# I have until May to make this scar better... **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2008, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229 "2008-11-11T19:30:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tygerbryght](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@tygerbryght](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tygerbryght)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/21 "2008-11-12T03:52:40Z")
I think I may have something to recommend, but I need more information. Is there any keloid tissue (fibrous tissue, harder and/or stiffer and/or more granulated than the flesh and skin surrounding it) in the scar? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/22 "2008-11-12T04:02:54Z")
> [@drhess](#): > > (BTW, you catch more flies with honey, and all that…It’s not unfair of people to suggest that if altering the lights or makeup to get scars to appear minimal is than digital alteration isn’t exactly immoral. Peace and congrats.) “Exactly immoral” isn’t the point. I had already said that I wasn’t going to do it for my own reasons. At that point, IMO, people should stop suggesting it. And thanks to everyone who has said congrats. I’m very happy! ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/23 "2008-11-12T04:06:38Z")
> [@tygerbryght](#): > > I think I may have something to recommend, but I need more information. Is there any keloid tissue (fibrous tissue, harder and/or stiffer and/or more granulated than the flesh and skin surrounding it) in the scar? I think there is a little bit, but it’s hard to tell. Not as much as the scar I have on my abdomen, but part of it feels harder-lumpy than the rest. Fortunately I don’t tend to get keloid scars easily (my dad gets them every damned time something breaks his skin, I swear to god–one of them looks like he has a caterpillar crawling across his shoulderblade!) but I think this has some. The teaching hospital thing both sounds appealing and scary at the same time. I don’t think, for example, that I want a student operating on my _face_ you know? Watching, sure. Doing it… not so much. I could try to go see a dermatologist, I just don’t know how expensive that would be. I don’t have any health insurance. ---
**Author:** ![fuffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c37758/32.png) [@fuffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuffle)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/24 "2008-11-12T04:21:39Z")
Tazorac is a prescription cream that is supposed to speed up the rate at which skin cells turn over. It works fairly well, but is hella expensive. There’s also some kind of specialty makeup (sorry, I don’t remember the name) that’s tinted to your exact skin color and is kind of pasted to the skin (that’s the way my dermatologist made it sound, anyway). I haven’t seen it in person, but my dermatologist swears that it can be used to cover up port-wine birthmarks and claims it can’t be detected even up close. If your scars don’t have much height to them, maybe that’s an option. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/25 "2008-11-12T04:24:05Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > The teaching hospital thing both sounds appealing and scary at the same time. I don’t think, for example, that I want a student operating on my _face_ you know? Watching, sure. Doing it… not so much. The students are supervised very closely. I don’t know if a student would even be allowed to operate but there is an experienced doctor _right there_. ---
**Author:** ![BigBertha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@BigBertha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigBertha)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/26 "2008-11-12T04:38:24Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > And you can “vote” for digitally retouching the scar away until your pencil breaks; it isn’t going to change the fact that I’m not going to do it. Neither my face nor my wedding photos are run as an internet democracy. Do you do this often? Ask people for their opinions and then tell them you don’t like them? I had a keloid scar once on my shouler. I went to the dr. and he stuck a needle in it five times with cortisone. it didn’t work, but maybe a year or more later, it had disappeared! ---
**Author:** ![Influential\_Panda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Influential\_Panda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Influential_Panda)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/27 "2008-11-12T05:13:49Z")
Just popping in to say I’m following this thread closely. Boneheaded me accidentally cut my wrist while installing the entertainment center and now looks like a suicide survivor. That’s fun, let me tell you. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/28 "2008-11-12T05:25:37Z")
> [@Tamara+](#): > > Do you do this often? Ask people for their opinions and then tell them you don’t like them? She clearly said she was not interested in that type of suggestions, that she was only interested in actually improvingthe scars. After she has said that it is impolite to insist. It is just like when someone has a problem with a windows program and asks for help in repairing it and several idiots feel obligated to recommend dumping the computer and buying an Apple. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/29 "2008-11-12T07:29:05Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > She clearly said she was not interested in that type of suggestions, that she was only interested in actually improvingthe scars. After she has said that it is impolite to insist. > > It is just like when someone has a problem with a windows program and asks for help in repairing it and several idiots feel obligated to recommend dumping the computer and buying an Apple. Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f6c823/32.png) [@Lo-Slung\_Denim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lo-Slung_Denim)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/30 "2008-11-12T08:53:25Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > The teaching hospital thing both sounds appealing and scary at the same time. I don’t think, for example, that I want a student operating on my _face_ you know? Watching, sure. Doing it… not so much. It might take a fair old bit of research, but as \*\*runner pat \*\*says, the students may just observe. I’ve found teaching hospitals pretty good, because dependent on reputation, they tend to get the absolute best doctors in to do the teaching, and lead by example. Much as I find my GP or other doctors are on their best behaviour when there is a student watching - better bedside manner. In this instance you could start with your own GP who should know of any teaching hospitals in the locality and if you would be suitable, and from there find out what kind of treatment you would get and from whom. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/31 "2008-11-12T13:36:18Z")
Are your scars the type that a professional make-up artist can cover well enough so that a professional photographer can shoot them without them showing? I know this is borderline photo-editing that you already said you didn’t want, but at least it is all happening in the real world and not changing a photo. And let’s face it, wedding gowns and make-up are already so far from anyone’s daily reality than one dab more or less should not be an issue. Other than that, I just want to say that if you are going to go the way of surgery (which also doesn’t seem likely from your OP), make sure you discuss your time frame with the doctor. May is awfully close and you might end up worse than where you started, even if it will all end up a lot better later on. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/32 "2008-11-12T14:43:08Z")
I’m defintiely not having surgery before May. As I said, I have no insurance, and no job, and I am supporting a child. Plus that will be my final semester of school before graduating and I can pretty much guarantee that I won’t even have time to have surgery even if I had the money. The makeup thing is rather moot. The scar is not discolored, as I’ve said. The scar is raised, and therefore casts an obvious shadow. I’m fairly well versed in “special effects” with makeup, having taken theatrical makeup classes where you make things look like all kinds of things they’re not, but any makeup that might minimize the shadow would certainly only do so in one specific angle of light, and so for the rest of the time I’d look freakish. Also, I am not having a professional photographer. We can’t afford it. I am an art major and one of my good friends from school, who is a photography major and very good at what she does, is going to do the photos for me. (We’re paying for the wedding ourselves, and as I said, we’re both students with no jobs.) My son was born in a teaching hospital (same one I was born in, actually) and so I’m familiar enough with the students observing concept. However my fiancé is about to graduate (in May) from podiatry school to become a foot and ankle surgeon, and right now, in his fourth year, when he is working at the hospital, they let him sew people up and do a lot of other procedures essentially by himself. Supervised, yes, but not just “here, hold this while I do that” but rather more like “ok, do the procedure and I’ll stand over here” kind of thing. Which scares me if it’s on my face :X I have a tube of Mederma, which was given to me by someone who didn’t have the patience to do the 4x daily applications but didn’t want the expensive purchase to go to waste. I can also try vitamin E. I just don’t know if either of these things will actually do anything… and so I came here figuring that with this many smart people all together, somebody would have experience and advice! ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/33 "2008-11-12T14:56:43Z")
Apparently, nobody wants to come right out and tell you that what you’re looking for doesn’t exist, but that’s the way the ball bounces. There is no nonsurgical means of scar reduction with any demonstrable level of clinical efficacy. _Some_ people have reported _some_ success with vitamin E and there is some independent research which suggests it can help to a small degree, but everything else is more or less [snake oil](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mederma). ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/34 "2008-11-12T15:23:10Z")
Well that is what my assumption was in coming to this thread–that most of it is quackery, but did anyone actually have any experience with something that did work. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_Lurker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/35 "2008-11-12T16:28:56Z")
> [@Tamara+](#): > > Do you do this often? Ask people for their opinions and then tell them you don’t like them? In every “advice” thread she has ever created. I don’t understand why people still respond. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/36 "2008-11-12T16:35:30Z")
Probably because most other people understand what I mean most of the time and don’t feel slighted at every possible opportunity? I’m not a syrupy sweet person–it’s just not who I am and I can’t “do” that whole fawning thing that some people do–it would be fake coming from me. However I’m also not some thundering bitch. There are people who “get” me and people who choose instead to ascribe their own motives to my every action and misinterpret the tone of everything I say. I can’t help that. ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_Lurker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/37 "2008-11-12T17:09:30Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > Probably because most other people understand what I mean most of the time and don’t feel slighted at every possible opportunity? Yeah, that.. or masochism or inexperience. Who’s to say? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/38 "2008-11-12T17:13:14Z")
What is your agenda here? Did you just come in to threadshit or do you have something to contribute? ---
**Author:** ![Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/2bfe46/32.png) [@Long\_Time\_Lurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Long_Time_Lurker)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/39 "2008-11-12T17:16:12Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > What is your agenda here? Did you just come in to threadshit or do you have something to contribute? To answer **Tamara+**'s question. Then yours. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2008, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229/40 "2008-11-12T17:48:48Z")
But if your opinion is that nobody should bother answering questions in my threads anymore, then why did you even open it? That’s what I don’t understand. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-have-until-may-to-make-this-scar-better/472229.md?page=3)