Treatment Options for Dark Body parts (Knees, Elbows, & Buttocks)

What Everyone Ought To Know About Dark & Discolored Knees, Elbows, & Butt. 

So, this is going to be my 3^rd & final installment of dark and discolored body parts that cries for treatment. Here we’ll group together 3 body parts that are the toughest to treatà Dark Elbows, Dark Knees & Dark Butt.

If you naturally have dark skin, the even skin color all over is beautiful but the problem begins when you have lighter skin color on other parts of body but its dark just on your knees, elbows & buttocks. Even people with darker tones can have the same problem with a different dimension: although the rest of the body skin is naturally dark & beautiful but the knees, elbows tend to have skin that’s rough, uneven, patchy & feels like plastic to touch.

So far I’ve seen dark knees & dark elbows come together, but there are exceptions. Dark buttocks can persist in a person even if she/he has the lightest skin all over the body.

Sometimes, when a baby is born, certain body parts of his/her may look darker than rest of the body but this normally resolves as the baby grows because we have to remember, that a baby is at its prime of life & it’s just starting out & the melanin distribution can be highly uneven in such a new system.

However, the problem with adult body part discoloration is far more wide & stubborn. It wouldn’t go away on its own & sometimes different body parts have different reasons of discoloration. That’s why, here we are discussing about it in groups & the reasons can be widely variable as we shall see.

Similarly, if your butt is darker than the rest of your body, it can wreak havoc on your self esteem & most in this situation would think It’d make them undesirable to a potential partner (even if he/she doesn’t give a shit about it) & this feeling (of being unattractive, as they think) sometimes can be so crippling that they’d completely abstain from getting intimate.

Now let us discuss the common reasons of different body parts’ discoloration: elbows, knees & buttocks.

Why do I have dark elbows & knees?or, What causes dark elbows & knees anyway?

Mostly because your elbows carry weight of your upper body part each & every time you lean on them. This is a very common situation. Think about your school days when you’d lean on them to listen to your teacher’s speech with attention or even certain exercises demand that you actually lean on your elbows or knees & move forward crawling.

Exercises, if spaced apart by days, shall not affect much but regular leaning can actually put a lot of weight on your elbows especially if you’re overweight.

We, sometimes, unknowingly lean on our elbows while operating a laptop or even reading. This, on a regular basis will trigger the immune system to thicken the skin there. This is a natural protective response to thicken the skin to prevent injury. ****remember how you acquired calluses on your palm by lifting heavy weights in the gym????

Another main reason of having darker skin anywhere in the body (this is a generalized explanation though) can be sun damage & pollution. We do not give much importance to our arms (rest assured knees or elbows) & legs when it comes to sun protection.

What I recommend is to use protective clothing along with sunscreens. These days, stylish shrugs or summer jackets are available & that’d do you immense good in protecting your already damaged elbows. Similarly try to don a trouser/jeans/full length skirt or maxi dress during the day even if you use sunscreen, to protect your knees from further damage.

Always use a broad spectrum sunscreen like SPF 50+ PA+++ (at the very least when undergoing treatment along with protective clothing). For knees, I prefer wearing leggings if I’m wearing a flowy maxi dress during the day because as the sunlight reflects on the floor/cemented place, it’d eventually penetrate your knees going past the flowy dress of yours.

Save those LBDs & mini dresses for the evening & night out.

Fine, so why do I have dark butt?

This is one tough question I don’t have a clear cut answer to. This is a body part that rarely gets to see the sun, so sun damage shall not apply generally. But what I believe is that due to its inaccessibility, it tends to attract a lot of dirt that don’t get the chance to be cleared up.

You must know many people suffer from severe acne on the butt. This also means we’ve got a lot of sebum producing oil glands which will tend to accumulate more dirt.

Tight underwear can also inhibit the skin’s natural process of breathing. sometimes, nylon or any non-biodegradable fabric of your underwear can cause allergy which in turn results in itching (exaggerates in the summer), which then in turn can cause post inflammatory hyperpigmentation/ scars due to minor injury.

But the lion’s share of dark & discolored skin on your butt is contributed by dead cell build up & only a few people will actually exfoliate that part & you have to agree, it’s the most neglected body part until we see something we don’t like.

So how do we treat the discoloration & patchy dark skin on knees, elbows & buttocks?

First of all we can have our very own DIY approach. Like the installments before, I’m going to demonstrate the procedure of making a DIY home-remedy body mask to get rid of dark knees, elbows & butt naturally.

To do so, we need:

·         Besan or Bengal Gram Flour

·         Turmeric

·         Milk Powder

·         Vinegar

·         Rhassoul Clay (optional)

·         Essential oils of your choice (optional)

First, take ½ cup gram flour in a bowl & add turmeric powder/paste to this.

Then add milk powder to this. Milk powder is my favorite ingredient & you’ll find this in every body/face pack I mention here. It has immense whitening properties & is also suitable for all skin types.

Now add the vinegar. Vinegar is a diluted form of acetic acid & has amazing skin whitening & tan removing properties. Add the Rhassoul clay too.

Now see, I normally don’t recommend adding Rhassoul clay in a citrus face/body mask but here I couldn’t control the temptation myself.

Rhassoul clay has amazing properties of drawing the toxins & pollution micro-particles out of the skin because of its inherently negative charge, but it’s not as strong as bentonite clay (you can add that too instead of rhassoul) so it’s generally suitable for all skin types.

Finally, you can add your favorite essential oils although it’s optional but I strongly recommend it. Now please remember, that this is not a face mask, so there’s no point in skipping the vinegar part if you have sensitive or dry skin.

This is to treat the nastiest patchy darkness & to clear up years of building up dirt & grim. To treat a strong case, you need a strong body mask. There’s no need to be gentle.

It should finally look like the above. Rhassoul clay will make this reddish.

Try this body pack on the affected area thrice a week for 3-4 months to see the difference. Surprised???? well since your body part hasn’t gone discolored overnight, so no treatment (not even professional) is going to make it lighter overnight. You need patience & consistency.

But How Do I Lighten/Whiten Dark Elbows, Knees & Buttocks Fast?

Now, there come other options. Here I’ll list out the treatments you can trust but rest assured although these will do it faster than home remedies but there is no “Fast” options here & this time frame to achieve complete cure can vary & your patience will be tested anyway, there is NO shortcut & you need to work hard.

Chemical Peels For Dark Knees, Elbows & Buttocks

                Chemical peels are what I swear by when it comes to treating dark & discolored body parts. They are the most effective, period. Now, for knees & elbows, if the skin has thickened, I highly doubt if light peels would do anything. It may, but rest assured, it’ll take ages.

So, at this point, I’d recommend you to consult a professional & get a stronger peel like TCA 30-35% done there. Thicker skin better responds to stronger peels. Don’t try them all by yourself at home because if something goes wrong, you’ll curse me back.

Another word of wisdom, TCA peels may leave scars to people who naturally have dark skin. This is called post inflammatory hyperpigmentation, & although treatable, you wouldn’t want it. So I’d recommend using a bleaching cream(an arbutin or kojic acid based cream) beforehand twice a day on the area to be treated (along with adequate sun protection with sunscreens & protective clothing) & stop using the cream 7 days before your peel is scheduled.

Number the day you start using your bleaching cream (before peel) as Day 0 & starting from that day count upto 8 & on the very day (8^th day from day 0), you should proceed with a strong peel.

Dark or light skin, ideally, I’d recommend trying a strong peel (by a physician) once or twice (one each month) on the thick skin & from thereafter schedule a light peel every month (30 days apart).

This light peel for elbows or knees can be anything, glycolic acid peel or salicylic acid peel.

For buttocks, I don’t recommend strong peels, because you like it or not, strong peels causes a lot of frosting (***explained before on  , browse the same for chemical peeling procedure, scroll down) which in turn may cause pain while sitting & you don’t want to embarrass yourself with your butt hurting when trying to sit. Better stick to light peels.

I’d recommend salicylic acid peels for buttocks. It not only penetrates better (being a Beta Hydroxy Acid), but also causes negligible inflammation & works on oily skin producing better results.

Topical Treatments for Dark Elbows, Knees & Butt

                         Apart from DIY home remedies & chemical peels for dark body parts, we have a plenty of options of topical ointments to choose from. Most of these are based on one or more active ingredients & can visibly lighten the affected part but you will have to wait for atleast 6-8 weeks to see results. Let me list them out for you:

·         Topical Retinoids: By far, Tretinoin is the most popular option in this section. Technically, any keratolyte (Keratin+lysisà breaks down the bonding of top layer skin cells & sloughs off the dead or damaged cell) will do the trick.

Tretinoin is found in 0.025% to 0.05% concentration in the market. Start with the lowest concentration & slowly take this up. You can use this alone or before any bleaching cream. I call this layering of ointments.

Tretinoin alone can slough off dead & damaged skin cells as well as acting as a penetration enhancer, meaning, it’ll make sure the ointment you’re applying following tretinoin penetrates deeper than it’ll without tretinoin.

 You can use any skin lightening cream followed by tretinoin & it’s effect will be enhanced (because it’ll penetrate deeper now).

I do this all the time.

·         AHAs & BHAs: Alpha Hydroxy Acids like Glycolic Acid/Mandelic Acid & Beta Hydroxy Acids like Salicylic Acid work quite the same way like topical retinoids.

They are all keratolytes & penetration enhancers. Salicylic Acid techniqually penetrates deeper than those AHAs.

Mandelic Acid (doesn’t work as well as Glycolic Acid) is suitable for sensitive skin/ dry skin.

Salicylic acid conquers oil/sebum better than others, so it’s best suited to oily & combination skin types.

·         Topical Bleaching Creams: Although Hydroquinone, as in Kligman’s formula (Hydroquinone+ tretinoin + a mid potent corticosteroid like mometasone) is the Gold Standard in treating discolorations but I’d highly recommend not using it here.

There are safer alternatives now available in the market, like Arbutin, which is a hydroquinone derivative but more on the safer side.

Arbutin is often found combined with another Hydroquinone derivative called the Kojic Acid. But Kojic Acid is a highly unstable stuff, so it’s now invaded the market with a improved version of itself called the Kojic Acid Dipalmitate which doesn’t break down easily.

Azelaic Acid, although disputed, but some say can be as effective as hydroquinone minus the safety concerns. It is said that 20% Azelaic Acid is as effective as 4% Hydroquinone. But the thing is, so far, Azelaic Acid has never worked for me.

·         Antioxidants: It’d be incomplete if I don’t mention the wonders antioxidant serums can do to improve complexion & reverse skin damage. Two principle contenders of this club are Vitamin C & Vitamin E.

Vitamin C is the mandatory substance in collagen building chemical reaction so you now know, why it’s so immensely popular in anti-ageing creams.

These days Vitamin C serums are available in the market in concentrations of 10% & above. However, sometimes, these can be way too expensive. So, you can also make your own DIY Vitamin C serum.

Simply crush a few Vitamin C tablets & add distilled water & mix well & your serum is ready. But remember to make small batches & finish them off fast because it turns yellow very soon, & yellower it gets, less effect it produces & keep this serum in an air tight colored glass jar away from sunlight.

Vitamin C, if used on a regular basis, can also lighten skin tone so, it’s a multi tasker.

Vitamin E, on the other hand, is oil immiscible; so for a DIY Vitamin E Serum better add a few drops of oil (sweet almond oil for dry skin, cucumber oil for oily skin, argan oil for normal to sensitive skin) in water & then add a few drops of vitamin E (prick the capsule) & mix well.

Vitamin E serum made this way will stay non-degraded longer than DIY vitamin C serum. However, you can always choose those available in the market.

Exoliation to Treat Dark & Discolored Body Parts

Apart from the topical treatments mentined above, I’d have to address the importance of scrubbing to treat dark knees, elbows & buttocks. Scrubbing is the layman’s term of exfoliation which literally means sloughing off dead & damages cells of the upper layer of the skin.

Exfoliation can be of two types: Chemical & Mechanical.

Chemical Exfoliation or chemexfoliation simply means sloughing off the top layer dead & damaged cells with chemicals like we do that by applying AHAs, BHAs topically or as stronger formulations in Chemical Peels.

Topical formulations mostly do exfoliate in the microscopic level. Strong peels like TCA can slough off a great part of skin altogether. However, here scrubbing literally translates to Mechanical Exfoliation to kick off dead skin cells & encourage new cells to come up on top & shorten the cell turn-over *** rate (sometimes causing microscopic injury like microneedling).

***Cell turn over means the time frame the body takes to slough off the dead cells of the top layer of the skin (stratum corneum of epidermis) which is about 30 days. As the skin ages, this turn-over rate lengthens & fine lines & wrinkles start to appear.

Mechanical exfoliation or Scrubbing can be done easily at home with rubbing granulated sugar or baking soda or even using an exfoliating bathing loofah will do.

There is a popular technique of rubbing a piece of lemon sprinkled with sugar on elbows & knees, though they never actually work. You can simply put a little baking soda on your elbows/knees while it’s wet & rub gently with your hands or a loofah. doing this twice a week will improve the complexion of elbows & knees.

You can also use pasted pink lentils (masoor dal), orange peel paste to scrub your skin even more gently.

However, we will cover scrubbing in another post.

Last but not the least, for professional exfoliation, try microdermabrasion (baking soda mimics it well at home) by a dermatologist.

So, above are all the ways I could employ to conquer dark & damaged skin on certain body parts like elbows, knees & butt.

*****However, please be aware that this article does not substitute professional consultation & nor should you expect that everything mentioned here should suit everyone & this information is meant for educational purpose only & I shall not be liable for any loss or damage at the user’s end by following any of the instructions above. For more, see the Disclaimer:http://thebeautyblogoflove.blogspot.com/p/disclaimer.html

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Thank you for reading.

Cheers!!!

Koyel M.