Why do we get scars?

Do you know that a starfish can grow back one of its limbs if it loses one? People can't heal themselves like that, but our bodies are pretty impressive when it comes to repairing themselves!

A scar is a mark that is left where a person has been injured. They look like areas of skin that are slightly different in texture and color than the area around it. Many types of cuts can leave these marks, but many are so small that you really don't notice.

We do notice the bigger scars. That's because there was a big cut or scrape there that our bodies had to heal. Here's how the healing works: When our skin is broken or cut, our body tries to heal, like putting a patch on an inflatable raft to keep the air in. Special cells called "fibroblasts" in our skin begin to grow strong fibers made of a protein called "collagen". The fibers knit themselves together, across the wound. That is what makes the scar. Once it has formed and our bodies have healed, infections won't be able to get in, and blood won't be able to get out.

Scar tissue is pretty similar to regular skin, but it doesn't protect us from the Sun as well as regular skin, hair won't grow there, and it is probably a slightly different color because of all the collagen that regular skin doesn't have as much of.

by Mya Kagan (Whyzz writer)