Freckles

Every girl wishes to flaunt a smooth and even skin complexion. Unfortunately, girls with freckles are not blessed to wear a blemish-free skin. Worst, these girls have to endure public ridicule and struggle against low self-esteem. Although many skin care companies have introduced vast solutions in removing freckles, getting to know the skin condition more would be the best remedy to love the skin you’re born with.

Freckles are small tan or brown flat spots often seen with fair-complexioned people. It is usually genetically acquired where a gene variant called melanocortin-1 receptor strongly runs in the family. It also appears in red, yellow, or black color looking darker than the skin around them. The small but sometimes overlapping spots predominantly and randomly appear on the face, shoulders, and chest as well as on other skin parts often exposed to the sun.

The sun is the major culprit in making one to develop freckles on the skin or even worsen it especially during excessive exposure to the sun or sun tanning. Melanocytes in the skin are activated to produce darker and even more freckle spots when rays of the sun penetrate the skin. In fact, dermatologists contend that freckles are not a skin disorder or symptoms of a health problem saying that freckling is only a result of uneven melanin pigment distribution. In short, a freckle is just a heavy deposit of melanin in one spot of the skin.

Types Of Freckles

Although freckles pose no health risk, how it looks remains a concern for it could be confused for a more serious skin condition. That is why it is important to get to know better the type of freckle on your skin. There are two types of skin freckles—Ephelis and Lentigo. Ephelis-type freckle refers to the flat light brown or red spot typically appearing during sunny days and fade during winter. Lentigo-type freckle, on the other hand, is the small but darker spot of brown, tan or black color often developed by children and does not fade during winter. Be more careful with your skin if you have the lentigo-type freckle especially when it is dominant on the face where malignant freckles, which often lead to skin cancer, are often detected. It is better to immediately consult a dermatologist in this case.

Treatment And Prevention

Freckle removal treatments are now widely available in the market. Most popular of these are cream and laser treatments. Bleaching creams and tretinoin are among the most common and more accessible cream treatment for freckles. Bleaching creams, which contain hydroquinone and kojic acid, can easily be purchased over the counter or without prescription. If consistently applied for a long period or more than a month, the cream could help lighten freckles to even with your skin. Tretinoin, on the other hand, contains vitamin A acid that could give the same effects with bleaching creams. Moreover, laser treatment especially those that emits green light although more expensive than applying creams can also lighten and eliminate freckles safely and more effectively. It also ensures low risk of scarring.

People with freckles are advised to wear at least a 15 SPF sun block cream or lotion, not just to avoid further developing small tan blemishes but ultimately to protect themselves from harmful rays of the sun that could cause skin cancer. Freckles on the skin are also one of the signs of low melanin production in the body that protects the skin from sun damage caused by ultraviolet rays from the sun.

Freckles are every girl’s skin problem. You can either hide, flaunt, or get rid of it. Doing which way, however, needs ample knowledge on how to properly deal with it.