Pigmentation
If you suffer from Hyperpigmentation you know how genuinely frustrating it is to try to conceal, lighten or erase the spots and brown patches on your skin.
It’s embarrassing, unsightly and just plain annoying!
Well, now you can do something about it. No more laying awake at night worrying about how to cover up your spots on your skin. With visiblechanges take home solutions and in-salon treatments, you can quickly and easily start to see the signs of improvement.
Simply call one of our two convenitently located salons and ask to speak to one of our trained professionals about how we can help you eliminate pigmentation, once and for all.
Read on to find out more about pigmentation, the causes and the preferred treatments.
Hyperpigmentation is essentially a case of your pigment-producing cells being pushed into overdrive by either external factors (typically sun exposure) or internal factors such as hormonal shifts caused by pregnancy, birth control pills, medication or menopause. Any form of hyperpigmentation will be worsened – sometimes significantly – by sun exposure
Hyperpigmentation may be referred to by a number of names, including brown spots, melasma, age spots, “liver spots”, sun spots, sun freckles, pregnancy mask. Whether diffuse, as in melasma, or in single concentrated areas such as those in a freckle, hyperpigmentation is more often controlled than eliminated and in some cases the best response will be blending and lightening.
Melanin – The Good and Bad of your natural pigment
Skin gets it’s colour, whether light or dark, from melanin. Our skin has a different colour in different areas. There are more melanocytes in darker areas like the neck as compared to lighter areas eg; the face. However the concentration of approximately 1000 to 2000 melanocytes per cubic millimetre is the same for all race groups. So, it does not matter if you are a black skinned person or a pale redhead. You will still have about the same number of melanocytes!
Sun exposure, heat, injury or hormonal changes can all trigger increased Melanin production. It is the abnormal increase that causes irregular colour on the skin. Melanin rises to the surface of the skin in response to these triggers but is not seen right away as the cells are produced deeper in the skin and then rise slowly to the surface. This is why you may not see the brown spots until days, weeks, or even months after the cause.
Melanin is a skin protector and is the body’s attempt to stop cell damage from sun or heat. The “tan” that sun worshippers seek is actually the body’s reaction to cell damage. With repeated insult, skin that evenly tans will begin to take on a mottled appearance and then begin showing concentrated dark spots.
The most effective solutions to existing brown spots and unevenly-colored skin will be one of or a combination of Elos Skin Rejuvenation AdvancedCosMedix & Environ Peels – Over-all skin regeneration by chemically causing a peeling of your damaged skin
The 3 Major Causes of Hyper Pigmentation and Brown Spots
- Sun-Induced Hyperpigmentation One of the primary functions of Melanin production in your skin is to protect you from UV rays from the sun. A “tan” is the prime example of your body’s Melanin response to the sun.When the skin is assaulted by repeated exposure to the sun, you experience sun damage in a variety of ways and one of those is brown spots and hyper-pigmentation resulting from an over-production of Melanin. Once the cycle of pigment over-production has started, it is difficult to stop it and usually medical intervention is required.
- Hormonal Hyperpigmentation (Melasma or Chloasma) caused by hormone changes The second most frequent cause of hyper-pigmentation is hormone changes. This may be a result of birth control pills, pregnancy or the various stages of menopause. Hormone shifts trigger the melanin cells to go into over-drive. This can happen even if you are not a sun worshipper. Sun exposure will always make it worse.
- Post-Inflammatory Hyperpigmentation caused by injury
The third most common cause of pigmentation is a direct result of some type of injury to the skin.
Typical pigmentation-causing injuries include:
- Improperly performed laser treatments
- Improperly performed laser treatmentsAcne or acne cysts
- Over-exposure to heat
- Hair waxing
- Insect bites or itchy rashes
- Abrasions or cuts
How Skin Injury Causes HyperPigmentation
Inflammation is your body’s response to injury. Often inflammation is not obvious because it is occurring at a deep level. This inflammation triggers melanin production and the result is a concentration of pigment in the affected area.
The Best Way to Prevent Hyperpigmentation
Taking care of your skin by controlling sun exposure is key.
Sun exposure is the primary cause of facial and body brown spots, age spots, freckles, moles and pre-cancerous actinic keratosis. Preventing sun-induced hyperpigmentation is a full time process. Hormones, injury and pigmentation from allergic reactions or skin disease such as acne are mostly beyond your control.
Sunscreen, Sunblock, hats and sun-protective clothing are your first line guard against not only unsightly brown patches but also sun damage that could lead to skin cancer.
Visible Changes Solution
Elos Skin Rejuvenation Advanced is a procedure that improves skin appearance by reducing sun damage, age spots, redness, aging skin and many other similar skin conditions. Elos Skin Rejuvenation will improve the visible appearance of the skin without any down time, making it a popular skin care treatment option.
Elos Skin Rejuvenation Advanced treatments consist of pulses of light energy that penetrate the skin where pigmentation or abnormal vessels are and help to break up the sun-damaged pigmentation and to close dilated blood vessels. elos Skin Rejuvenation treatments help to remove or reduce the redness and flushing from sun exposure, Rosacea and aging on the face, neck and hands, which within minutes can remove years of sun damaged skin. For maximum end results it is recommended you do a series of at least 4 Elos Skin Rejuvenation treatments.
Elos Skin Rejuvenation is the ideal treatment for clients that don’t want any downtime for healing, while at the same time getting the effect of softer and smoother young looking skin. Elos Skin Rejuvenation treatments are non invasive and will undo the damaging effects of sun exposure, aging as well as the redness of Rosacea to help keep your skin looking healthy and young longer.
Contact our friendly staff on (08) 8233 7633 Adelaide or (08) 8235 0401 today to make an appointment.