Post-surgery Scarring in African-American Women

(Credit: samah007)

Cosmetic surgery is not the prerogative of rich whites anymore. These days, anyone who would like to go under the knife and has the means to finance the surgery can get any feature tweaked by a plastic surgeon. Statistics go on to prove that millions of Americans undergo cosmetic and reconstructive surgery in hopes of improving bodily image.

Cosmetic surgery may change the way we look, but it comes with certain risks and complications. Scarring is a common after-effect of surgery, but for African-American women, the changes of developing abnormally shaped scar tissue is very high.

Since African-Americans have an increased level of melanin in the pigmentation of the skin, after cosmetic surgery they develop very thick scars. However, there are measures which can be taken to alleviate the development of scar tissue in women of color and should be followed according to the surgeon's advice.

With keloid scars as the most complex appearing scar tissue, many African-American women struggle to find ways in which to reverse the development of a keloid scar after a cosmetic surgery procedure. Because a keloid scar is developed from the healing process, there are steps that can be taken to negate the effect of the cosmetic surgery healing process which leads to keloid scarring.