(sorry this is so long, but worthwhile to read if you have stretchmarks, I'm no expert, and just beginning this journey myself)
I just purchased an ebook on this a few weeks ago. I hate them, but at the same time I feel guilty hating them because I have a beautiful 23 year old son from them, and I've seen worse than I've got, so I should just be thankful for that I guess. Still, everywhere I look, I see flat unmarked bellies in the low-waisted pants, on TV, magazines, etc. Mine start about 2 inches below the belly button, and go down all around me. Some are fine and thin, others are wide and deep. It's the same I guess as seeing someone with big breast when you don't have them, they are everywhere, I am hoping to improve on that too!
The procedure is basically to vigorously massage with a rubber finger type massager, using pure aloe vera gel and apricot scrub after soaking in the bath, then massaging in a mixture of of the aloe gel and st. ives collagen elastin cream. Something like once every 10 days, for the first 40 days, then once every 4 weeks after that. The theory is to slightly damage the skin with exfoiliation, which would cause it to repair itself like it does with an injury, and build the collagen in the damaged areas. This is the same concept of laser or microdermabrasion would do. (microdemerabrasion does not work as well as laser, it just removes layers of skin, allowing creams to penetrate I think). I've done hours and hours of research, and it makes sense that this is worth giving it a shot.
That's it basically/almost exactly it, without going into more detail due to copywrite issues. If this does not work for me, I'm going to try a dermaroller, but I hope I don't have to, it seems painful and it's not done in the US, so I'd have to do a home version, which is kinda scary. Still....the concept of damaging the skin with the roller forcing it to repair itself as it does naturally, makes perfect sense. Here are the links to the roller and the ebook. The reason I liked the ebook was that the after pictures do not show a perfect result, which is more believable.
http://www.scar-reduction.com/needling.html#pictures. http://www.stretchmarkcure.com
I did one round only so far, and I can honestly say I see improvement in the marks and tone/firmness - for the first time since getting them, I am hopeful to make them much better. Even with laser, they will probably never disapear totally. I've also decided to get some emu oil since it is proven to penetrate deeply into the layers of skin, and use my vit-c cream (to help build collagen) and alpha-H creams to help with cell turnover.
If anyone tries this, I need to tell you that you will be red afterwards, and the marks may be kinda raw and prominant, as they are beginning the healing process with new skin. Also, do not tan during the process, which I am very careful with only a few minutes a week to maintain color, but I stopped totally to see if this works. I did do a less agressive treatment on my breast, but decided to put that on hold until I get sustainable growth and can go a few days without pumping - the stress on the skin during pumping is not good when you have rubbed your skin raw. Besides, if I can plump up with the NB, then those marks are not near as visible. When I grew 4.5 inches on bountiful breast pills, they disapeared in my mind, I think that I was so full and round at that time, the light hit them differently, and they were kinda filled in.
Hope this helps someone, as I feel your pain, there is nothing pretty about stretchmarks.
No scars.