7 Natural Remedies to Get Rid of Acne Scars Overnight
As if having skin problems wasn’t bad enough, bad acne can leave scars behind that continually remind you – and everyone around you – that you suffer from acne. But you don’t have to live with acne scars, even if you haven’t been able to treat them before now.
There are actually some methods that you can use to get rid of acne marks fast – sometimes in as little as 12 hours.
Here are some of the best home remedies for acne scars, because you want to present the best face possible to the world around you.
Causes
In order to understand the treatment for acne scars and ensure that you are applying it properly, you might first want to understand how they form. Acne scars are much more likely to form when someone has painful acne that causes cysts and nodules. Any acne that penetrates further into the skin than ordinary acne has the potential to create scars.
Also, if you don’t treat this inflammatory acne right away, you have a greater chance of scarring. Finally, picking at your acne causes it to be inflamed which also can lead to scarring and damage.
As for the actual physiological reasons behind acne, it all comes down to collagen. Collagen is a substance that your body produces to heal the skin and when acne occurs it creates damage on the inner layer of skin. This can easily be repaired by the body with collagen but sometimes the body doesn’t know how much to product.
If the body doesn’t produce enough you get pit-like scars on your skin and if it produces too much you get raised acne scars. The factors above contribute to this production of too much or not enough acne, but genetics is also a large part of it.
Best Home Remedies
When it comes to clearing up your acne scars overnight, you have a lot of choices out there. Everyone is looking for skin care products these days and there are so many products to fill the void that finding a particular treatment that actually works can be challenging at best.
But when it comes to evaluating a remedy for acne marks, you have two different testing criteria. First, you want to make sure that the science behind the remedy makes sense with what you know about acne scars, and second, you want to research the remedy and make sure that there is agreement among various sources that it actually works.
Aloe Vera Treatment
This is probably the most well-known and effective acne scar treatment out there. Aloe Vera is a plant that not only gives the skin the materials that it needs to heal, it also promoted fading of the scars from acne. It is also very gentle on the skin and will moisturize your face or other areas where acne defects are present.
Even if you don’t have acne scars, Aloe Vera is a great thing to use on your skin. You can find it in the aisle of any pharmacy as well as in a variety of products that are sold in grocery stores and beauty shops. Many experts recommend that you use organic Aloe Vera instead of the kind that you can get in a bottle, and even recommend going as far as growing your own Aloe Vera plants to use.
Common Household Items: Baking Soda
Like most people, you probably have some baking soda in your house. You might just use it to keep the inside of your refrigerator fresh, but baking soda is a pretty amazing substance with hundreds of different uses. The real name of baking soda is sodium bicarbonate and it is those crystals which make it such a good treatment for acne scars.
The scrub made from baking soda will exfoliate skin without damaging it and minimize the appearance of scars. The best way to use this product on acne scars is to make a paste and run it onto your skin where the scars are located. Then, wash it off after a few minutes.
Coconut Oil for Healing & Acne Marks
Coconut oil is one of the best natural moisturizers out there and one of the top natural remedies for acne scars. If you want to get rid of acne scars quickly, this is the way to do it. Coconut oil is a great healer of acne scars and many other skin problems.
You can apply coconut oil just like you would with any rub-in treatment, by rubbing it on the skin and letting it soak in. The nutrients in the coconut oil will then be transferred to the skin, which will make your skin look better, heal faster and be healthier.
Cucumber Treatment
Did you know that a food in your vegetable crisper (or out on your countertop) can actually help with acne scars in a big way? Cucumbers have long been considered a super food for both internal and external maladies. There are a few reasons for this. First, the cucumber hydrates your skin like little else.
There are also vitamins and minerals within the cucumber that promote healing of acne scars and cukes are some of the best home remedies for acne scars. To apply this treatment, simply cut the cucumber into slices and apply directly to the scarred skin.
Using Raw Honey for Curing Acne & Acne Scars
When it comes to almost any food out there you want to go natural and not processed if you can. But this is definitely true of honey. This miraculous substance, made by the quickly dwindling honeybee, is perfect for acne scars and a host of other conditions.
All you need to do, once you have gotten your hands on some all-natural, non-processed honey, is to rub it over your scars and then repeat often to keep the acne scars away. You can use this treatment as often as you want without any ill effects.
The Natural Alpha-Hydroxy Acid Lemon Juice
Lemon Juice is great for many things. You can add some lemon to iced tea for a wonderful twist on the taste, and you can use it to write in invisible ink. But the real strength of the lemon comes from the fact that it is a natural alpha-hydroxy acid, which means that you can use it to completely transform your skin and give it brand new life.
Obviously, like with any of the other products listed here, you want to go organic and not processed if you can. Once you have your lemons simply squeeze out some juice and use a cotton ball to apply to the skin. You can wash it off after a few minutes and then use some type of moisturizer to replenish the moisture.
You might have to mix the lemon with water if your skin is too sensitive for the raw lemon juice. Also, be aware that using lemon juice on the skin makes you more susceptible to the sun’s rays, so avoid days at the beach while you are using this concoction.
Rose Hip Seed Oil
If you want to heal acne scars overnight you want to look into rose hip seed oil. This is one of the most incredible skin healing substances on the planet. You’ll want the cold-pressed oil and as always, go organic.
This is light oil that isn’t greasy on your skin but contains essential vitamins and nutrients not only to remove acne scars, but also to promote healthy skin overall. This is partially due to the high concentration of essential fatty acids as well as natural type of vitamin A that can only be found in rose hip seeds.
Getting Rid of Pitted Acne Scars
Pitted acne scars are one of the toughest types of acne scars to heal. While doctors often promote cosmetic procedures where new collagen is applied to the scars or laser surgery, this can be expensive and invasive. While there are some great home remedies and all-natural acne treatments for pitted scars, these aren’t going to be effective overnight.
It may take you several weeks before you see any results from pitted acne scar treatments. However, with a little work you can usually reduce these types of scars successfully. They just take more time than regular acne scars.
You might not find much success for pitted acne scars using the normal treatments above. You will likely fade the scars a little bit and the more you apply the treatments, the better they will look, but one thing that is effective for pitted acne scars is a papaya mask made of papaya pulp and honey to create a paste that you can apply to the face.
You’ll want to leave the mask on for about 20 minutes and then use warm water to remove it. You might have to repeat this treatment a few times to get the results that you want.
Dealing with Ice Pick Acne Scars
You also might have to deal with ‘ice pick’ acne scars. These are acne scars that resemble small holes in the skin that looks as if they were made by a sharp object, like an ice pick, which explains the name. Ice pick acne scars are more difficult to deal with and there are no home remedies that can do much more than improve them slightly; you will only have success if the condition isn’t too far advanced. If the condition is advanced, you might need to consult with your dermatologist to find out what sort of treatment he or she recommends.
Since there are no home remedies or natural healing you are left with some of the most involved options. Here are a few things that actually can treat ice pick acne scars.
- Lasers can be used to remove the furthermost layer of skin. For the most part, this will remove the ice pick acne scars by making them less pitted and shallower. This means that once the epidermal layer grows back, without the damage and pitting that was in the original epidermal layer, the acne scars will be a great deal decreased.
- Subcision treatments involve inserting a needle into the scars and releasing the tension and softening the scar tissue.
- Punch excisions are not ideal treatments for ice pick acne scars, but they are effective at reducing their appearance. How a punch excision basically works is by actually cutting out the ice pick scar and then healing up the fresh hole, which also leaves a scar. That’s why this treatment isn’t ideal. It does replace the acne scar with a much smaller one and improve the appearance of the acne scars, but there are better treatments out there for most people.
- Some people use skin grafting or fillers to fill in these acne scar holes. Generally, fillers are temporary and will have to be done again and again while skin grafting is much more permanent and works well on ice pick acne scars.
- Dermabrasion is another method that works similar to laser skin removal. The top layers of skin are removed and scar tissue will be much less pronounced and when the new skin appears on the face, the acne scars will be almost invisible underneath. Another method that has the same basic procedure is chemical peeling. In chemical peeling, uses glycolic acid, salicylic acid and trichloroacetic acid are used to get rid of the top layers of skin and improve the appearance of acne scars.
When it comes to indented acne scars, the task of removal is more challenging than with normal acne scars. You can try some of the home treatments recommended, but if you don’t have success with that, there are cosmetic surgery options.
No matter what, don’t give up on your quest for perfect skin just because you have deep acne scars that you think will never go away. There are ways to get rid of them with a little luck and some hard work.
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