from elsewhere on your body. This procedure is reserved for intense, noticeable scarring which affects your quality of life.
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