While most Indians wouldn’t know the term ‘hyperpigmentation’, they are all too familiar with the effect of it. You might hear them complaining about it all the time on how suddenly they are getting dark, how their face shade doesn’t match the shade of their neck, how the back of their hands is so dark. On other words, they are all complaining about occurrence of hyperpigmentation on various parts of their body.

What is Hyperpigmentation?

In order to understand what hyperpigmentation is, we need to understand what melanin is. Melanin is a pigment which is present in the skin. The amount at which it is present gives us our skin shade. While Americans and Europeans have low amount of melanin, people origination from the continent of Africa has high amount of it. Melanin has a lot of benefits. It protects our skin from UV rays of the sun, thus preventing skin cancer. Albinism is a condition where the person affected does not have melanin present in their skin, hair and eye.

Now coming to hyperpigmentation, it is a phenomenon where a certain of your body produces too much of melanin as compared to its surrounding parts. It tends to affect people of every skin type.

What Are The Different Types Of Hyperpigmentation?

While there are several types of hyperpigmentation, the best skin clinic in Kolkata will discuss three main types:

  • Melasma: This type of hyperpigmentation is caused due to hormonal changes during pregnancy. While it mostly tend to appear in the face and stomach, it can appear in any part of the body

  • Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation: This type of hyperpigmentation occurs due to any sort of skin injury. You might have this hyperpigmentation after an accident or burn. It will appear in the affected area.

  • Sunspot- Another common type of hyperpigmentation, this one occurs if your skin is exposed to the sun too much. It will appear to the areas most exposed to the sunlight.

What causes Hyperpigmentation?

Now, let’s see what causes hyperpigmentation. While we have mentioned the common causes of few types of hyperpigmentation, let’s discuss more it in details.

  • Sun: When it comes to skin darkening, the sun is your biggest enemy. Too much exposure to sunlight will cause overproduction of melanin. According to the best skin doctor in Kolkata, this is the body’s way of trying to protect itself from the sun.

  • Skin Trauma: As stated earlier, all kind of injuries, burns, pimples, acne might lead to hyperpigmentation of that spot. This is why your face will be filled with dark spots after acne breakout or popping of pimple.

  • Hormone: Imbalance of hormone can also lead to the occurrence of dark spots.

  • Medicinal Drugs: Hyperpigmentation might also be the result of consumption of some drugs such as antimalarial drugs, few antidepressants, cytotoxic drugs, etc.

Well, at least now you know why your skin gets dark at certain places at various times. But, if it goes out of control, take appointment if a top skin specialist in Kolkata.