ok so I have cocoa butter with vitamin e, a pure vitamin e stick, pure vitamin e oil, pure tea tree oil and aloe vera cream. im also using hydroquinone 4% for some scars in the area…what should my routine be? I’m trying to help hyperpigmentation, scars, pitting, and red bumps from ingrowns and coarse hair growing through extremely sensitive skin. I know that some of this stuff (tea tree oil) can be quite strong and dont want to overdo anything and cause more problems. I try not to overlap anything over the areas treated with hydroquinone.
hydroquinone is not for scars, it is for hyperpigmentation dark spots.
you might get some help with scars and pitting from exfoliating.
you can get help with ingrown hairs from exfoliating and from aspirin topicals.
you can treat acne with tea tree oil and apply to area that are getting electrolysis if the skin is not too dry.
pure aloe gel will help with healing and good for all skin (not aloe cream).
cocoa butter is fabulous for just about anything.
vitamin e helps heal skin but oily skin does not like it much.
Less is more, in my opinion. I am of the “keep it simple” group.
Right after a treatment?
Witch hazel with a little wintergreen acohol. You can use cotton squares and just press the wetted cotton to the area. (no rubbing)
OR
A little tea tree oil applied once or twice a day.
OR
Ice. A few minutes every hour.
OR
Aloe vera gel.
Certainly not all of those. I wouldn’t do the vitamin E - I don’t remember what I heard about vitamin E on the skin recently, but it was not recommended.
thanks for the answers…(the hydroquinone was prescribed to try and help some discoloration around one of my scars…)
Be careful with hydroquinone! I used it for some of my spots months ago and it caused my skin to become inflamed and my skin hasn’t been the same since!
thanks chewbacca…yeah my skin was inflamed too when it was given to me with AHA…then i got the plain 4% and although it gets red these first few weeks i think im slowly getting used to it…
One such article that concludes that Vitamin E is not helpful for wound healing.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/10417589/
The effects of topical vitamin E on the cosmetic appearance of scars.
AuthorsBaumann LS, et al. Show all Journal
Dermatol Surg. 1999 Apr;25(4):311-5.
Affiliation
University of Miami Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery, Miami, Florida, USA.
Comment in
Dermatol Surg. 1999 Aug;25(8):670-1.
Dermatol Surg. 1999 Oct;25(10):827.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Vitamin E is a generic term for a group of tocol and tocotrienol derivatives. Since the discovery that vitamin E is the major lipid soluble antioxidant in skin, this substance has been tried for the treatment of almost every type of skin lesion imaginable. Anecdotal reports claim that vitamin E speeds wound healing and improves the cosmetic outcome of burns and other wounds. Many lay people use vitamin E on a regular basis to improve the outcome of scars and several physicians recommend topical vitamin E after skin surgery or resurfacing.
OBJECTIVE: We attempted to determine whether topically applied vitamin E has any effect on the cosmetic appearance of scars as suggested by multiple anectodal reports.
METHODS: Fifteen patients who had undergone skin cancer removal surgery were enrolled in the study. All wounds were primarily closed in 2 layers. After the surgery, the patients were given two ointments each labeled A or B. A was Aquaphor, a regular emollient, and the B was Aquaphor mixed with vitamin E. The scars were randomly divided into parts A and B. Patients were asked to put the A ointment on part A and the B ointment on part B twice daily for 4 weeks. The study was double blinded. The physicians and the patients independently evaluated the scars for cosmetic appearance on Weeks 1, 4, and 12. The criteria was simply to recognize which side of the scar looked better if there was any difference. The patients’ and the physicians’ opinions were recorded. A third blinded investigator was shown photographs of the outcomes and their opinion was also noted.
RESULTS: The results of this study show that topically applied vitamin E does not help in improving the cosmetic appearance of scars and leads to a high incidence of contact dermatitis.
CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that there is no benefit to the cosmetic outcome of scars by applying vitamin E after skin surgery and that the application of topical vitamin E may actually be detrimental to the cosmetic appearance of a scar. In 90% of the cases in this study, topical vitamin E either had no effect on, or actually worsened, the cosmetic appearance of scars. Of the patients studied, 33% developed a contact dermatitis to the vitamin E. Therefore we conclude that use of topical vitamin E on surgical wounds should be discouraged.
PMID 10417589 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
Full text: Blackwell Publishing
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In order for the Vitamin E to help your skin, you need to apply it INTERNALLY! You have to eat it, or take pills.