Sun damage and other Hyperpigmentation causes and treatment vary depending on genetics, hormonal issues, sun exposure, even medication that you might be taking. Read on to learn more about the various causes and types of hyperpigmentation, and at-home and in-spa treatments to save your skin from dark patches.
Let’s talk about pigment in the skin, more specifically what we call hyperpigmentation. This means excess overstimulation of pigmentation (brown discolouring ) in the skin.
Pigmentation is actually in our skin for a reason, and that is to shield and protect us like an umbrella from the damage of external factors such as the sun. The body is such an amazing healing and protective mechanism, it will increase an enzyme activity within the skin in an attempt to create an umbrella effect to protect the DNA of our skin cells when they are exposed to UV.
Generally there are four types of pigmentation that most clients come to us and are concerned with. Your hyperpigmentation you are concerned about generally falls into either Melasma (also known as Chloasma on pregnancies) , freckles, lentigos or Post inflammatory pigmentation (PIP).
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1- Melasma and Chloasma
Melasma and Chloasma appear like an ununiformed tea stain on your skin and is normally about two shades darker than your natural skin colour. It appears as a butterfly mask on your skin. Generally under your eye and cheek area is most common during pregnancy and a shadow on the top lip area is common from the pill.
Melasma is generally caused by hormonal changes during pregnancy, puberty, the Contraceptive pill, HRT and other strong steroids or arthritis medications, thyroid medications and even menopause. Internal inflammation is the key factor here hence, addressing the internal is an imperative part of our treatment plan to reducing that pigmentation.
To treat this at home we suggest:
- Address the cause. This may mean a visit to your local doctor to discuss your contraceptive pill and medication alternatives.
- SPF needs to be your best friend and the last thing on your skin every day even if you are indoors outdoors winter or summer. This is to protect your skin from being even further stimulated by external inflammation such as the sun. At the Temple Skincare & Spa we have five beautiful sunscreens that are light on your skin and will not clog your pores. They are all moisturisers and sunscreens all in one so we recommend to use a great quality serum underneath it and then this alone is enough for you during the day. We have Matt, tinted and hydrating formulas to suit all preferences.
- Professional strength skincare products is recommended. It is vital that you use a professional strength tyrosinase inhibitor along with 1% retinol palmitate (Vitamin A). Tyrosine, is an enzyme within the body that increases the production of melanin. What that means in English, is it controls the amount of excess brown colour your skin produces. Therefore we need to inhibit that enzyme if we want to break down the excess pigmentation. Retinol is imperative to normalise self function and renew healthy skin cells. At the Temple Skincare & Spa we prefer to recommend the Image Iluma Brightening Serum as your tyrosinase inhibitor , and we have three different Image Skincare Retinol blends to prescribe that all have 1% retinol palmitate. If your melasma is persistent and has been there for quite some time however, we would generally suggest the Mesoesthetic Cosmelan2 cream instead of these two above, as it is a powerful blend of inhibitors and peeling ingredients that is guaranteed to brighten and lighten the pigmented skin.
- We would treat Melasma in the spa with our 12 week to pigmenting program as we find that offers the very best results we have ever seen in the market
2- Freckles
Freckles are prevalent in the skin of those we generally have less melanin already. Freckles can be genetic or they can be induced by sun exposure. Generally wearing sunscreen will fade them, they are not normally a damaged DNA of the skin cell so can be quite easily reversed if they are not genetic.
To determine if your freckles are genetic, think back to photos of when you were a toddler, did you have freckles then before your beautiful face was exposed to the sun? Simply staying out of the sun and protecting against sun exposure (and thereby, sun damage) will dramatically reduce the freckles visible on your skin. However if they are persistent and you would like to accelerate the process then this is what we would suggest for home-care.
To treat this at home we suggest:
- Professional strength to tyrosinase inhibitors are imperative to calm down the melanin producing cells. Vitamin C is an amazing tyrosinase inhibitor and at Temple we love the Germaine vitamin C ampoules for home-care if you’re after brightening and hydrating. We also recommend the image skincare Iluma Intense Facial Illuminator Serum as a powerful to Tyrosinase inhibitor as it also has a blend of alpha hydroxy acids to help to exfoliate the pigmented cells off At the same time as it calms down the production of access melanin.
- Retinol. As we mentioned above when discussing Melasma, we also recommend 1% retinol palmitate (Vitamin A) to repair and renew the skin cells. Image skincare has three blends we love.
- Glycolic Acid. This type of skin also needs glycolic acid to exfoliate gently off the pigmented skin cells in the top of the epidermis. You can add this ingredient in a form of a cleanser or a serum from the Ageless Range in image skincare. If you are using the image skincare Iluma Exfoliating Serum however, this already has your acid in the blend.
- Sunscreen, sunscreen, sunscreen! You cannot expect to reduce freckles if you are not protecting against the damaging UV rays. Check out our sunscreen collection here.
- To treat freckles in the spa we would generally use our IPL laser machine for the fastest results however we can also use a combination of LED light therapy and peels to reduce the freckles.
3- Lentigos
Lentigos are the correct name for what is commonly called age spots or liver spots. Despite the common used name, they have nothing to do with your age or your liver. These are the small defined round marks of pigmentation on your skin that are a result of sun damage. This is where your skin has been exposed to excessive UV rays and the DNA of the skin cell has been damaged. When the skin battles and aggressor such as the sun, at night time your cells will try and repair the damage, however sometimes the damage is too much and the DNA has been permanently damaged. You cannot completely turn that back or repair that DNA at that point.
To treat this at home we suggest:
The treatment at home for lentigos is exactly the same as what we have prescribed above for freckles. The treatment for this in our spa would generally be incorporating the use of our Q switch laser which will shatter The buildup of Melanin for the body to breakdown. You normally would need 1 to 3 treatments on the spot.
4- Post Inflammatory Pigmentation
Or as we call it as therapists, PIP, is exactly what it sounds like. It is where the skin has protected itself from a trauma or inflammation and then afterwards you are left with pigmentation in the cells. This is very common in European, Asian and Indian skins as the Melanocytes, which are the pigment producing organs, are more active and excited than an Anglo fairer skin. It is very common to experience PIP after a break out where there has been lots of infection and inflammation present under the skin; or where there has been a cut, burn or wound on the skin, Or even as a result of too much heat, trauma or stimulation from the wrong types of treatments by in-experienced beauty therapists on these types of skins (obviously never from Temple )
To treat this at home we suggest:
This type of pigmentation has to be treated very carefully by an experienced therapist that understands skin and the way that it operates. It needs to be treated slowly and carefully not to add further trauma to the skin.
In regards to your home care, we would suggest the same as what we have suggested above for Lentigo spots and freckles, or even just a top shelf sunscreen and the Mesoethetic Cosmelan2 product we mentioned when talking about Melasma.
At the Temple Skincare & Spa we would treat this type of pigmentation slowly with either the Depigmenting Program if the pigmentation was old enough and the skin was resilient enough to cope, otherwise if the trauma was quite recent, we would prefer to treat with a course of LED light therapy and gentle peels to renew the skin cells and strengthen the integrity of the skin while calming down those pigment producing cells. It is imperative to be in the hands of an expert in this case.
I hope you have enjoyed becoming skin experts and now have the information you need to get the results you deserve with your hyperpigmentation.