I assume steri-strips are akin to butterfly bandages? If so they do work well but have a tendency to scar.

Steri-strips, as Mark says, are indeed the biz. Whether they are the best thing to do depends on the situation. As Mark suggested, they are best for a nice clean slice, and best if it is an angled, flap laceration where you can use the steri-strip (more like a row of them, commonly) to "approximate the wound edeges" -- pull the flap edges together -- and where you have a good contact surface underneath (as opposed to a straight-in laceration where you have to work harder to keep the edges together).

Once you have decided not to suture something the opportunity to do so is gone after a day or two. Given that steri-strips always have a higher chance of pulling apart and scarring, folks are generally more apt to use them where a chance of failure/scar is less problematic. Less likely they'd use 'em on a face if cosmetic outcome is important (like somebody better looking than me!), especially if it is on a tough spot.

Plus, foreheads and thereabouts can get oily causing the strip to come loose too early (or maybe the person can be trusted to reapply a few correctly, or they are in a spot where the person couldn't reach...), and it can be hard to clear away/prep a nice, unhairy spot for the ends of the strip to stick to. To maximize chances of success, we always used the nastily sticky tincture of benzoin.

Ahh.... It seems they are different, but do the exact same thing. Unfortunately, in my case, they pulled the skin tighter than they should have, and the skin was overlapping when it healed. At least, that's what I assume happened, I was after all 7 years old when it happened. 21 years later, the scar is barely noticeable, but it IS responsible in part for the way I choose to wear my hair. I used to be very self conscious about it, but have gotten less and less so over the years. Now I'm just too used to my hair being this way to change.

Ah, come on... a scar on the forehead is doing wonders for Harry Potter. Let it show!

Edit: Well, I jumped a level, but didn't turn green.

Umm... ow. Might I recommend holding nails with a set of pliers in the future?

My dad did something similar -- he was out moving rocks around on his acreage when when slipped and crushed the end of his finger. I didn't see it 'till some months later, but it was still pretty gross.

Yeah well, growing up I was a year younger than anyone in my classes at school. Couple that with the fact that I was small for my age anyway. (I am still fairly thin.) I tended to try to cover up anything that made me any more "different" than I had to be. In fact, I was at one point tested for HGH supplementation. Turns out my Doc was right, I didn't need it, I just didn't start growing taller until I was about 17. By age 18, I was taller than most of my friends, so it all worked out OK in the end.

And to think, they were even discussing moving me ahead another year in fourth grade. -=shudder=-

Good notes, jimhogan.

Whenever possible, though, I place the steri-strip lengthwise along the cut, rather than just using it crossways to tack it shut. Seals it very well, and with a band-aid on top (crosswise) lasts several days usually.

That said, I do now have a new tiny scar on my right cheek, from being hit by a high velocity hockey puck three weeks ago (managed to block the shot, though!). But the steri-strip helped tons with that -- the scar is cuz I didn't get to an ice-pack quickly enough. By the time I got home and iced it, I had a massive lump somewhat larger than a golfball under my skin... kinda hard to pull a cut together on top of a lump like that.

It's still healing, but it seems it likely also fractured the cheekbone -- definitely not the same shape as the other side anymore. But we won, on my goal (before the injury). Yayh team!!

Hehe, according to the BBS FAQ, you get to go green when you either hit around 1000 posts, or if the powers that be consider you to have "contributed a great deal to the community ".

Speaking of which, here's something that's been bothering me a bit lately. In our little community here, we have the elders (Pooh-Bah), the wise man (FAQ Master) and a copper (Grammar Police), but we're missing one thing from truly becoming a community: the villiage idiot. We need a new title!

I hit around 1000 posts quite a while ago; I assume Drakino just decided it was time to green another batch of people

I got a scar on my forehead when I was about 5 and wear bangs so it doesn't show. The other 2 scars on my head are covered by hair also. I got hurt a lot as a kid

Hehe, out of curiosity, I wonder how many of us have scars on their chin? This seems to be the most common scar known to man.

I wonder how many of us have scars on their chin?

I do. I got 28 stiches there when I flew over the handlebars of my bicycle when I was about 8.

Ahh.... It seems they are different, but do the exact same thing. Unfortunately, in my case, they pulled the skin tighter than they should have, and the skin was overlapping when it healed.

Yes, exact same but different. Folks sometimes torque the crap out of steri-strip -- over-overlap -- on the assumption that they will stretch, but that's not how they work (usually).

At least, that's what I assume happened, I was after all 7 years old when it happened. 21 years later, the scar is barely noticeable,

Yeah, 40-some years later, nobody notices the scar where that sewing machine fell on my head. It just blends in.

... Now I'm just too used to my hair being this way to change.

Enjoy your hair!

Ouch, I know that feeling. No scars, but I had a wonderful bike experience. I rode around some pedestrians who were on the sidewalk. I took the grass. This was at night, and one part of the grass happened to be about a foot deeper than the rest.

My bike stopped dead.
I kept going.

I landed, with my full 200 lbs of weight, entirely on my face. That was seriously the first part of my body to hit the ground.

My front wheel was bent about 40 degrees. My face was covered in cuts and bruises and I didn't go out for a week (I was shy).

What a great thing to happen the first week of your freshman year of college. Sigh...

Whenever possible, though, I place the steri-strip lengthwise along the cut, rather than just using it crossways to tack it shut. Seals it very well, and with a band-aid on top (crosswise) lasts several days usually.


(I just knew the day would come! A ML technique critique opportunity!!)

This may work on a small cut, but it is not how they are meant to work. Steri-strips (with the embedded longitudinal threads that make 'em look like packing tape) are only really rigid along their length (take one and try the experiment: stretch along length? hard. stretch along width? easy.) If the cut is of any significance, lay as many strips perpendicular to the cut as is practical, working from middle out, avoid over-tension, but use as much of the strip as practical to maximize holding power and stabilization.

None in my chin, but I have multiples in my forehead (some from a doorknob, some from a coffee table), some in my eyebrow (30lbs of weights falling off a dumbell -- for those with a home gym, never use plastic boots), and some in the top of my head (from tripping on my socks while sliding around in the classroom, hitting my head on the chalkboard ledge). Lower-body stitches are all a result of mountain biking.

I had a bike wreck when I was eleven that only knocked out my teeth. We have a long driveway and as I was riding down I must have hit a bump and went A upwise T. three point landing; teeth, chest, knees. My Mum heard me crying for some time and wished that I'd get over it untill she saw me staggering around with blood pooring out of my mouth.
I had a concussion for several hours and only really woke up the next day. I'd pushed my front teeth into my mouth and broken 3. I missed a week of school (yay) and had surgery to pull the teeth in line and then had caps fixed.
Touch wood, I havent had caps replaced for many years.
Aah the memories.

Cool. Thanks for the tips, Doc!

I think I may have been a steri-strip test case when I was 10 - to see how few steri-strips were needed to hold a wound together!

I'd been racing around on my bicycle, and hit a stone with the front wheel whilst leaning around a corner. Needless to say, I landed on my head and arms. After checking my forehead and arms for signs of injury, I got back on my bike and proceeded to ride again, somewhat slower than before, counting my blessings. About 50 yards down the road I wiped some sweat from my thigh (hot day), only to then discover my hand was covered in blood.

At that point I looked down, and nearly fell off again. It hadn't hurt before, but the sight of a 3 inch long, half-inch wide, deep gash in my thigh awoke my nerves nicely. I had obviously caught my leg on some part of the bike when flying over the handlebars.

Of course, this all happened when my dad had our only car up on axle stands for some serious brake work!

After borrowing a neighbour's car, we went to the hospital, where unbelievably, they used only two steri-strips crossed over in an X to hold the wound, and then bound it. We had been expecting stitches.

Needless to say, a few hours later blood was seeping through the bandage wrap. So, we asked of our close neighbours (who was a nurse) to check it. She was gobsmacked that they'd only put 2 steri-strips on the wound, and did her best to reclose it with many more. But by that time it was too late - the gash had started to heal too much in the 'open' position, and only an inch or so of one end healed 'closed'

So I know carry a scar nearly 4 inches long on my thigh, the majority of which is nearly half an inch wide.

When I cut my head open in France (snowboarding) earlier in the year

Ouch. Out of curiosity, did you have a helmet on at the time? My friend who goes snowboarding swears by them now, even without a major injury. Ironicially, the first time he used his, he had what he called "an ass over teakettle" accident. I was skiing behind him, and he literially did a cartwheel with his head. He was stuned from it, but no major injury thanks to the helmet.

Aah yes. The human pinwheel maneuver. Gotta love that 'diving into the shallow end of the pool' feeling. The stars, the bright lights, the ears suddenly ringing. It brings back so many fond skiing memories.

-Zeke

did you have a helmet on at the time?

No. I'll be getting one (and some body armour) before I go out next -- I also bruised a rib earlier in the day. Pulling wheelies in powder's only good as long as the powder doesn't run out .

he literially did a cartwheel with his head

Sounds kinda similar. I came out of some powder, hit some ice, caught an edge, and landed full length, face first, in another pile of powder. Somehow, my board came over my back and I kicked myself in the back of the head. I'd had the edges sharpened the day before, too.

The stars, the bright lights

Sky, snow, sky, snow, sky, snow... .

Oh, we've got at least one. Just don't have official recognition...

pca

Most of my scars are on my hands and arms. The perils of engineering, I guess.

The nail that went completely through my right foot when I was eight didn't leave a scar, but the glass tubing that shattered as I was pushing it through a rubber bung and slit my right index finger in a neat spiral from the end to the second knuckle did. I was about 10, and hadn't thought to put a little soap on the glass and wear gloves. It was pretty ugly, with a bit of bone sticking out the end of my finger.

The simulator that dropped on my arm when there was a hydraulics failure and gouged out maybe 2cc of flesh left a lovely scar, and I was pulling little bits of steel shavings out of it for months.

The only bike accident I can recall from my childhood stays in my mind because of the small bit of gravel still embedded in one knuckle, thirty years later. No scar, though. I heal fast, having had lots of practice

pca

Heh. First time I wore a helmet snowboarding coincided with my first trip to Mammoth this year. I did one of those A over T things, as well, followed by rapid sliding headfirst down the hill to stop two inches from a giant boulder. I swear the only reason I didn't hit the boulder is because I had a helmet on, and I'm destined not to get my money's worth from it.

Heh, at least you stopped. My worst ski accident so far has been a wipeout on a mogu. The crash left me so dazed, I didn't realise I was actually still upright on the skis but crouched down until a few moments later. I finally came to and saw the trees at the bottom of the run quickly approaching, so I leaned a quick as I could to fall into the snow properly.

The most bizare incident was when my left boot shattered. This occured when I was at the top of a mountain with blue and black runs being the only way down. Wasn't fun with only 20% control of one of the skis.

I'll probably try snowboarding next season. This recent one was horrible from the lack of snow here in Colorado (except for the blizzard last week), so I didn't have any decent snow time to learn.