A friend of mine who happens to be about one month away from giving birth to her first child – a baby girl, and I were shopping the other day at the mall, and she had wanted to find a product that she could rub into her belly and other parts of her body she felt might expand a little more during her pregnancy, to prevent stretchmarks from forming. I had always heard that Shea Butter, which is a natural emollient, but tend to be fairly expensive in its pure form, was one of the best creams or lotions that you could use during pregnancy on your belly and thighs and other areas of the body to help prevent stretch marks from forming
Stretch marks come in different forms. I, for example, have a few stretch marks just from growth spurts and weight gain and loss in my youth, on the sides of my thighs. Those, on me, look like little white streaks across my skin, going vertically down toward my feet. Some people may have stretch marks that are a purplish hue though, not everyone has white ones like me. Basically, many times, stretch marks do appear as white, almost like their is an absence of melanin in that one area.
Stretch marks occur when we have sudden expansion of skin, such as in pregnancy, or when we have a large weight loss, following up a large weight gain. Essentially, it’s the skin’s elasticity that makes us get stretch marks. When we grow too fast for our skin’s elasticity to keep up, what we’re left with in those areas is what is called stretch marks, the absence of elasticity and the consequential hyper or hypo pigmentation in that area.
Using a highly emollient cream such as shea butter or cocoa butter has been known to help immensely to prevent and help “repair” stretch marks. Also, a well known anti aging and wrinkle skin care cream that started off as a stretch mark cream called Strivectin has been said to help many women get rid of stretch marks. Whatever the choice is, it is important that the skin in these areas be adequately and constantly moisturized, as this is the biggest reason stretch marks appear – lack of elasticity and moisture.
