Types Of Acne Scars – The Doors To Understanding Yourself

We all scar differently and they form for different reasons. Picking at our skin does heighten our chances of scarring BUT it isn’t the only reason why we scar.  So it is important to avoid placing unnecessary blame on top of the pain we already go through.

My Story

I started developing acne when I was a teenager due to the unpredictable hormonal stages of puberty. All throughout high school I was greeted by hundreds of comedones, which are small flesh-coloured acne papules, across my forehead and cheeks, further triggered by stress but it never really became cystic until after I reached my senior year (I was 17 years old).

I didn’t understand how my skin exacerbated to that severity but in hindsight I realised it was due to my over reliance on western medicine of birth control and antibiotics. Granted, these solutions temporarily cleared my acne and provided me with a fleeting sense of joy. Little did I know, they simply acted as bandage, pretending to help in disguise but in truth, wrecked havoc on my gut health and skin in the long run.

As a result, my skin suffered from nodular cystic acne – my cheeks were riddled with large sacks filled with pus. The formation of these spots destroyed the collagen in targeted areas, leaving me with depressions in the skin. I was mortified at my appearance, imprisoned by my own toxic self-loathing insults, locked away from the world, crying in my room. I felt hopeless, ugly and alone…but it was only after many years of practising self love and contributing to an open dialogue within the skin positivity community that was I able to heal. I was able to finally see the value in myself beyond my outward appearance. I saw the importance of investing time and knowledge into myself and I hope those reading this will eventually see this too.

That being said, I have composed clear images and definitions of each acne scar to help you understand what yours are; to help you know that your scars are common and should be normalised.  

Types Of Acne Scars

To simplify things, acne scars fall into two main categories:

1. Those caused by a loss of tissue (atrophic scars)
2. Those caused by an excess of tissue (hypertrophic scars)

Within these categories, there are four main types of acne scars:

• Ice-pick scars/ pitted scars – deep, narrow, pitted scars (these develop after deep inflamed zits get infected, destroying our skin tissue)
• Boxcar scars – broad depressions with sharply defined edges (these develop when a breakout destroys collagen so the area is left without support)
• Rolling scars – broad depressions with a sloping edge (these develop when fibrous bands of tissue pull the epidermis)
• Hypertrophic / keloid scars – raised scars (these develop when there’s an overproduction of collagen; your skin doesn’t know that the wound has already healed so it continues to produce collagen)

There are many ways to treat your acne scars but know that you shouldn’t feel pressured to treat them just to be accepted. Please know that you can simultaneously embrace your skin while trying to improve it. It’s no one’s place to judge on what you decide.

The more we talk about acne and acne scars, the more normalised they will become. You are loved and beautiful just the way you are. Trust yourself to know healing will happen.

– Written by Elizabeth Claire Nguyen, Sydney based Skin Positivity Advocate.

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We’d love to hear your acne scar journey too! Share it with us below. Or if you have any questions for Liz, please pop them in the comments below too 🙂