Are Scars Weaker Than Unmarked Skin?

And How to Treat and Care for Skin That’s Been Scarred

In short, scarred tissue is different in composition than regular skin tissue. It’s not weaker per se, it’s just, well, different. Scars are made up of a collagen matrix which doesn’t really have an equivalent amount of blood vessels or the same properties. It doesn’t even have all the necessary layers that normal skin does. 

Normal skin has layers, with hair follicles and sweat glands. With scar tissue, all those correct layers of skin are not there, and neither are all the dermal appendages of physiological structures. Scars are essentially a buildup of collagen that bridges the gap, filling the space in, but it is not an even trade. 

The collagen in normal tissue features a cross-weave structure; in scar tissue, on the other hand, it is aligned parallel to the skins’ plane. To break that down even further, normal skin tissue is made of fibers that are placed randomly to each other, while those same fibers in scar tissue are placed in a single direction, parallel to one another.

As a result, scar tissue is inferior to healthy tissue because it is stiffer than healthy skin, muscle and fat. Plus, it’s not as pliable and it can’t withstand the stretching that comes with normal movement, without becoming damaged in some way – at least in the beginning stages. This is why your risk of future breakdown is high. 

Scar tissue is even more vulnerable than healthy skin to factors such as poor nutrition, persistent moisture, smoking, heat and unrelieved pressure. In the end, scar tissue just isn’t as resilient as healthy tissue. 

It stands to reason, at least from an evolutionary standpoint, that scars form the way they do. When the body is attacked, its first instinct is to call in the rapid response team to quickly rebuild tissue, rather than waiting to slowly build skin in the usual way.

Remedies


There are many ways to treat and care for skin that has been scarred. Aside from skin grafts and other invasive treatments, most are home remedies you can try, such as aloe vera (contains nutrients, vitamins and antioxidants that help the skin repair itself), Vitamin E (thought to reduce the formation of free radicals that interfere with the healing process), and Lavender Oil (an effective antiseptic, antibacterial and antimicrobial agent that can reduce pain and itching while it promotes faster healing).

However, silicone scar gel is still the best method of scar reduction. Indeed, the most effective product on the market today is Scarfade, a topical treatment that helps to reduce scarring on the skin, backed by medically-proven studies. It assists the body in slowing down production of collagen to reduce the appearance of scars. See some before and after photos here!