My first experience with melasma unfortunately was too close to home, it was not a client suffering with melasma, but me. This is one of the most horrific and difficult skin conditions to eradicate. It is not easy dealing with melasma. Generally, the rule of thumb is that melasma is brought on by poor sun care. People assume that people with melasma are sun worshippers, which is not entirely true at all. In fact, many people with melasma have darker skin pigments to begin with, while I am caucasian, I have a lot of brown pigment in my skin. I can literally walk outside and turn brown in a few minutes, and I rarely burn. Before you say, "Wow, you are lucky you tan so easily" give me a second to tell you that tanning easily is both a blessing and a curse.
Sure, I tan without a drop of tanning oil, but I tan in places I don't want to tan, even with sunblock. My face polka dots up with Girl Scout brown spots on my face that I feel like Spot the Dog...it might be cute on a 6 year-old with buck teeth, but it is hardly cute on a grown woman. My first bout with these brown polka dots came on in full blast when I was pregnant with my first child, it is what we call a "pregnancy mask," and while it did fade some after I gave birth, those brown dots remained on my face like a souvenir of those long nine months. I learned later that I have a thyroid autoimmune disorder which wreaks havoc on my entire system and creates definite hormonal fluctuations which lends itself to melasma.
If you are a new esthetician, please learn everything you can about this condition before you just label your client as sun goddess. Here are some of the causes of melasma:
(1) Pregnancy (sometimes temporary melasmas)
(2) Sun (this is the one most often to blame)
(3) Hormonal Fluctuations
(4) acne scars
(5) certain medications
(6) genetic predisposition
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