Why Do Pimples Leave Dark Spots—Even If You Don’t Pop Them? We Asked a Dermatologist

Welcome to Ask a Derm, a collection from SELF by which board-certified dermatologists reply your urgent questions on pores and skin, hair, and nail well being. For this installment, we tapped Susan C. Taylor, MD, the Bernett L. Johnson Jr. Endowed Professor of Dermatology and the vice chair for variety, fairness, and inclusion for the division of dermatology on the College of Pennsylvania’s Perelman College of Drugs. Her specialties embrace hair loss, beauty dermatology, hyperpigmentation, and pores and skin of coloration.

One of many golden guidelines of skincare: By no means pop your pimples. After all, it’s robust recommendation to observe if that offended bump is simply sitting there, taunting you—and even tougher once you do go away it alone and nonetheless find yourself with a hard-to-ignore darkish spot.

In case you didn’t know, selecting your pimples causes trauma to your pores and skin, which might result in scarring and hyperpigmentation. That’s why just about each derm on the market will beg you to maintain your palms (and extraction instruments) off your face. Should you’re something like me, although, you realize from expertise that leaving your pimples alone isn’t a foolproof answer: Even once I summon the willpower to let a zit run its course, I’m typically nonetheless left with a flat pink or brown mark as a replacement. To determine why this occurs, I known as within the assist of a professional.

Principally, the buildup—of extra oil, lifeless pores and skin cells, and typically micro organism—that causes pimples can set off an inflammatory response, Susan C. Taylor, MD, professor of dermatology on the College of Pennsylvania’s Perelman College of Drugs, tells SELF. Throughout this course of, your physique releases pigment-producing melanocytes (the cells accountable for your pores and skin’s coloration) to guard the affected space, Dr. Taylor says.

Because of this superior immune response, you might discover smaller, surface-level blemishes like whiteheads and blackheads resolve on their very own—with out leaving a mark. However let’s say you’re coping with extra extreme irritation (from angrier, deeper cystic pimples that has lingered for months, or perhaps a nasty bug chew). In that case, your physique may overreact and pump out a lot of (and typically an excessive amount of) protecting melanin. “This may trigger post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation,” Dr. Taylor explains—a.ok.a. brownish or blue-gray spots that stay even after the blemish has healed.