Pimple scars occur when the skin has become damaged due to acne. There are varied types of scarring that are left behind, but not everyone gets the more serious types. Generally, the more severe the acne, the deeper the pimples go and whether they are squeezed or not can make the difference between unseen scars, no scars and terrible scars. Generally, as a rule of thumb, note that acne is a type of infection of the hair follicles, pores and oil glands in the skin, not caused as once believed by what you should not eat or necessarily lack of proper hygiene, but sometimes age, hormones and just a predisposition towards getting oily skin or overactive oil glands. As such, as with any infection, squeezing can only spread acne infections and the oils and dirt on your hands, no matter how much you wash them, can help to further and worsen the infection. When you squeeze a pimple you are subsequently damaging the skin, bursting it open and leaving a mini open wound with jagged edges that will heal as is and may become further infected and thus give you a higher risk of scarring.
The following are types of pimple scars that can result from acne, squeezing or non-squeezing of pimples. Remember that you do not have to squeeze pimples or lack hygiene to get acne scarring. The worse the outbreak, the higher the risk of scarring, which includes these scar types:
- Ice pick scars – the most common found after suffering acne that are distinguished by deep and noticeable pits of a minimum of two millimetres across, varying in length, shape and size and extending deep into the skin’s surface, even potentially exposing deeper layers of skin and appear to look as if the skin has been punctured with an ice pick
Boxcar scars – very common type of scarring from acne that are distinguishable by angled shapes and vertical, almost sharp edges, resembling those that some people get with Chicken Pox, and may vary in depth from shallow to deep, usually located on the temples or cheeks
Rolling scars – severe acne scarring resulting from damage done to the layers below the skin, appearing almost like waves, but are generally shallow and wide
Hypertrophic scars – amongst the worse types of acne scarring usually found on the chest, back, face and neck, and are distinguished by their origins as acne nodules or cysts, but remain within the parameters of the originating wound, decreasing size-wise over time, though the keloid version can grow and become more predominant instead