Victoria Beckham recently gave birth to baby number four, the long-awaited little girl she and husband David wanted so much. It has been reported that shortly after giving birth and returning home, eight boxes of stretch mark removal cream, worth around £3000, were delivered to her home.
Stretch marks are a notoriously unpopular side-effect of pregnancy, and most women will be affected to some degree, although the extent of the stretch marks will vary from individual to individual. They are thought to be unavoidable – a natural consequence of the skin simply reaching its limits of elasticity.
Pregnancy is not the only cause, however. Some people develop stretch marks during growth spurts in adolescence, while weight gain or loss can also have the same effect. Stretch marks can also be caused by some medical conditions.
Whatever the cause, most people who have them are not very keen on keeping them! Stretch mark removal treatments vary in terms of efficacy, although laser treatment is considered to be the most effective and the fastest form of treatment. Some creams are thought to do more damage than good.
The treatment is, in fact, a combination of microdermabrasion and laser. The first gently and uniformly exfoliates the skin, helping to remove the unsightly scar tissue, while the laser stimulates the production of collagen and new and healthy skin cells, rejuvenating the skin’s appearance.
