A new stretch mark typically looks like a narrow, slightly raised streak with a red, pink, or purplish color. The exact shade depends on your skin tone, but the key feature is that fresh stretch marks have visible color, unlike older ones that eventually fade to white or silver. They often appear in clusters of parallel lines rather than as a single isolated mark.
Color, Texture, and Shape
In the earliest stage, stretch marks are red to purple on lighter skin and darker brown or purplish on deeper skin tones. This color comes from blood vessels in the deeper layer of skin (the dermis) showing through after the tissue has been damaged by rapid stretching. The structural fibers that normally keep skin firm and elastic have torn, and the inflammation from that tearing is what gives new stretch marks their vivid appearance.
Fresh stretch marks are often slightly raised, with a texture you can feel if you run your finger across them. Some people describe the surface as having a faintly ridged or rippled quality. They typically run in parallel lines and can range from a few centimeters to several inches long. Width varies, but most are relatively narrow, around a few millimeters across.
Sensations That Come With Them
New stretch marks aren’t just visual. The skin around them often feels dry, tight, and itchy as it stretches. This itching can range from mild to genuinely annoying, especially during pregnancy when abdominal skin is stretching rapidly. Moisturizers and oils won’t prevent stretch marks from forming, but they can reduce the dryness and ease the itch.
In some cases during pregnancy, a raised, itchy rash called PUPPP can develop directly on top of new stretch marks on the stomach. This is a separate condition from the stretch marks themselves and looks like small red bumps clustered along the streaks.
Where They Show Up First
New stretch marks appear wherever skin is being pulled the fastest. The most common sites are the abdomen, thighs, hips, breasts, upper arms, lower back, and buttocks. The specific location depends on what’s driving the stretching:
- Pregnancy: abdomen, breasts, and thighs
- Adolescent growth spurts: thighs, buttocks, and breasts in females; back and shoulders in males
- Rapid weight gain or muscle building: upper arms, shoulders, and thighs
Why Some People Get Them and Others Don’t
Stretch marks aren’t purely about how much your skin stretches. Genetics play a significant role. A large genome-wide study identified several gene regions tied to stretch mark risk, and the strongest association was near the gene responsible for producing elastin, the protein that gives skin its ability to snap back into shape. Variations in how your body builds elastic fibers in the skin appear to make some people far more prone to stretch marks than others, regardless of how much weight they gain or how quickly they grow.
Three main factors work together: rapid skin stretching (from pregnancy, puberty, or weight changes), prolonged exposure to the stress hormone cortisol (which weakens skin fibers), and your inherited skin structure. People with certain connective tissue conditions like Marfan syndrome, which involves mutations in the proteins that form elastic microfibers, are especially prone to developing stretch marks. One gene region linked to stretch mark risk also overlaps with genes associated with BMI, suggesting that carrying more body weight adds mechanical stress on top of any genetic vulnerability.
How They Change Over Time
The colored, raised phase is temporary. Over a period of months to a couple of years, new stretch marks gradually flatten and lose their color. The red or purple fades first to pink, then eventually to white, silver, or a shade slightly lighter than your surrounding skin. Once they reach this pale, flat stage, they’re considered mature stretch marks. The texture also shifts from slightly raised and ridged to smooth and sometimes faintly indented, like a shallow scar.
This transition matters if you’re considering treatment. A systematic review of clinical trials found that topical retinoid creams were effective for treating stretch marks in their early, colored phase but had limited value once the marks had already faded to white. The window for the most responsive treatment is while the marks still have visible color and inflammation. Once the tissue has fully scarred over and lost its blood supply, the options narrow considerably.
When Stretch Marks Signal Something Else
Most stretch marks are completely harmless and tied to an obvious cause like pregnancy, a growth spurt, or weight change. But stretch marks that appear without a clear reason, especially if they’re unusually wide (more than a centimeter across) and deep purple, can sometimes point to excess cortisol production, as seen in Cushing syndrome. Stretch marks caused by cortisol overproduction tend to be darker, wider, and more prominent than typical ones, and they often show up on the abdomen, thighs, and upper arms. If you’re developing noticeable stretch marks without any recent body changes, it’s worth bringing up with a doctor.