The acceptance of stretchmarks.

[EndoTheRoad]

I'm smothered in them. Literally.

Tops of arms - front and back, boobs, tummy, bum, thighs, back of legs. Delightful, huh.

I've decided I cannot face any more summers hiding (and sweating) behind clothes and that the pitiful/horrified looks (I'm bound to receive) will be more a reflection on the lookee than me.

Anyone else (gonna try not give a fig)?

I'm not so much afflicted by the stretch marks. When I had my son, I was huge and when I went down again (!) I didn't have a single stretch mark.

BUT ........ cellulite. Oh God. I moisturise my flesh after every shower. I do some (moderate) exercise 3/4 times weekly and it's just awful. I wish I could feel comfy in my shorts when it's baking but frankly, I just dread feeling like I have nothing to wear. I love the sunshine but seem to spend the summer months in a state of anxiety of what I can wear so that people won't point and smirk and say "who knew WHAT was going on under those opaque tights?"

It's utterly ridiculous really. When you think of all the things going on in the world. I wish I didn't give a hoot!!!

Everyone ahs stretchmarks and cellulite. When I was about 14 I must have been about a size 6, and I got my first stretchmarks then.

You really should wear whatever the piss you like. I bet you look great. No one will care about how you look (or if they do, not for more than a couple of secs).

Today I am going to the pool in a bikini for the first time ever, I am overweight but I want to wear one, and I couldn't give less of a feck if people don''t like looking at me

I like your attitude, Leverkusen!

How was your bikini outing?

I am overweight, too - about a stone (of lard) heavier than last year! I got my stretchmarks out last year in my bikini and will this year (if the darned thing fits).

It was great. No one looked twice at me. I looked fine to be honest.

Very liberating!

If someone is troubled by anyones stretchmarks or cellulite it says way way more about them and their own insecurities than it does about you Endof.
Only the airbrushed are without them and the sooner we all accepted what a normal woman's body looks like the better.
It is better for our dcs too, to see what people really look like rather than to be brainwashed into thinking that they should look like the plastic people in magazines.
Bare all and be proud I say!

Agree that at some point you need to just say "sod it" and wear what you want to wear. Easier said than done, I know.

I had a stomach like an unmade bed for 10 years (had a tummy tuck last year because I needed a hernia op and I thought f*ck it, if they are going to cut me open let's have it all neatened up at the same time!). However, I wore a bikini every single holiday we went on and didn't give a toss. The first moments were horrible (not going to lie!) but once I had gotten over the initial shock I really didn't care. Someone else will always look better or worse and will probably have their own insecurities too.

Try Palmer's Cocoa Butter lotion on your stretchmarks. I had terrible stretchmarks on my lower back/top of my glutes. I tried lots of (expensive) products and that was the only one which smoothed them over and dramatically improved the appearance. Seriously, the lines were so deep your fingers got stuck in them! The Palmers smoothed them over and my skin felt great and gave me a lot more confidence.

Mine go from above my belly button right down. They are properly stripy. I have finally got rownd to losing some weight recently, and my stomach is horrible... Looks like I've had seventy operations and then stitched up badly...
However. My stretchmarks are the tattoos of my pregnancy, and they are witness to two miracles which happened to me, so I refuse to hate them. Besides, my boys like my funny "weetabix belly"... :o

See, I'm sorry to sound unsymapthetic, but I just don't get this. Addmitedly I have none. BUT I also have saggy boobs, and a totally different figure post 2 ds's. And I just accept. and get on. I LONG FOR, AND I mean long FOR, I had f**king great boobs , my whole life, everyone said so. and now I don't. But what can you do ? Not alot, other than accept.
YOU HAVE TO ACCEPT. There is no other way.

You are fine as you are. In ten/twenty years time, you will wish you look as good as you do now

Enjoy yourself, go on, I dare you!

Go for it, EndoTheRoad, you will look back and regret not getting out and about.

Now I look forward to enlightened views on MN about the crepey bosoms of older women.

Agree with the 'sod it' attitude. I have delightful pink stretchmarks all over my tummy and it's a lovely conversation starter in the swimming pool changing rooms - though generally the conversation also grinds to a swift halt when I reply no, I don't have kids - just a reeeeallly stripy tummy.