THE #1 WAY TO PREVENT BROWN SPOTS ON YOUR FACE
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT "BROWN SPOTS"
Age spots, liver spots, birthday spots — whatever you call them, NO one wants them. Here’s what you need to know, including the best way to avoid them (and what to do if they’re already there!).
Few people escape the dreaded arrival of dark patches on your skin as you get older. The timing is different for everyone but when they start appearing it can really take a toll on your confidence.
These spots are an unkind reminder that our skin is aging right along with us. (Like we don’t have enough beauty challenges at this stage of life!)
WHAT ARE THOSE SPOTS ANYWAY?
Most of the spots we notice on our skin are hyperpigmentation — literally, excess pigment. Our skin deposits this extra pigment, or melanin, in areas that have been exposed to the most ultraviolet radiation (UV rays) over time.
For most of us, that’s our face and hands. It is also common for them to occur on your shoulders, tops of thighs and chest.
The good news is that the darker patches of skin due to melanin deposits are, themselves, (usually) harmless. They might, however, cause serious injury to your ego.
The bad news is that the discoloration you see today has been decades in the making. So, if you care about your skin health and beauty, prevention is crucial.
Occasionally, the sun can cause white spots, too. They’re more common on arms and legs but can appear anywhere. These might show up as an absence of color and can be similar in size/shape to the more common age spots or larger. The cause is the same — overexposure to UV rays has damaged the underlying dermis and caused discoloration.
HYPERPIGMENTATION HAPPENS, NOW WHAT?
If you’re in your 40s, 50s, or 60s, your *exposure* to the era of tanning puts you at a disadvantage to preventing brown spots.
Tanning Culture was everywhere in the 1970s and 1980s. Even redheads and the ultra-fair felt pressured to pursue what was pitched as a “healthy glow.” (Spoiler: There’s no such thing as a healthy tan. [Link to blog post BAD NEWS…] If you sunbathe in your teens and 20s, expect skin discoloration to be part of your skin reality.
It is not possible to undo that past exposure, but it is never too late to prevent future sun damage.
Whatever your age, you’re in peak prevention years NOW.
Because our skin is *mostly* a renewable resource, the best thing you can do for your future skin health and beauty is limit overexposure to UV rays.
PREVENT NEW DAMAGE
Americans, in particular, can learn a lot about limiting UV exposure from the Australians. At about the same time we were slathering ourselves with baby oil and hitting tanning bends with Playboy bunny stickers to show our “progress,” the Australian government invested heavily in education and marketing to safeguard their population from the ozone hole that was putting their people at risk.
With most of Australia living in temperate climates and near the ocean, you can bet that hiding indoors was not realistic. So, they took another approach with the “Slip-Slap-Slop” campaign. It might not have been elegantly worded, but it was effective. Seniors, parents, and school age children knew their duty to their future selves included slipping on a shirt, slapping on a hat, and slopping on sunscreen.
This advice is still sound today, with an important addition of avoiding peak UV hours and finding shade when exposure exceeds your UV limit.
Understanding your UV limit and taking effective actions to reduce your sun exposure is precisely why BURŪV was created.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU ALREADY HAVE BROWN (OR WHITE) SPOTS
Spots happen. Don’t beat yourself up over the sins of your youth. They are just one of the many signs of sun damage on our skin. The beauty industry loves to talk about “dullness” and “fine lines.” Those are among the first signs of UV damage to skin and can start showing up in our 20s and 30s.
If sun damaged-skin is affecting your confidence, there are things you can do to reduce its severity over time.
#1 Stop Tanning on Purpose - Continued UV exposure can darken these spots. Using sunless tanning lotion on these spots will do the same. The skin where these spots appear is thicker and rougher. It will hold onto more of the pigment in those tanning lotions.
#2 Start Retinoids - If you already have a relationship with a dermatologist, she’s probably recommended a retinoid for improved skin appearance. Retinoids (Retin-A, Tretinoin, etc.) are concentrated Vitamin A that assists your skin’s natural turnover process, revealing younger skin cells more quickly. Retinoids are not spot treatments and should not be applied like “pimple cream.”
For best results, use the pea-size amount recommended by your dermatologist all over your face, hands, and décolletage at night before applying any serum or moisturizer. It is even more important to APPLY SUNSCREEN when using retinoids because the skin is more sensitive to UV exposure.
#3 Consider Therapeutic Treatments - From chemical peels to laser treatment, there are more invasive (and expensive) options for fading the sun damage more quickly after they appear.
THE BOTTOM LINE ON HYPERPIGMENTATION
Our skin is remarkable and resilient. It protects us even when we don’t protect it. Hyperpigmentation, also known as photo damage, from ultraviolet damage (sun exposure) is just one of the ways our skin does this. The discoloration is a sign that we didn’t do enough to prevent the harmful rays of the sun from affecting our skin’s appearance and long-term health.
Take them as the warning sign they are meant to be — not as an indictment of our inevitable aging, but as encouragement to do better now that we know better.
For even more support on preventing future skin discoloration, add the BURŪV band to your skin care routine. SHOP BURŪV.