O's Shortcuts to Simplify Your Life
From getting a shot of glamour to renewing a passport or putting dinner on the table fast, we've got ways to do it in double time.
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Quickest Way to Make Your Scar Disappear
"If the cut is all the way down to the fat layer, you can't make the scar go away completely," says Charles H. Thorne, MD, NYU School of Medicine associate professor of plastic surgery. "You can only make it as inconspicuous as possible."
The skin on either side of the wound needs to be lined up; use butterfly bandages to keep the two sides in place and keep tension off the stitches (if you needed them).
Thorne says that although you want to avoid tension (the force pulling the wound apart), for best results you want to apply downward pressure on the wound itself with medical tape. Topical steroids may make a wide or raised scar less visible but can also thin your skin—so use them sparingly.
What doesn't work, says Thorne, are vitamin E or aloe products or patented botanical extracts.
From the
December 2007 issue of
O, The Oprah Magazine
