Exfoliation for Skin of Colour

We all know how important it is to exfoliate your skin regularly. To remove the old, dead layers of skin cells to reveal healthy, clearer skin underneath. But exfoliation is a double sided coin. It can lead to more irritation, scarring and hyper-pigmentation if you don’t do it correctly. Let’s explore how to exfoliate for skin of colour.

What is Skin of Colour?

Skin of Colour is defined by skin that sits at Type 3-6 on the Fitzpatrick scale. These skin types are more likely to tan in the sun, rather than burn. Your melanocytes rush in to heal the skin from trauma. Go Melanin! BUT… the more pigmented the skin is, the higher it is in the Fitzpatrick scale, the more likely it is that the melanocytes are over-active and often leave behind dark marks, and discolouration even after healing the skin and doing its job.

Even more, this trauma extends to the skincare, and exfoliating products we use. If your exfoliator is too strong, you can end up creating further irritation, traumatic events on the skin which leads to more skin discolouration that can take weeks, months and even years to clear.

What Should You Do?

There are ways to safely exfoliate the skin.

try using a chemical exfoliator rather than a scrub. You can control the intensity in a way you may not be able to with a scrub
try using a chemical exfoliator with hydrating and soothing ingredients.
try using gentle AHAs. Glycolic acid is great for seeing results really quickly because they have smaller molecules that fly through the layers of the skin. For skin of colour, this means TRAUMA! Opt for Mandelic or Lactic Acid’s which are both more gentle options and have larger molecules
try using chemical acids at lower percentages. High potencies may get the job done quicker, but lower percentages mean less set backs
If you try and exfoliate your skin regularly, but you find no matter what percentage of exfoliator that you use, your skin is getting irritated, I would suggest trying a serum or cream like exfoliator. They can be packed with a lot of moisturizing ingredients that will help to mitigate the potential irritation.