"How do I hide my stretch marks?" I get asked that question a lot lately. With summer coming up, more and more women (and men too) are starting to worry about showing off their bodies. Fear of somebody seeing those awful stretch marks has kept more than a few people fully clothed and anxious, instead of enjoying the beautiful weather around them. So what do I tell them? I tell them that stretch marks doesn't have to be a nightmare, and I'm not one of those people saying "Celebrate your stretch marks!" Yeah, you try that while a dozen people are staring at your stomach...see how much you want to celebrate! What I tell them is this: Stretch marks aren't permanent. They're not gonna vanish before your eyes like a bad magic trick, but you can make them fade away with a little knowledge and some persistence.

Want to know the ironic part? The stretch marks we hate so much come from some of the activities we love to do, like eating, and even some of the activities we do to look good at the beach, like weightlifting. Imagine how depressed you have to be when you spend all this time lifting weights only to find out your newly acquired muscles came with some baggage - stretch marks. That's why it's important to help out our bodies as much as possible by eating and drinking the right kinds and quantities of food and drink. Eating and drinking the right stuff helps keep our skin "rubbery" aka elastic, which means no stretch marks.

Olive oil, egg whites, vitamin E creams or caplets (broken and rubbed directly onto the skin) daily help as well as other renowned ingredients such as; Shea butter, jojoba and many more. The key to using these methods successfully though, is not just applying them but rather how, when and how often. Try applying after a shower when the moisture has had a chance to absorb into your skin and apply it naturally, no need for vigorous rubbing in; just gently will do - rinse and repeat. Every time you shower or bathe, apply soon afterwards - once daily is recommended. However, if you are particularly prone to dry skin around your belly area, apply it twice daily. Over time the stretch marks will reduce, and this means they will be much easier to disguise.

A very common and probably the most used method of hiding stretch marks, is to apply sunless tanning products to the marks you need to hide. Yes, you read right, and it does work as a temporary solution. Tanning naturally just will not do it, stretch marks tend to evade the sun's positive effects, and the marks stand out even more! Face powder and foundation is another useful concealing method a lot of women use to try and combat stretch marks temporarily. Anything which contains alpha hydroxy acids (AHA's) is a good product to use on stretch marks while you fight the battle to hide them, AHA's very gently strip the top layer of skin cells allowing new ones to come to the surface - the chances are, if you're eating healthily and applying a good cream to increase the elasticity that a few layers down the good skin is going to arise and be victorious.