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How to Get Rid Scars on Legs: Professional and Home Remedies

November 02, 2020

Almost everyone has one or more scars on their legs. Legs are most vulnerable to scars because they are one of the most exposed parts of the body.

While some people developed scars on their legs from road accidents, others have them because they had undergone a surgical procedure. Another group of people has spots because they were gashed during their childhood days when playing. And thus, scars on their legs remain as a constant reminder of the injuries.

While scars are a natural part of healing, they can be annoying to some people, especially in prominent areas like the legs. These scars sometimes cause discomfort, making some self- conscious when wearing a short outfit.

Fortunately, there are some great natural and medical remedies that can help reduce scars’ appearance. So, whether your spots were caused by a mosquito bite, a dog bite, or accidental laceration, this piece will teach you how you can get rid of these marks on your legs.

Let’s delve:

How to Get Rid of Atrophic Scars on your Legs

Atrophic scars are scars that appear depressed or dented in the skin. They occur when the injured skin fails to generate new tissues.

To treat atrophic scars on legs, you may try different medical treatments. The types of treatment appropriate for your spots depend on the location, size, and other factors affecting the scar:

Subcision Treatment: This involves carrying out a minor surgical procedure to loosen the depressed skin, and the resulting wounds form at the normal skin surface.
Punch Grafting and Excision: Punch excision is a process that involves removing or cutting out the scar with a needle that is the same size as the scar and then stitching the area from all sides. It is a perfect treatment for deep ice pick scars. On the other hand, punch grafting involves punching a hole in the area, filling it up with healthy tissues, and then closing it up to allow it to heal.
Micro-Needling: This method involves puncturing the skin with microneedles to allow the skin to regenerate new healthy skin.
Fillers: Here, the doctor uses dermal fillers like hyaluronic acid or soft-tissue injections to raise or level the depressed scar to match with the surrounding skin
Chemical Peeling: The dermatologist uses chemicals to destroy the skin layer, thus revealing the healthier skin underneath.

How to Get Rid of Scars on Legs from Shaving

Ingrown shaving scars or razor burns are solid bumps or pimples that appear after shaving, in this case, when cutting the hairs on your legs.

Mostly, they occur when you shave naturally curly hair too short, especially using harsh hair removal techniques such as tweezing or waxing. The sharp end of the hair pierces back into the skin resulting in ingrown hair.

These types of bumps appear bumpy, reddish, and inflamed. Here are some great remedies you can try to get rid of these red marks on your legs:

Let the bumps heal before you shave again.
Reduce your shaving frequency
Always apply moisturizer after a shave.
Try exfoliating your skin using a cleanser after every three days and apply moisturizer after each session.
Avoid using needles or tweezers to release trapped hair.
Apply aloe vera, coconut oil, tea tree oil to the affected area
Apply aspirin paste to the region
Apply washcloth with cold water
Try creams like hydrocortisone cream.

The razor bumps will heal in three weeks, but if they don’t, contact a specialist. They will prescribe the right medication or topical treatment options.

How to Treat Burn Scars on your Legs

Do you have burn scars on your legs? Accidents do happen, and you can burn your legs accidentally. So how do you treat scarring that results from severe burns?

Scars form when the burn wound is healing due to extra collagen production by your body during healing. There are different types of scars caused by burning, including contracture, keloid, and hypertrophic scars.

Contracture scars – These are the most common types of burn scars. They feel tight if the burns occur near the joints limiting body movements.
Keloid scars – These are scars that grow larger over time and extend beyond the wounded area.
Hypertrophic scars – These are also raised scars, but they don’t extend beyond the wounded area, unlike keloids.

A burn can either be first, second, or third-degree. Most first degree burns affect the upper skin layer, are usually minor, heal quickly, and in most situations, they don’t leave a scar.

But since the second- and third-degree burns are more severe since they penetrate deeper. Treating a leg burn wound properly is vital to prevent severe scarring and reduce these scars’ appearance. Here is how you can treat a burn wound:

To treat a second-degree burn, you need to do the following:

Rinse the area with cold water and let it dry
Apply a cream or an antibacterial ointment to reduce developing an infection
Cover the area with nonstick and sterile gauze
Visit or contact a doctor for further advice. This wound will heal within two weeks and may leave a scar on the area.

When treating a third-degree wound, do the following:

Put a compression bandage over the burn wound.
Let the doctor assess the wound to advise if you need a skin graft or surgery.
You may be required to visit a physical therapist to help you with a range of motion training. This wound can take months to years to heal and will leave a scar.

Do Burn Scars on Legs Fade Away?

Scars start to appear a few months after the burn, usually six, and will fully mature in 12 to 18 months. When scars mature, they will begin to fade in color, become softer, flatter, and less sensitive.

Most scars are permanent, but there are various home and professional remedies that reduce their appearance. Honey and aloe vera are two great home remedies that you can apply to burn scars to reduce their appearance.

Professional burn scars treatment includes:

Silicone gel
Creams & ointments
Steroid injections
Laser treatments

How to Remove Scars on Legs from Childhood

A lot of people have scars that have lasted a couple of years. These scars developed during their childhood or later.

There are several professional and natural treatment options to make these types of scars fade.

Natural and Home remedies for Treating Scars on Legs

To treat old scars, you can use different types of oils and essential oils. These oils stimulate the skin to generate new tissues, which improves the appearance of the scars.

The essential oils include Lavender oil, rosehip seed oil, geranium oil, helichrysum essential oil, frankincense oil, neroli oil, carrot seed oil, hyssop oil, cedarwood oil, tea tree oil, and more.

Other oils that can improve scar appearance include almond oil, coconut oil, and vitamin E oil.

Other ways to get rid of old scars on your legs include:

Professional Remedies

Medical treatments are done in a doctor’s office by a licensed dermatologist. They are great options for raised scars such as keloid and hypertrophic scars.

They include:

Laser Therapy: This type of professional treatment involves exposing light beams to the affected area to eliminate the damaged skin.
Pressure Therapy: In pressure therapy, the affected area is covered with a pressure dressing for an extended period like a year.
Cryotherapy: This type of therapy involves using cold or freezing temperatures to destroy the affected skin tissue.
Scar Surgery: This type of scar revision method involves removing the scars with a surgical procedure. It is mostly used as a last resort for severe scarring.

How to Treat scars after a joint and knee replacement surgery

When you undergo a surgical procedure, a scar will form. The scar texture, size, color, and overall healing varies from one person to the other. This is not different for a person that undergoes a joint or knee replacement surgery.

You can try different topical treatments to reduce the appearance of these scars.

Here are some options:

Topical Treatments

Silicone products: Topical products like silicone gel and sheets help prevent and reduce scarring after surgery. Medical silicone gel helps inhibit the production of scars and induces hydration and the production of collagen.

Scar Tissue Massage after a Joint of Knee Replacement

Twenty four hours after surgery, patients should do mild exercises. Patients stay in hospital rehabilitation for a week. It takes three months to a year to fully recover. Recovery rate depends on the patient’s age, surgery extent, the patients’ continuation of the rehabilitation exercises, diet, and more.

Once the incision heals can take six to eight weeks after a hip or total knee replacement surgery, you can begin scar massage sessions with your physical therapist. The therapist applies pressure around the affected area and over the scar to promote healing and smooth out the incision.

Massaging the scar tissue is an excellent way of flattening and softening scars. Massage also helps scar tissue in the affected area from sticking to tendons, blood vessels, bones, and nerves.

7 Essential Tips to help you with Scars on your Legs

1. Always use sunscreen on the scabs when doing the outdoor activities to avoid skin discoloration.

2. Using adhesive bandage or medical tapes to cover the scabs or the wound and changing it as frequently as possible is vital.

3. Buy silicone gel or sheets to use on wounds to help it heal faster.

4. You also try polyurethane dressing for six weeks to help with scars healing and reduce the scars appearance.

Here are tips for after the wound heals:

5. Continue with the use of sunscreen even after the scabs fall off

6. Wait for the wound to heal before doing the massage scar tissue therapy. You can use a massage roller to help break the scar tissues up.

7. Apply moisturizers to the scars to keep the skin moisturized and supple.

Parting Shot

Most scars are permanent, and therefore, these treatments are only to help reduce their appearance. If scars on your legs don’t seem to respond to any of these treatment options, seek medical advice. It could be something else like cancer or another skin condition that could be resembling a scar. Getting it checked will help determine the problem.