There are many benefits to being blessed with darker skin, as it tends to age more slowly than paler skin and is less susceptible to damage from the sun. It does, however, present some problems particular to black skin that can cause problems.
When damage to the skin occurs, any change to pigmentation can be very noticeable. The damage can be to very small areas of skin or to large, but when the cells that produce the pigment melanin are damaged they can produce too much pigmentation, causing the skin to become darker.
Shaving cuts, acne, ingrowing hairs, grazes and scratches can all cause these unsightly marks to appear. Any injury that results in inflammation is also likely to result in a darkening of the skin, and so inflammation should be controlled or avoided as much as possible.
If the damage has occurred within the superficial layers of skin, the resulting mark will tend to be a darker brown, while injury to a deeper layer of skin will often produce a grey/blue hue. Pigmentation treatment can provide an improved appearance to both of these types of hyperpigmented mark and is advisable in the case of visible marks as they will only intensify in colour with age and sun exposure.
