The three steps to curing discoloration.
It doesn't matter where on your body the skin discoloration is - face, neck, arms, legs etc. the proceedure for removing the hyperpigmentation is the same..
- Very gently remove the already pigmented surface skin with some kind of exfoliator - microdermabrasion, skin peel or laser.
- Stop your pigment cells from producing excessive pigment with skin lighteners.
- Protect your skin from UV radiation during and after treatment with a broad spectrum sun block.
- Then don't go out in the sun anyway.
Treating hyperpigmentation and discoloration can be a long process.
You have to be scrupulous about applying your peels, your lighteners and your sunblock. Especially your sunblock! Half an hour in sunshine without a sunblock can undo months of treatment! The first thing you must do is buy a good, broad-spectrum sunscreen the highest factor you can find, and use it! Even in winter, even if its cloudy, even if its snowing.
Sun exposure or any UV exposure at all will reverse the results of skin discoloration treatment. Freckles, age spots, and other darkened skin patches can become worse when your skin is exposed to the sun! This is because melanin is there to absorb the energy of the sun's dangerous ultraviolet radiation and protect your tissues from it. A sun tan is always the result of skin damage. Any sun exposure will damage your skin. You might want to take supplements or allow a small amount of sun to reach non-problematic areas of your body for 30 minutes a week though - just ordinary daylight, perhaps on your feet or ankles so you do not get a vitamin D deficiency.
Next you need an retinoid type of skin treatment such as Retinol, Retin A or Rose hip seed oil - or perhaps a
peel.
Then you apply hydroquinone cream or one of the other skin lighteners.
Sasha recommends..
For the fastest, most effective hyperpigmentation treatment, I'd use rose hip seed oil followed by a sun block in the morning, and hydroqinone cream at night.
There are now some very effective laser treatments. The q-switched ruby and other 'pigmented lesion lasers' often remove pigment without scarring. A test spot in an inconspicuous place is usually done first.
