May I maim this person? I promise to leave you something to work with.
“Prevent stretch marks.” It is to laugh. I got mine (upper arms) from prednisone. For years I was too self-conscious to wear anything less than near-elbow-length sleeves. It’s been eleven years and they’re still there. Was I aware that prednisone would give me stretch marks? No. Was there any way in hell to prevent them? No. Was my body ruined? Ask my ex and he would say No. Will I now flaunt my upper arms, stretch-marked and flabby as they are? Yep. Do I get complaints? No.
Is this person an asshole who deserves to have bricks dropped on him from a great height? Oh hell yes.
Ruination? Hardly. They are marks of honor for a woman who has carried and nurtured a newbie within herself, and has brought that unique person into the world, together with the love and pain which accompanies that experience!
Men who make such statements cause me to recall medieval torture devices.
even sven, I’m the same: I got stretchmarks when I was 13 and didn’t have a clue what was happening. (I was a real tomboy at that age and figured I had cut myself climbing a fence or something and never noticed.) It wasn’t until months later when the “scratches” weren’t fading that I brought it to my mother’s attention and found out what it really was. I don’t even notice them anymore, they’ve been with me so long.
I have stretch marks from puberty too-on my hips/thighs and my boobs. They eventually faded (I remember being freaked out when I got out of the shower and saw purple lines on my boobs!), but they’re still there.
(I mean, you can see them, but they’re not the ghastly purplish color they were originally)
Your friend is an ass. I’m a male that has fairly severe stretch marks. I’ve never been overweight they just decided to sneak up on me. I’m in good shape and I can’t show it off because I would have to explain why there are 20+ scars along my back. I have heard of no way to prevent them. I’ve heard of innumberable treatments but so far no success. sigh I hate stretch marks…
My stretch marks are many and varied, and will never go away (I have them in places you would not BELIEVE), because my skin is apparently not very stretchy, and I’ve given birth to three children.
If anyone doesn’t like my stretch marks, they’re cordially invited to not fuckin’ look at them. I earned them. I don’t give a rat’s ass if some ignorant blowhard wants to repeat the same old bullshit…it won’t make it true.
Stretch marks are UNDER the first few layers of skin, so there is no lotion or moisturizer which will do a damned thing to prevent them. Keeping one’s skin moisturized is almost never a bad idea; just don’t think it’s preventing those strech marks.
Things like Retin-A, though, and laser treatment. I don’t see the need to get rid of them, myself…then again, I’m old enough that I’m starting to get wrinkles and grey hair. Maybe I’m just reasonably at peace with the idea that my body isn’t perfect.
Mine apparently tan at a different rate, so they’re more apparent when I’m darker than when I’m not.
I first got them completely around my upper thighs when I was pre-teen/teenager (the only sign of puberty before age 15, my legs grew) I thought I’d contracted worms or some other awful parasite of some sort and couldn’t tell anyone that these horrible marks were forming on my thighs. Turns out that no, I was just cursed with stretchmarks… and always will be. If I get pregnant ever, I know I’m not getting away unmarred.
What was that thing Caesar supposedly said? “Bear with him, for he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe are the laws of nature.”
I know a guy who gave his wife holy hell for eating so much during her first pregnancy, this past year. Went on at great length about how she was never gonna be able to shed all that spare fat after the baby was born, and how she was gonna look, gaining thirty pounds to give birth to a seven pound baby, yadda, yadda, yadda…
…and she was already so skinny, she looked like a string with a knot tied in it, during her ninth month. He’s also very vocal about how she should counteract the aging process on her appearance (I believe she’s, what, 26 now?)
She’s very religious, so she doesn’t wanna divorce the guy. Me, I dunno. Is it okay for a Christian woman to give her husband a good swift kick in the nuts occasionally?
Since it sounds like the acquisition and severity of the stretch marks vary by ancestry and individual, I can’t see how any treatment could be universally beneficial.
That said, if any of these do work i’m up for it… I have nasty stretch marks on my back from pubescent growth spurts… I never noticed them because they were on my back, but when i went swimming one time a friend of mine said “holy shit, did somebody whip you or something?” That was 6 or 7 years ago and they still look like whip marks… or rather the scars that might result from being whipped… they don’t seem to have really changed much in the past couple years and I just figure they’re here to stay… count me in on the “can’t tan” group… I can burn quite well, though
did somebody say use vitamin A? just read the other day about a study that suggested too much vitamin A can be health risk… I think it said anything above 1.5g a day (a lot, but some supplements have this much) can lead to bone degredation and a reduced ability to regenerate it… only link i can find right now is this… that’s not where i read it but oh well… anyway just thought i’d pass that along before somebody bathed in the stuff
anyway, of course the guy’s a moron… but then aren’t we all?
I wish I knew how to prevent stretch marks. I have a bunch of silvery ones from puberty and one (well 3 kinda… one long one with two near the bottom almost touching it) on my stomach which drives me nuts. That one is a pinkish/red and way more obvious. If I ever have kids I’ll have a bunch it seems.
I don’t really have stretch marks. At least, they aren’t noticible in the mass of cottage cheese tummy left behind from my pregnancy.
(Since your friend is such an expert, can he tell me what I could have done to avoid cottage cheese tummy? How about the droopy breasts? Hemmeroids? Splotchy skin? It will certainly surprise my OB/GYN that all these things were preventable. By the way, you should probably warn him that I was toxemic and therefore gained about 50 lbs in water alone with my pregnancy - I’m lucky my ankles don’t have stretch marks.)
I don’t know why i keep checking this thread… but it probably has something to do with the repeated mention of growing boobs… not even the cottage-cheese/hemmorhoidal imagery is enough to deter
I have stretch marks from weight gain. I don’t like them, but I guess they could be worse, and I know they’re my own fault through eating too much. (depression+comfort eating+boredom+sedentary lifestyle=Stretch Mark Fun!!
They are horrible but they do fade with time. Guess if I ever get pregnant, I’m doomed! (on the stretchmark front)…trouble is by the time the old ones have faded I have gained more weight and some new ones have appeared…they are unsightly but they aren’t that bad, given the choice I would rather not have them but I am not losing any sleep over it.
This year I am going to lose weight! (yeah yeah, same story every time, I’m motivated for 3 days then I go ‘sod it I’ve got nothing else to look forward to’ and stuff my face with crisps and jaffa cakes…:o )
Oh and to get back on topic, the self proclaimed stretchmark expert is an ass, but you all knew that already. He’s a :wally !
I [heart] my stretch marks. I went from a 32A to a 34C in about a month when I went on the Pill, that’s where mine came from. I personally think I look better with boobs than I did without, & I regard the marks as an acceptable price to pay.
