Among the many traits that Mama Brown passed on to me, adult acne in one of them. Unlike Mama Brown, I have to also deal with post inflammatory hyperpigmentation or PIH. She gets some PIH but it's nothing compared to mine. Mama Brown's is relatively light and fades much quicker than mine. While I have found several effective (and many more not so effective) treatments, I wasn't about to take this lying down. I need to find out why.
Because Papa Brown blessed me with magnificent multitudes of melanin that's why. Loves ya Pop.
My mother is light skinned (think Tina Knowles) and my father is dark skinned (think Djimon Hounsou... in the dark). I ended up smack dab in the middle as a NC 50.
Without getting all scientifical and stuff... Melanin is what gives the skin color. The more melanin that is produced, the darker the skin. Melanin also protects naturally the skin from sun damage*. When the skin is damaged, it reacts by increasing the melanin production. The amount of melanin that occurs naturally in the skin, (in most cases) determines the amount that is produced after trauma... Darker the skin= darker the scar.
It all comes down to the melanin, man.
PIH is temporary scarring because only the top layers of the skin are affected.Over time the scars will fade. The amount of time it takes depends on how dark the mark is and how quickly the superficial layers of the skin shed. Since genetics determine how dark the scar is, there isn't much you can do about that. But treatments like microdermabrasion, chemical peels and topical creams can speed up the shedding and renewal process that occurs naturally.
So snaps to Papa Brown! While giving me a great since of direction and wickedly thick hair, he also gave me a reason to figure out why I scarred so badly. So indirectly, he gave me a reason to educate myself and others (thanks for reading, all both of ya'll. LOL!) just a little bit more today.
B.B.
*This does NOT mean that we don't need any extra protection. WEAR the sunscreen Beauties!
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4 months ago
