Pigmentation refers to the colouration of your skin, hair and eyes. Our epidermis has specialised cells called melanocytes, which act as little factories producing melanin. We have two types of melanin in our skins: eumelanin, which is a brown/black pigment of your skin, h and Pheomelanin, which is a yellowish-red pigment. Variations of skin colour depend on the amount and functioning of your melanocytes/pigment factories.

We get two different types of pigmentation umbrellas.

1. Hyperpigmentation refers to areas that are darker than the natural skin colour. There is an increase in melanin production.
2. Hypopigmentation occurs when melanin production is reduced, so the areas appear lighter than the natural skin colour.

Let’s look at some common causes of hyperpigmentation:

1. Sun exposure – in our very sunny Namibia, we all need extra care when exposed to sunlight. When your skin is exposed to UV rays from the sun, it tries to protect the DNA of your skin cells by tanning/going darker so that the UV rays do not “kill off” our healthy cells. Tanning is the skin’s natural emergency response action toward a treat. Many people don’t know that only once DNA damagesend signals to the melanocytes to produce more melanin to protect the DNA; thus occurs does it , a tan is a scar.
2. Hormonal Fluctuations – Competing for first place are hormones always…. many women experience the butterfly pigmentation/melasma on their faces when pregnant; some fade a few months after giving birth, and others may struggle for years after to get rid of this. So, what happens? The hormone estrogen interferes with how the melanocytes make melanin. That is why it is so common for pregnant women and women taking birth control to see pigmentation spots on the cheeks, forehead, or upper lip. Take extra precautions when on any hormone therapy.
3. Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation – Those pesky little marks left on your skin after a post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation pimple. Or the mark left after an injury, usually not permanent and not as hard to treat as hormonal hyperpigmentation, but can still be a pain. Again, when the skin is inflamed, like with an injury or acne, it undergoes a cascade of events to stop the inflammation and the rebuilding of the skin, causing this pigmentation. Oh, and don’t we all love to pick and scratch…don’t! it makes it worse. When skin is still recovering from injury, extra care must be taken regarding sun exposure as the skin is more sensitive to UV radiation.
4. Medication—Certain medications, like antibiotics, may make our skin more sensitive to UV radiation, increasing the risk of hyperpigmentation.
5. Topical applications – Perfumes are a big contributor to hyperpigmentation on the skin again the perfumes used in your favourite au de toilet cause the skin to go into fight mode as it compromises the skin’s barrier, skin becomes inflamed and is left vulnerable to UV exposure. Rather, spray your perfumes on your clothes and unexposed areas. When using products high in acids and retinoids, follow the instructions and cover your skin with a good SPF, not sure what a good SPF is, have a read on our previous article on SPFs.

Common causes of hypopigmentation:

Hypo pigmentation can be caused by auto-immune conditions like vitiligo or areas where the skin experienced trauma thus trauma to the melanocytes as well, thus it can’t produce any melanin. Some fungal and bacterial infections and exposure to chemicals may also affect the melanocytes, their ability to produce melanin and genetics like albinism.

In our next segment, we will examine what you can do to treat disorders and pigmentation to prevent them.

Till next time.