5 Natural Treatments to Cure Your Dull Skin & Hyperpigmentation

This is a guest post courtesy of Dr. Christopher Pavlou, the Founder, Owner, and practicing medical and aesthetics doctor at Skin Technique in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Hyperpigmentation is a skin condition where you get patches of skin that turn darker than your usual skin color. It usually happens when your skin produces too much melanin, which is a dark brown pigment of color in your skin.

The most common cause for this is when you spend too much time out in the sun without any sunscreen or cover, which causes more melanin to be produced and also absorbs more UV radiation to darken your skin.

Another problem that arises from too much exposure to the sun is causing your skin to become dehydrated and dull.

Thankfully, there are effective and natural treatments that will help cure both dull skin and hyperpigmentation.

Chemical Peels

One of the best natural treatments for hyperpigmentation and dull skin is a chemical peel. They come in varying levels of strength that reach deeper into your skin depending on how serious your skin issues are. It uses a mixture of naturally occurring ingredients and chemicals, mostly acids such as glycolic, salicylic, lactic, or carbolic acid.

The mixture is then applied to your skin, where it eats away and dissolves the surface layer of your skin and all the dead skin cells, dirt, dust, and debris it contains. The results are not immediate, as it will slowly cause the old layer of skin to peel off. The end result is that you expose a new layer of skin cells to the surface of your skin, while the other ingredients in the peel nourish and strengthen your new skin layer.

How does this treat your dull skin or hyperpigmentation?

By removing the dry, dull, old, and discolored skin cells that are on the surface and replacing them with brand new skin cells that do not have those flaws. It might take more than one treatment, though you should not get them too frequently — your new layer of skin will need to recover fully before you can go through the process again.

Aloe Vera

Aloe vera is a plant that is harvested for its very strong and natural medicinal properties, especially for your skin. It is turned into oils, gels, and lotions to treat sunburn, inflammation, irritation, psoriasis, and so on. Thanks to its high concentration of vitamins and minerals, aloe vera moisturizes, nourishes, and protects your skin with anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties.

For dull skin, the vitamins and minerals aloe vera contain help moisturize and nourish your skin to give it back more color and vibrancy.

For hyperpigmentation, aloe vera contains special properties which remove dead skin cells, help new healthy skin cells grow, and reduce the melanin that your skin produces. As the surface skin cells die and get replaced, using aloe vera on your affected skin helps your body naturally replace the old, dark skin cells with new cells that are your normal pigment.

To get the best results, get fresh aloe vera in a gel form and apply it to the patches of your skin affected by hyperpigmentation before you go to sleep. Let it sit on your skin overnight, and wash it off your face in the morning with plain warm water — no soap needed. After a matter of weeks, you will start to see clear results.

Avocado Oil

Avocado oil is made from the natural oils within the avocado fruit and contains a whole lot of great vitamins and chemicals, such as vitamin C and E, fatty acids, oleic acid, enzymes, and more.

Like aloe vera, avocado oil is used in many skincare products and by itself for natural skin care treatments, including those for dull skin and hyperpigmentation.

For dull skin, all of those great ingredients in avocado oil — such as antioxidants and vitamin E — help to restore dry, dull, and aging skin. It also moisturizes and hydrates your skin to help it regain its youthful glow, while also protecting it from things such as sun damage during the day.

For hyperpigmentation, avocado oil contains three key fatty acids as ingredients that help treat your discolored skin: linoleic acid, alpha-linolenic acid, and oleic acid. These work to decrease the amount of melanin in your skin that causes the discolored pigmentation in your skin.

With regular use over time, avocado oil can help reduce the appearance of discoloration.

DermaSweep

DermaSweep is a micro-resurfacing treatment for your skin that, like a chemical peel, removes the top layer of your skin. It also then improves the health and strength of the layer of skin beneath it using natural vitamins, minerals, and chemicals.

It uses a vacuum and special wand with bristle tips to gently lift the surface skin cells and suck them away, removing the dead and dull skin cells along with any skin affected by hyperpigmentation.

After the DermaSweep wand exfoliates your skin, your body generates an increased amount of collagen — a special protein your body produces when it creates new skin cells. This makes your body replace the discolored and dull skin cells with new, bright and normally colored cells.

Your skin then receives an infusion of quality and natural skincare ingredients such as vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, peptides, and so on. This helps further protect your new layer of skin, while also reducing the melanin in your cells.

Microneedling

Similar to DermaSweep, microneedling is a treatment that helps treat dull skin and hyperpigmentation by naturally stimulating your body’s own collagen production. Collagen, being an important protein in your skin cells, is what your body makes when your skin gets cut to heal the wound, and it does so by replacing the skin cells over time.

Microneedling uses microscopic needles to wound your affected skin area at an almost invisible level. These tiny wounds kill your surface skin cells and make your body produce more collagen to replace them with new skin cells to heal the wounded area. The damage that the needles cause is extremely controlled to only the surface skin of the targeted area.

As your body replaces the damaged cells with new ones, it eventually replaces the dull or discolored skin with a new layer that lacks the same issues. When combined with aloe vera or avocado oil, it helps your skin recover its health and without the same dull or discolored pigmentation.

About the Author:

Dr. Christopher Pavlou is medical doctor and board certified in aesthetic medicine. He is the owner and founder of Skin Technique, a medical aesthetic clinic in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia. He has brought his philosophy of Honour Your Beauty to Skin Technique by offering a variety of specialized services including dermal fillers, anti-wrinkle treatments, lasers and cool sculpting. When he isn’t performing naturally rejuvenating treatments and procedures, he loves to share his expertise and knowledge on aesthetic artistry with others who are looking to educate themselves in the evolving field of aesthetic medicine.