I tweet for the black girls scared to wear shorts in the summer because of their dark knees, who won’t wear a bathing suit because of a dark bikini line, refuse to raise their hand in class because of dark underarms...

These things are very normal and don’t need to be “fixed”

I’m literally an entire esthetician who helps people with their skin for a living, please don’t tell me about hyperpigmentation Some things can be corrected, and some just need to be accepted.

And yes, some things like shaving, ingrown hairs, (maybe deodorant), whatever can exacerbate the appearance. But y’all, we’ve had these things since we were KIDS. It’s how we look and that’s fine!

Your knees, knuckles, and elbows are dark because they’re joints that are continually moving. Your underarms, cleavage, and inner thighs are dark because the skin is constantly rubbing against itself. Your bikini line is dark because of hormones and friction.

100% normal.

Every google result will tell you it’s acanthosis nigricans. Which is a real skin condition, but obviously not EVERY person of color has this. Darkening in certain parts of the body is common and not always a medical condition that needs to be fixed???? Like what

The baking soda + lemon + turmeric + sugar scrubs...full stop. A lot of body hyperpigmentation comes from normal functions. It doesn’t need to be corrected and any result is often just temporary.

Your skin isn’t dirty. Your body is just doing what it needs to do!

Just treat your skin how you should. Lightly exfoliate with an AHA body wash or lotion, maybe use a scrub in the shower 2x a week, moisturize and wear SUNSCREEN. Take care of your skin, but be fair with your skin too.

The replies to this make so sad. We literally all had the same life???

But this shows that if so many people are experiencing this hyperpigmentation, that means it is NORMAL. We can’t all be “dirty.” We just have melanin.

When it comes to treatments whether it’s home remedies or topical creams, keep in mind that results are often:
1) temporary
2) infeffective because the melanin runs deep into the dermis
3) expensive because of maintenance
4) detrimental to skin health

Many of these bleaching products or home remedies are linked to:
increased hyperpigmentation
hypopigmentation
dermatitis
exogenous chronosis
sun burns
photo toxicity (the lemons)

and some of these are irreversible.

also remember that there is a lot of discrimination in the medical field when it comes to black skin and a lot of the recommended treatments have not been thoroughly tested on US