Vitiligo and summer: camouflage, therapies and treatments to be avoided

Summer is approaching is for those who have the vitiligo the same problem always recurs, the white spots become more and more visible and the rest of the skin darkens in contact with the first rays of the sun.

A solution that someone resorts to is the application with the airbrush of a self-tan, a treatment to be done in a beauty center that has the ad hoc machinery. But pay attention to the protection of the skin.

AESTHETIC CAMOUFLAGE WITH SELF-TAN
«It is a practice that does not create any problems for the skin with vitiligo, the only caution is that of use a sunscreen with SPF50, because the color you buy is not a real tan but a camouflage effect “, explains the dermatologist Magda Belmontesi. «The management of vitiligo, in fact, is a matter that concerns first of all the melanin, which is not produced, not of absent melanocytes. And not producing melanin means that the skin does not have its natural defense against the sun’s rays. Self-tanners used with aesthetic treatments, such as self-tan rain with airbrush, give immediate color, because they use formulas based on DHA, dihydroxyacetone, or erythrulose, contained in the cream formulas, which give a superficial coloring of the epidermis it is not real pigmentation. The practice the product oxidizes in contact with the keratinocytes of the skin and has no photoprotective action, unless the self-boning does not contain sunscreen, as happens for the new generation formulas. The effect can be modulated according to the phototype, the more you wear, the more the color increases ».

REVERSE PROTECTION SYSTEM
«After a self-tan treatment that allows you to recover a uniform appearance of the skin, it is necessary to use a sunscreen in the city and, even more so at the sea, that is transparent or white, and this to avoid burns. In particular, however, what is called the reverse protection system is usually offered to those suffering from vitiligo. A protection with SPF 15 is applied on the non-pigmented areas of vitiligo, to protect from UVB rays, the more superficial ones, and one that protects against UVA rays with SPF around 30 and 50 on the whole healthy area. The goal is to try to stimulate the production of melanin by melanocytes in the light areas, and avoid excessive discoloration with the rest of the skin, because otherwise what happens when you are exposed to the sun is that the healthy part becomes pigmented and the other remains clear ».

SUPPLEMENTS TO BE ASSOCIATED
«An oral supplementation with carotene and melanin derivatives stimulates the natural pigmentation. It is a good idea to take it before the arrival of the sunny season. But there is no guarantee, however, of obtaining a re-pigmentation result, rather the chances of burning the skin are reduced ».

NO WITH VITILIGO
«Those with vitiligo skin must try to avoid any skin trauma, even the one that seems apparently more harmless. For this reason, radiofrence, laser, or any other aesthetic treatment, such as injectables, fillers and botox, is not recommended, because they can cause new spots to develop. Vitiligo can be because of what has been termed Koebner isomorphism, or on a sensitized skin a chemical, mechanical or thermal insult can cause the development of a new blemish ».

THE MOST FREQUENT THERAPY
«Only on medical advice you can use a product based on tacrolimus, an immunomodulatory molecule, which in some cases promotes partial repigmentation. It should be applied only on small and light patches, and is often combined with cortisone, but it is a subjective therapy, it must be prescribed after a careful check-up that also evaluates the presence of a thyroid disease, to which vitiligo is often connected. The treatment must be done all year round, even in summer, a period in which you insist with the reverse protection system to use the sun as a natural stimulator of melanocytes. In hospital and under medical advice, then, you can undergo puva-therapy, exposure to UVA rays and photosensitizing products to stimulate the repigmentation of white patches ».