Skin tags are just small flaps of skin, a harmless benign growth. While they won’t do you any harm, they don’t look at all attractive, especially if they’re showing on a prominent part of the body, such as the neck, face or around the eyes. Do skin tags fall off when you lose weight? It can happen if the skin tag becomes twisted, but losing weight doesn’t cause this to happen on its own.
A skin tag requires a regular flow of blood and oxygen to survive. If this doesn’t happen, they change color (typically turning purple or black) before falling off a couple of weeks later. The problem is that most people find that this doesn’t usually take place. If left untreated, they are likely to remain for the rest of your life. They can also grow in size, become irritated and painful, or even get infected.
In this article, we’ll discuss the likelihood of skin tags falling off on their own, how/why this happens, and how they can be treated (if it doesn’t happen). We’ll also take a look at weight gain during pregnancy and the implications this has for getting skin tags in the future.
Do Skin Tags Fall Off when You Lose Weight?
What you had may have fallen off on its own when you lost a lot of weight, but it was likely never a skin tag. Unless it became twisted, you likely had a wart or other skin condition. Unless you treat a skin tag with an OTC product, it’ll be with you for the remainder of your life.
Other than the obvious benefits that are derived from losing weight, it will help you differently. If you have fewer folds of skin, you’re significantly less likely to go on to develop new skin tags on the body. Multiple skin tags under the armpits or eyes are common. If there’s a significant reduction in skin-on-skin contact, new skin tags are much less likely to appear in the future.
We’re now going to take a quick look at weight gain during pregnancy. If this doesn’t apply to you, please skip to the next section of this post.
Do Skin Tags Fall Off After Pregnancy?
Not that much is known about why people get skin tags, but we do know that hormones play a huge role. We also know that extra folds of skin rubbing against each other, particularly amongst those who experience fast weight gain, causes skin tags to form. By month five, due to the growth of the stomach area, many pregnant women do develop skin tags on specific parts of the body.
Experts recommend that you wait to see if skin tags go away on their own after giving birth. Thankfully, this does happen to a lot of women. If they are in a sensitive area, such as the vagina, it’s inadvisable to treat them on your own without talking to a dermatologist.
Natural Treatments for Skin Tags after Losing Weight
There aren’t many natural remedies that work well, but we do recommend tea tree oil. If tags appear under/between the breasts or on the face, try applying Australian tea tree oil. It’s important that you use a treatment that won’t cause any scarring. If a natural substance does work, you can be sure that a company will have included that substance in one of its products. If it hasn’t happened, it’s unlikely to get results.
Even natural treatments that do get results take significantly longer and require more effort to work. You will need to apply essential oils three times a day, morning, afternoon and night. If you start to miss out treatments, it’s less likely to be effective. Life can get hectic, so it’s not surprising that so many people are turning to set-and-forget treatments.
Different remedies will inevitably work or not work for different people. No one-size-fits-all approach will deliver results for everyone. You have to try out various products and monitor how your body responds to them.
How to Get Rid of Skin Tags after Weight Loss
You’ve lost a significant amount of weight and have regained much of your body confidence. The problem is that you still have skin tags that show in irritating positions, such as the groin or bikini line. You now know that they aren’t going to go away on their own, so you require an effective natural or over-the-counter treatment that will remove skin tags quickly and safely.
The good news is that some excellent options will get the job done fast. One process that works particularly well is known medically as ligation. This involves tying off a skin tag with dental floss or string to constrict the flow of blood and oxygen. Skin tags are a living part of your body, so they cannot survive unless they’re sufficiently oxygenated. The problem is that it can be hard to tie off a skin tag with string safely.
If you want a simple-to-use ligation kit, we recommend the TagBand skin tag removal device. It’s one of our top 3 picks! All that you need to do is put a small band (supplied with the kit) over the top of the cone so that it can be placed at the base of the skin tag. It’s easy to use and can be done in seconds on your own. Just leave the band in place, and you’ll notice that the tag changes color. It will typically fall off in about seven days.
Do skin tags fall off when you lose weight? Sadly, the answer is no, unless you take action! We’ve looked carefully at how long it takes for skin tags to fall off after treatment.
Make sure that what you have is a skin tag. They’re easy to identify because they’re very soft and are attached to the skin by a small/thin stalk. Although it can be very tempting, try not to keep touching or twisting them as this can lead to irritation or even an infection. Use the right treatment for skin tags after losing weight can clear up the problem fast, possibly in as little as a week.