A keloid is an overgrowth of fibrous tissue that usually happens after an injury to the skin has healed. People often mix up a hypertrophic scar with a keloid.

Keloid is passed down by the autosomal dominant trait. Keloids happen most often in Africans and Indians between the ages of 10 and 30. In the early stages of growth, keloids are red and painful, itch, and burn. Most of them are oval or long and have regular edges, but some look like claws and have uneven edges. Most often, it happens on the shoulder, chest, and earlobes. Most keloids grow slowly over weeks or months, and they grow beyond the place where the injury happened. Once they stop growing, they stay the same size or shrink a little bit.