Postpartum Dark Spots

Happy Take-Care Tuesday! Can anyone relate to postpartum dark spots and skin changes due to hormones? <Raises hand> Honestly, my skin struggles began prior to pregnancy. See my post about adult acne.

Skin may be the first thing you notice about someone when you meet – smooth, nice, clear, red, varying in tone. If you’re like me, you want to put your best foot forward at all times. Moreover, skin and health issues make me feel out of control. So, if possible, I take every action within my power to stay healthy.

This post is specifically from my experience. While skin care suggestions are at every corner of the web, I’ve probably tried them all. These are ones that I found work for my skin.

What’s my Skin Type?

• Extremely pale – my scandinavian ancestry provided me with light eyes, hair and skin – really light skin.
• Sensitive – in my post about adult acne, I shared a brief story about my life change that cultivated my adult acne and the awareness that my skin is sensitive. Factors, such as temperature, climate, laundry detergent, and makeup, heavily affect my overall skin health. Some people are blessed to change these factors like the wind and suffer no skin health impact.
• Durable – if these adverse affects impact my skin, the skin bounces back once I correct the violator. Make sense? For instance, if I travel from a humid to dry climate, my skin may begin to break out. Once its adjusted or I go back to my home climate, my skin bounces back to normal. This makes me believe that my body produces and retains a good amount of collagen.

Six Simple Secrets to Skin Success

Based on my particular skin type, I did a lot of research to find the smartest people and read their books. After I changed my diet tons of times, sampled trending skincare tools, changed product/makeup, quit products/makeup and detoxed with essential oils, my skin taught me the secrets to its success. Post-detox, the following simple tips kept my skin radiant and are pregnancy-safe, breastfeeding-friendly and effective:

If you struggle with any of these topics specifically, please write me. I’ve had to work really hard on my AM/PM routine, hydration and sleep strategies.

My Postpartum Dark Spots

As a new mom, I hardly had the time to maintain my skincare routine. Many days went by with no self-care or skincare at all. After three months when I went back to work, I started to get back into the swing of things. Consequently, I noticed dramatic changes in my skin tone that seemed irreparable. In spite of my TLC and consistency, they were prominent above my lips and on my contour/blush lines of my cheeks. Although I continued to hope the dark spots would disappear, I began the path to research this new milestone skincare issue.

Why Postpartum Dark Spots Happen?

To be more specific, the condition is a hyperpigmentation known as melasma. There are many types of hyperpigmentation, all of which result from heightened melanin levels. At the surface, it looks like brown spots that appear on the surface of the skin. Below the surface, the condition results from hormonal changes to the cellular level. The color-making cells called melanocytes start to product too much color. Melasma can be caused by sun exposure as well.

Treatments I Avoided

After Autumn concluded nursing, I took some more powerful measures without considering topical chemical agents. Why did I avoid these? During my adult acne days, dermatologists recommended various chemical solutions, topically and ingestible. Nothing worked. At each step, I did minor research to understand the source of these chemicals. Finally, the next step was a chemical called Accutane or Isotretinoin. Funny enough, I remember when someone in my childhood used it – their acne was really bad. The Accutane stopped it all dead in its tracks. Then that kid became the stud of the school. Before I could even leave the dermatologist, she mentioned the risk of miscarriage in future pregnancies.

What? No thank you. (No judgement if you tried this.)

So I suffered for a while before I found my effective regimens. Long story short, this made me extremely (maybe overly so) cautious of chemical solutions.

Treatments I Tried

Based on this perception of chemical ingestible solutions, I tried the following treatments for melasma:

1. Gentle Brightening (safe ingredients) peels, serums and creams
2. Microdermabrasion
3. Chemicial peels
4. Retin-A
5. Micro-needling dots (not micro-needling or “vampire facials”; I just couldn’t manage to do this)

After little to no change, the search for solutions began again. While I maintained the strong stance against chemical consumption, options diminished.

Solution for Postpartum Dark Spots

If I’m honest, I was hella nervous to take this concern to the next level. In my mind, I justified the skin issue with positive self-talk, which was very effective.

However, action is more effective. There will come a time when my age is natural and I will resolve that when the day comes. Technology is amazing and ever maturing. I’m the silly one not to explore all the options

Consultation

So, I decided to take a leap and schedule a consultation at a medical spa for light-related treatments. Welp. I loved my Nurse Practitioner, Melissa, so much – we ended up laughing most of the time. It felt like a conversation with a long-term friend. As she sympathized with my challenge of postpartum dark spots, I was convinced – whatever she suggests, I’m going to try! That’s what we did.

Intense Pulsed Light (IPL)

She emphasized the power of a treatment called Intense Pulsed Light (IPL), also known as a photofacial. The optimism and trust levels were sky-high as Melissa explained the following potential benefits from IPL:

• Dyspigmentation and vascular changes
• Rosacea
• Sebaceous Gland Hyperplasia
• Broken Capillaries/telangiectasia
• Vascular lesions
• Pigmented lesions, such as freckles, liver spots, birthmarks
• Dry eye conditions such as meibomian gland dysfunction

First Treatment

Before I knew it, we were applying numbing cream and she was warming up the machine. The whole process took less than an hour, including the consultation. It surprised me that I felt the numbing cream take effect almost immediately. Once the skin is numb, the cream is removed.

The next step was to add the ultrasound gel which helps the machine smoothly roll over my skin and adds a protective barrier for the light machine. Now for the magic!

From the outside looking in, the treatment looks like the flash of a camera taking 100 little pictures. Pain? Nope! It was somewhat like a brief heat but not a burning feeling. Some have said it feels like a little rubber band snapping on your skin, but I didn’t think it was that bad.

Side note: this works for birth marks; does not work on stretch marks.

Instant Impact

When we finished the treatment, I had zero pain but my face was bright red. My postpartum dark spots were darker immediately! My skin felt a lot tighter within minutes and continued to tighten for days.

It started as red spots and within two hours they were dark brown. Over the next 24 hours, my skin started to swell and tighten extremely.

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Never had a facial with more notable results.

Overall, the process creates a “controlled injury” as the light gently penetrates to the deep layers of the skin with minimal damage to the top level skin. This light treatment stimulates extremely deep health in the dermis and epidermis through increased collagen and elastin fibre production. Basically to have effective treatment, you need to go past the epidermis.

What to Expect

• You can wear makeup immediately after treatment
• Most sensitive spot was the forehead because there is the least skin covering the bone; personally, I didn’t find it painful
• For at least 5-8 days:
  • No sun exposure
  • Lots of skin protection at all times (even driving in a car)
  • Expect extreme swelling and redness for 5+ days; so don’t plan big events
  • No salicylic or glycolic acid products
  • No exfoliation
  • Personally, I highly recommend Doctor Rogers Restore Healing Balm all over your face at night.
• On a serious note, if you don’t avoid the sun/products, you could have adverse effects worse than what you started with

Find the Right Office

Your comfort and trust with the person doing the work is extremely important. If you live in South Florida, I strongly recommend seeing Melissa at NuWays. They will give you a lovely discount if you mention my blog post. They offer a ton of amazing services as well. Today is the last day to enter a giveaway for free laser hair removal!

References:

• https://www.tripsavvy.com/ipl-photofacial-faqs-2392181
• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4745852/