Acne scars and/or pitting is an architecture and cell signaling problem and may also be induced by invasive practices like picking, especially when skin is healing. A lasting visible improvement will not occur by exfoliation, micro-needling, dermabrasion or proliferating gobs of new cells. The reason for that is that all of those techniques do not change the biology. They simply bring up more of the same and can even make it worse.

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The REPAIR MODEL in skincare esthetics cannot help acne scars. Ever. You cannot smooth scars by exfoliation (though the temporary swelling of the skin may look that way). And, it is not a matter of increasing the quantity of fragmented proteins or increasing collagen that will make that uneven texture and bumpy look go away for good.

It requires a change in cell signals and tissue architecture.

The important thing to know is that your skin cells talk to one another and what they say has a lot to do with how you look. If you simply increase the number of cells but they are still saying the same stupid things, then you have not solved any appearance problems. You just have a crazy mob of overstimulated cells blabbing their exfoliating acid fathered heads off and often there is a big fight and your skin gets inflamed, weak, dependent, and well, lousy.

Trying to bulk up the skin quickly with topical products can make things worse. A lot.

Dwell on that for a moment.

Your skincare products can easily make your scarring worse.

Let’s look at a few ways that do work. And understand there are areas where the skin is simply gone to less than eyelid thin (1 sheet of paper thick). Nothing can be done. The better news is that The Skin Dork has seen even in severe scarring that only about 5% of the skin is incapable of smoothing because it is too thin or “not there.”

Scarring from acne has a chance to be smoothed if you get active, positive control of cell signaling by using the TRAINING MODEL. Disorganized tissue as found in scarring happened because the skin went bananas to protect the vital organs. Some trauma set it off. It may have taken very little: a peel, oral medications, a vaccine, constant picking, or you started off with a bad gene pool.

“Anyone here selling new gene pools?”

The good news: the disorganized tissue or ‘scarring’ is in a dynamic state. It feels like gristle that is embedded and never will change but a simple shift in cellular commands and the tissue will re-normalize in structure and appearance. Weird to think there could be some command center that controls the talk between cells, but that is apparently the case.

In current thinking, it is probably a cascade of signals, not just one dictator way up the food chain. The cascade is a series of interacting and complex biochemical events tied to the immune system, which is a lunatic asylum when it acts up. We want to tip toe past the immune system in skincare. Suppressing it, which is now the preferred method in unrelated areas like “pigment spots” only makes it plot revenge. And it always gets revenge.

First off, retinoids, or VITAMIN A topicals. The use of an uncharged retinoid, like retinol, or retinyl acetate, or retin-aldehyde (also spelled retinyl-aldehyde) is your choice. Avoid the charged retinoic acid version like Retin-A. However, whatever the retinoid, do not apply more than 2x per week. Like Monday and Thursday – at night. Stay out of sun the next day.

If you are addressing scars, let no one tell you to use a retinoid every day (or night). That will lead to endless problems for most of us.

Wash with something elegant and simple, my favorite is REVIVE (big surprise). You can then use the same product to spread the retinoid evenly as a leave-on. REVIVE is just the best for skin that is unstable. It is a great value and is a cleanser and moisturizer all in one. Guaranteed. What’s not to like?

Be sure and wear a hat if you go out in the sun while using any Vitamin A topical, or really anytime in the sun longer than fifteen minutes.

The Vitamin A topical will help with new architecture to get the epidermal bricks re-stacked more evenly. It will bring in some new blood vessels to the dermis (there are no blood vessels in the epidermis) and begin some solid discussion between stem cells down at the dermal/epidermal junction to get their act together and stop the hoo haw. Good stuff. Twice per week. Maximum topical application frequency.

Now, let that progress for about a month. Things are getting better or maybe looking just so-so, and there is a long way to go. Hang in there.

Next step is to introduce the most effective anti-scar ingredient in skincare, the 302 molecule available only from 302 Skincare. The molecule is uncharged and is an oil, or lipid, to be more precise. It is synergistic with retinoids: 2 + 2 = 22.

Use 302 DROPS or 302 SERUM (also in fragrance free versions). Use the Drops 3x per week on nights you are not using the Vitamin A product. Mix a few drops with REVIVE after cleansing, at night. Smooth in. It has an unusual scent but it goes away quickly.

That’s it. The 302 molecule will help soften the skin and help smooth the look of highly cross-linked ‘scar’ tissue gristle. The combination of a retinoid and the 302 molecule is the most effective visible solution to scarring and aging looks the Skin Dork has seen anywhere. This is the real deal.

It takes time to clear away scars – if you are doing it right. If you are treating your skin correctly you are not trying to speed up the metabolism and in doing that, the aging process (as is the case with peels). Instead you want to guide the cells to optimum behavior.

Recall that the skin is very fast to react but it is slow to change back to the better. New cells hatch every 30 days. If you try to speed that up the new cells will be disorganized and a mess of fragments. Slow is smooth, smooth is good.

So after 90 days you have a visible change and you can tell something is happening and people will notice long before you do, but it can be frustrating to wait for the skin snail to go about its work and finish the job. But good cooking takes time.

You can’t rush visible skin improvements that last.

Within six months you will have radically improved your appearance to smooth the skin using SYNERGY DROPS or SYNERGY SERUM from 302 Skincare that combines the 302 molecule with Retinol.

If you have now and then breakouts during this time, the use of REVIVE will be very effective in reducing that unhappy appearance to a very low incidence.

What about lasers? There are newer lasers that are very effective in weeding out the scar tissue very quickly. They bring with them, no matter how effective, a new formation of micro-scarring. See the discussion of PROCEDURES / LASERS for more on this topic. For those with the bank account, lasers are definitely worth looking at.

The skin regimen of SYNERGY DROPS or SYNERGY SERUM will have trained (see TRAINING MODEL) to counter effectively the micro-scarring effects of lasers. The important thing is to avoid repeated laser treatments in the same area per year which can give your skin a leathery texture.

The laser is a weed eater, it does not improve signaling and natural tissue formation. It can/may also tighten face muscles and increase skin protein, but that doesn’t last long, so think ‘weed eater’ and check out PROCEDURES / LASERS to understand the type of laser to look for and other issues for you to be aware.

This topical regimen of SYNERGY DROPS or SYNERGY SERUM and REVIVE will maintain the kinetic response that is the core of the TRAINING MODEL and keep you younger looking by the day, and save you money on expensive procedures and products that rely on the ineffective, age advancing REPAIR MODEL.

Fewer applications of highly effective ingredients/products will get you positive visible results that daily application of the same substance will not.

See also PROCEDURES / MICRO-NEEDLING