Hi guys, and welcome to our second LifeSIGNS video on YouTube. This video is going to be about cover up ideas for scars. I'd like to start by saying, when it comes to covering your scars you don't always need to cover them, it's very much a matter of whether you want to, it's a personal thing. Do YOU want to cover your scars? Or are you just doing it because society asks you should be perfect? Scars on your wrists though can be covered with bracelets and long sleeves obviously, but scars on your arms are a lot more difficult. But there are other options, there's long sleeves obviously, but in summer if you wanna wear a vest top, you should be able to wear a vest top. But maybe if you do wanna cover up, you can wear an open shirt over the top so you are still cool but your covered. You can wear the kind of elasticated bandages used for sprains, I don't know if you've seen them. You can get them from a chemist, ask your dr I'm sure they can point you in the right direction. They can hide your scars, so people are less likely to notice. But you will get asked other times, how you "sprained" yourself which can throw you to be honest, when your asked, even if just quite an innocent question. You can be thrown a bit which is bad so be aware of that one. For your legs just jeans, trousers, long skirts...or put opaque tights on, they're a life saver a lot of the time. If it's coming to summer time and you are still in jeans and stuff people will ask your not opting for something cooler. So again, be aware that you will get asked questions, because a lot of the time they do throw you, when you forget that they are visible. If you know what I mean, or forget you are being obvious that there is something wrong. So people will ask question, so as long as your prepared for that, that's fine. Often, when we do chose to cover our scars, they are more obvious to us than they are to other people. A lot of the time people won't even notice if left to their own devices, cause they're not looking for them they don't go into a social situation looking for people with self harm scars all over them. They are more obvious to your because you know they're there and you know the stories behind them, so you are looking. So try and keep that in your mind when your getting really paranoid and upset about your scars being visible all the time. They are not that obvious. Covering up our scars, makes YOU in control of who sees them, what they see and whether or not your ready to talk about it. Which can make us feel really good actually. There really is no shame in having had difficulties in the past. We all find our own ways to deal with things and a lot of the time self injury is the coping mechanism that a lot of people turn to. LifeSIGNS is never going to tell you to stop self injury it's going to support you and we are going to give you the feedback and help that you want from us. If you join our forum you can get a lot of support from people just like you, and from us guys, who have been through it and want to help We are never going to tell you to stop but we will encourage you to find healthy alternatives and make healthy changes in your life, which is gonna make your life a better quality for you. Nobody else. It's up to you if you want to stop, but if you chose to, these healthy changes are really going to help. Camouflage make up is a really good way of hiding more obvious scars. And once you learn to master that, it's a really good way of doing it. Because once you learn how to do it, you can do it quite quickly. I know I use make up on the ones on my arms, I'm wearing long sleeves today, obviously but they are here and here, and a few here. But I use make up for them, because like I have said before I am on a drama course and so a lot of the time I need to sort of wear cooler clothes if that makes sense? So I just make up on for camouflage and it hides them and nobody really asks to be honest. That's a good way, if you want to go down that route, that's a good one. I'll put a link to the LifeSIGNS website where we have information on how to apply camouflage make up and what sort of thing to do. I think it's important to stress that different people have different marks in different places and it would be a lot easier for people with lighter marks, to be willing and open to showing them. As opposed to people who have got like keloid scaring, or white or purple marks. Because they are hard to hide, I'm not gonna lie but it is possible and the sooner you come to terms with your scars the better. Because they are there forever and they are just a part of you, so it doesn't mean they're a bad thing. Like I said, it is your individual choice to talk about your scars or not. You are in control about what people know about you. If people decide to pry into your life, that's their problem, if you wanna talk to them, if you wanna answer them, that's brilliant, that's fine. If you feel comfortable with that then that's fine, but make sure you are understanding what you are going to be telling them and what could happen with that. I think it's respectful and courteous to cover up fresh wounds, be that for friends or family or colleagues, especially young children. Because a lot of the time fresh wounds are a lot more upsetting and emotive than actual scars, because they are a lot more aggressive looking than they perhaps are. No guidance that I can possibly say on here is ever going to suit every single person in every situation, I can't possibly know all your situations. But I hope that a few things that we can suggest to can help everybody out there to make up their own minds of what they want to do. Here at LifeSIGNS we feel that you should be confident with you are without feeling like you have to show your scars. We do think that wounds should be covered and treated for health reasons but as long as you make sure they're healthy and clean and looked after then that's fine. Our scars are going to be a part of us forever and we do need to learn to deal with them. But you do that on your own time, your on no one else's clock but your own. Stay safe guys, bye.