What You Can Do for Your Melasma this Winter

There’s a silver lining to treating melasma, and it’s the Minnesota winters. Whether you are new to melasma or have been dealing with it for years, here is what you can start doing today in your home-care, lifestyle, and in the treatment room. 

At Skin MPLS we are no strangers to working with melasma. It’s most often caused by hormones, but also by sun and heat exposure. Melasma is different from typical sun damage spots (hyperpigmentation) because it flares when exposed to sun, heat or hormonal changes, where sunspots are just constant. It is most often found around the eyebrows and upper lip or it can appear more globally as a mask. 

Home care for melasma can take an army of products. In addition to melanin-loving ingredients, that we highlighted in a previous post, the winter is a great time to incorporate hydroquinone in the form of Vivant’s Bleaching Cream or Bleaching Serum Forte. Hydroquinone is a powerful ingredient to even skin tone. Used in short doses with the help of a professional, it can be safe and incredibly effective for stubborn melasma. That, combined with diligent use of a high SPF, will fade melasma. 

It’s common for melasma to be more noticeable and flare up in the summer, especially in its early stages. Even with regular SPF usage, most people’s melasma will still darken in the summers. This is why it’s important to stay out of the sun as much as possible and protect your skin by wearing hats and sunglasses. We like to try to keep the melasma at bay as much as possible in the summers with these measures as well as by using ingredients like mandelic acid and vitamin A. However, we’ll take most advantage of treating melasma when it’s at its lightest, which are the winter months. So, along with your active ingredients (mandelic acid, vitamins A and C, and hydroquinone), give your skin lots of nourishment and hydration. That way when warmer months come back around, your barrier is at its strongest and those melanin cells don’t have to work as hard to defend you in the summer.

As far as professional melasma treatments go, take advantage of deeper chemical peels while UV rays are lowest. If you are new to peels, start with a 30-minute Focused Facial Treatment to talk about how to acclimate your skin. If you already use effective home-care and see us for treatments, let’s bump up to Vivant’s ProPeel Treatment. It’s a multi-layer peel that works deep into the skin and brings amazing results by lifting out the hyperpigmentation. It requires about five days of downtime to peel, but the new work-from-home culture makes that more convenient.

Just like acne and aging, there’s no cure for melasma and everyone’s journey with it is unique. It takes persistence to treat, so work with a passionate skincare expert to customize a goal-oriented plan so that you can take charge of it. Don’t wait until summer conditions have you discouraged, instead take advantage of one of the few upsides to colder weather and start today.