Melasma treated
We treat melasma with peels, targeted care and sun protection. How deep the pigment sits decides what is possible, and in ordinary light you cannot see that.
So we look under UV light first. If the pigment sits deep, we aim at control: fewer flare-ups and a calmer picture.
How you recognise it
They look alike and ask for different approaches. The difference is in the pattern, the place and how the mark behaves across the year.
The pattern
Areas with soft edges, usually the same amount on the left and the right.
The place
Cheeks, forehead, above the lip and along the jawline.
The course
Gets darker in summer and lighter in winter.
What drives it
Hormones, sun and heat together. It often starts during a pregnancy.
The pattern
Separate spots with a sharp edge, scattered at random.
The place
Where the sun has been falling for years: face, hands, décolleté.
The course
It stays as it is, and new ones slowly appear.
What drives it
Hours of sun added up over the years, without a hormonal side.
Behind glass too
UVA passes through a car window and through the glass at home. Indoors and on a grey day, pigmentation simply carries on.
Heat counts as well
It is not only about UV. A hot kitchen, a sauna or a hairdryer close to your face stirs melasma up just as well.
The depth sets the pace
Pigment high in the skin lightens faster. If it sits deeper, it takes more sessions and more patience.
Three things that
steer melasma
A sun spot is there and stays there. Melasma opens and closes, and three things decide how far it is open. Look at the third column: that is the part you hold in your own hands.
Sun
The strongest of the three, and the only one you fully hold in your own hands. Winter light and light through a car window count too.
In your handsFullyHormones
Pregnancy, the pill and hormonal coils play a part. This is why melasma is more common in women and sometimes fades on its own after a birth.
In your handsHardly at allHeat
Sauna, hot showers, a warm kitchen, and the heat of a treatment itself. This is the driver that gets overlooked most often.
In your handsPartly
With melasma, protection is not advice alongside the treatment but part of the treatment itself. Without it the rest does not work, and that is why we keep going on about it here.
Is it ordinary pigmentation after all?What helps and what we advise against
With melasma the first cross on the right is the most expensive mistake there is, and it is made by clinics rather than by clients.
This works
- Protecting every day, all year round. With melasma this is not advice but the treatment itself; without it the rest does not work.
- Treating gently and building up slowly. Melasma is the only condition on this site where working harder takes you further from where you want to be.
- Looking first at how deep it sits. That decides whether treatment makes sense, and it takes one appointment.
- Avoiding heat around a treatment, including sauna and hot showers.
- Accepting that this is managed rather than cured. Anyone who knows that beforehand is not disappointed afterwards.
We advise against this
- An aggressive laser or a strong peel. With melasma that is the best-known way to make it worse than it was.
- Starting in summer. You would be working against the very driver you are trying to switch off.
- Stopping the protection as soon as it lightens. It is then back within a season and you have paid for nothing.
- Treating melasma as though it were ordinary pigmentation. The same approach gives a different and worse result here.
- Ordering whitening agents yourself that you cannot get here without a prescription. There is a reason they are restricted.
Measuring here is about depth.
With ordinary pigmentation we measure how dark and how large. With melasma the first question is how deep it sits, because that decides whether the rest of the measurement still matters.
We also record what your drivers are. Melasma that lightens while the tap is open is a result that does not last, and you want to know that beforehand.
More about the skin analysisWhat we measure here
- Depth
- High, mixed or deep in the skin
- Intensity
- How strongly it stands out against the skin around it
- Spread
- Which areas are involved and how large they are
Every axis is measured again at each check-up, under the same lighting. That way a difference later is something you see rather than something you have to take on faith.
What we use for this
Skin boosters and mesotherapy
€ 175Active ingredients placed into the skin rather than onto it, at a fixed depth per injection.
Dermamelan
€ 920The more intensive approach to pigmentation, usually for melasma. Six months, with a strict routine at home.
Frequently asked questions
Does melasma ever go away completely?
Usually not on its own, and treatment lightens it without removing it. After a pregnancy it sometimes largely fades; that is the hormonal part falling away rather than something a treatment did.
Why is this different from ordinary pigmentation?
A sun spot is there and stays there. Melasma has a tap that opens and closes, and that tap is partly beyond your control. So the same treatment gives a different result.
I am pregnant. Can I do anything now?
Protect, yes; treat, no. We wait until after the pregnancy and breastfeeding, partly because some of it fades on its own by then.
I have darker skin. Does that change anything?
Yes, in two directions. Melasma is more common, and the chance that too strong a treatment leaves more pigment behind is higher. Working more gently is then not caution but necessity.
How long before I see something?
You usually see the first change after two to three months. So count on months rather than weeks, and on maintenance after that. That last part is not a side issue but most of the work.
What does this cost?
The measurement costs fifty euros; the programmes after that are on the price page with their rates. If the measurement shows that the pigment sits deep, we advise against treatment and it stops there.
Book a consultation at Diba Clinics
We estimate the depth and record your drivers. If it sits deep, you hear that and we advise against treatment. If it sits high, you know straight away what there is to gain and what it takes.
Book a consultationNot sure yet? Ask your question