Explore skin
Care starts with your skin, not a treatment name.
Explore injectables
A medical consultation and an individual approach.
Explore face & body
Explore options for contour, muscle and firmness.
Explore concerns
You do not need to know the treatment. Tell us your concern.
Explore skin
Care starts with your skin, not a treatment name.
Explore injectables
A medical consultation and an individual approach.
Explore face & body
Explore options for contour, muscle and firmness.
Explore concerns
You do not need to know the treatment. Tell us your concern.
You catch them in the changing-room mirror, or reaching for a swimsuit. Red stretch marks respond beautifully to treatment, white ones improve steadily across a course, and the colour of yours shapes the plan the Wimpole Street team builds for you.
Stretch marks form when skin is stretched faster than it can adapt, tearing the collagen and elastin in the dermis. Growth spurts, pregnancy, rapid weight change and bodybuilding all do it, and genetics decides how prone you are more than anything you could have done differently.
The single most useful thing to know is that they change over time, and that treatment works far better in the first phase.
Fresh stretch marks are red or purple, which means there is still blood supply and active inflammation in the tissue. That is a live wound and it responds to treatment.
Mature stretch marks are white or silver, sometimes slightly indented. The inflammation has resolved, the vessels have gone, and what remains is essentially scar tissue with no pigment cells. These improve with treatment, softening in texture and fading in visibility across a course.
Regents Park Aesthetics treats stretch marks at the Wimpole Street clinic, a short walk from Oxford Circus. Your clinician tells you which phase yours are in and exactly what you can look forward to.
Striae rubrae
Within the first year or so, with active blood supply and inflammation. This is the window where treatment does most, because the tissue is still remodelling. If yours are red, act now rather than waiting to see whether they fade.
Striae albae
Older marks where inflammation has resolved and pigment cells are absent. They improve in texture and become less visible, and a course brings meaningful improvement you can see and feel.
Abdomen, breasts, hips
Extremely common and usually appearing in the third trimester. Many fade considerably on their own in the first year after birth, and your clinician times treatment around you and your baby.
Often with laxity alongside
Marks left after significant weight loss or gain, frequently accompanied by loose skin. Where laxity is part of the picture, a radiofrequency device treats both at once and does more than a texture-only approach.
Assessment at Regents Park Aesthetics starts with colour, because colour tells us the phase and the phase shapes the plan. Red or purple means active tissue and a better prognosis. White or silver means mature scar and a slower, more gradual response.
We check texture as well as colour. Some mature marks are flat and only a colour difference, while others are indented, and indented marks need a treatment that rebuilds volume in the dermis rather than one that only evens tone.
Skin type decides the device. Stretch marks are common across all skin tones, and ablative laser is assessed carefully on deeper skin. Microneedling suits every skin tone, which is why it is our first choice.
Across a full course you can look forward to meaningful improvement in texture and visibility, and your clinician shows you what that looks like for your marks before you book.
As a guide, this is how we typically match each type to a treatment. Your own plan is always confirmed at consultation, and where a specialist doctor would serve you best, your clinician points you to the right one.
| SkinPen Microneedling The mainstay for stretch marks and safe on every skin tone, which matters because stretch marks affect all skin types and many laser options do not. Creates controlled injury throu | CO2 Laser Resurfacing The strongest option for white mature marks with textural change, resurfacing and remodelling the scarred tissue. Five to seven days of downtime, and assessed carefully on deeper s | |
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| £450 | £300 | |
| Explore SkinPen Microneedling | Explore CO2 Laser Resurfacing |
Older, silvered striae after a course of SkinPen. Clinical image supplied by Crown Aesthetics. Individual results may vary.
Prevention is more effective than treatment and only partially within your control. Keeping skin well moisturised while your body is changing may help a little. Gradual rather than rapid weight change helps more. Genetics decides most of it, and women who develop stretch marks in pregnancy overwhelmingly have mothers who did too.
Prescription-strength retinoids have reasonable evidence for early red stretch marks, improving appearance when used consistently in the first months. Your clinician advises when to start.
Centella asiatica and hyaluronic acid have some supporting evidence. Cocoa butter and bio-oil are lovely moisturisers, though the evidence that they prevent or treat stretch marks is weak.
White mature marks sit in the scarred dermis beneath intact skin, beyond the reach of creams, which is exactly where clinic treatment comes in.
Self-tan is genuinely the most effective non-clinical option for white marks, because it stains the surrounding skin and not the marks. Some people find it makes them more visible rather than less, so test a small area first.
Substantially, particularly while still red. Across a course you can look forward to meaningful improvement in texture and visibility.
Considerably. Red marks have active blood supply and remodelling tissue, so treatment works with a live process. White marks are mature scar tissue and improve more gradually.
Microneedling is the mainstay and is safe on all skin tones. CO2 laser does more for white textured marks.
Four to six for microneedling, one to three for CO2 laser. Body areas generally need more sessions than facial treatment because the skin is thicker.
Microneedling from £450 for a body area, CO2 laser from £300. We quote the course.
Prescription-strength retinoids have reasonable evidence on early red marks. Cocoa butter and bio-oil moisturise, with weak evidence for preventing or treating marks. White mature marks respond best to clinic treatment.
Red marks fade toward white over months to a couple of years, which is a change in colour rather than resolution. White marks hold steady, which is where treatment takes over.
Yes. Microneedling suits every skin tone, which is why it is our first choice, and CO2 laser is assessed carefully on deeper skin.
For white marks, genuinely yes, because it stains surrounding skin and not the marks. Some people find it makes them more visible instead, so test a small area first.
Yes. Stretch marks from growth spurts and from training are common in men and treated identically.
A medically led clinic where every plan starts with an assessment and every injectable is placed by a medical professional, so the result looks like you on your best day.
Tell us what you’d like to achieve. Regents Park Aesthetics will be in touch within one working day to arrange your consultation.
