They affect boys in their puberty. They appear on the lower part of back and on the sides. At the beginning they are pinkish but with time they’re changing the colour to white. Back stretch marks – why do they appear, how to prevent them and how to fight them back?

What are stretch marks?

Stretch marks are a kind of decline in skin in the form of pinkish and later white streaks which develop as a result of either intensive growth or body mass fluctuation. Very fast: growth, ginning on weight, losing either weight or muscle mass cause that an organism isn’t able to keep up with producing new cells – stretch marks are the aftermath.

Why do stretch marks appear on back?

Whereas teenage girls develop stretch marks on tights, buttocks and breast, teenage boys can spot stretch marks mainly on their backs. It happens this way because back is the very body part that grows the fastest (when we talk about body of boys). Young males grow upwards, so back gets enlarged, as well as they grow sideways, so shoulders become bigger and wider.

Back stretch marks don’t only develop as the result of rapid growth and putting on weight; development of these skin imperfections might be determined by genes, too. To demonstrate, back stretch marks can be the aftermath of Marfan syndrome – a disease that affects eyes, bone system, heart and blood vessels. Stretch marks appear as a consequence of connective tissue damages, and to be more precise, elastic fibres in particular, which impede collagen production and renewal of connective tissue.

Back stretch marks – How to prevent them?

In order to prevent stretch marks from occurring, you can:

• follow a diet rich in vitamins A and E as well as silica and zinc,
• application of moisturising and lipid-replenishing preparations, e.g. the ones which contain collagen or cosmetic oil.

Back stretch marks – How to fight them back?

If stretch marks have already managed to appear on skin, you can undertake the following action:

• you can start applying anti-cellulite creams which will make your skin stronger and prevent new marks from appearing (you can reach for preparations designed for treating woman skin since it will be much easier to find them in a store),
• you can expose yourself to treatments the aim of which is to smooth out and remove discolorations from skin, e.g. microdermabrasion, mesotherapy, low-level laser therapy or a procedure of exfoliating dead epidermis cells with the use of chemical peelings (e.g. glycolic acid).