Japaralia April 2026 vol. 31

English translation by perplexity below

Vol. 31 – Pigmentation Treatment

As summer finally starts to lose its strength, it’s the season when facial pigmentation becomes the most active. Human skin is incredibly complex, and I believe there is still so much we don’t fully understand. This month, I’d like to talk about pigmentation.

First of all, what is the true identity of what everyone calls “pigmentation” or “spots”? It’s melanin pigment. Melanin is produced by melanocytes and rises toward the surface of the skin as the skin turns over. So what does melanin actually do? When ultraviolet (UV) rays hit the nucleus of a cell, they can cause mutations that may lead to skin cancer, so to protect us from UV damage, melanocytes inject melanin into the cells and line it up over the top of the nucleus like a shield, creating shade to protect it. If that distribution is even, that becomes our natural skin tone. But when we get too much sun exposure, cause inflammation through injury, or experience hormonal instability and so on, melanin is overproduced in certain areas, and that unevenness shows up on the surface as “pigmentation”.

Quite a few people think that pigmentation and melasma are completely different things, but melasma is actually one type of pigmentation. There are many different kinds of pigmentation: melasma, freckles, solar lentigines (age/sun spots), seborrheic keratoses, and so on. Each has its own characteristics, but the reason they all look brown is the same: melanin pigment. Once you reach your 30s, different types of pigmentation often start to overlap and mix together.

The type of treatment required changes depending on the type of pigmentation. Even when we are treating the same melanin, depending on its location and form, a treatment that works well for one type can actually have a negative effect on another.That said, when we treat multiple types of overlapping pigmentation, we sometimes have to use treatments that are not ideal for one type, in order to improve the overall picture.

While considering this balance, we plan the order of treatment so that we minimise any negative impact on the other types of pigmentation as much as possible. Skin is alive. The “personality” of pigmentation and skin really does differ from person to person.

Also, “laser” is not just one thing — there are many different kinds. A question I often get is, “I heard lasers aren’t good for melasma?” Because the skin produces more melanin when it becomes inflamed, certain lasers can worsen melasma, but there are also lasers that can treat melasma effectively.

Flat seborrheic keratoses (flat age warts) contain both melanin and the wart-like tissue itself, so we first need to remove that tissue. But removal = a wound on the skin = inflammation. When inflammation occurs, melanin production is stimulated. That’s why the area can temporarily become brown after removal. There is individual variation: some people clear beautifully very quickly, while in rare cases, even after the wart tissue is removed, the pigmentation is stubborn and slow to fade, sometimes lightening and then coming back again.

So why do spots that were removed come back? Because the human body has homeostasis, even if we remove pigmentation, the production of melanin — the underlying cause — continues. To use an analogy, just like cleaning your house once doesn’t mean you never have to clean again, pigmentation will continue to appear for as long as we are alive. And just like some places in the house get dirty more easily than others, areas where melanocytes are more active will have pigmentation come back more quickly.That’s why pigmentation treatment always needs two approaches: removing existing pigmentation, and suppressing new excessive melanin production. If a spot appeared in an area that was originally clear, it’s actually natural to assume that even if you treat and remove it once, it may come back again.

To suppress this, solid UV protection and the use of brightening/whitening serums and skincare are key. However, once melanocytes have “learned” to constantly produce melanin, retraining them takes time. In my experience, pigmentation that is just starting to appear tends to improve more quickly.

For me, the goal of treatment is not simply “removing spots”. I aim for treatment that looks beyond removal, to what happens afterwards.There are some spots that are technically easy to remove, but depending on how you remove them, they can leave uneven tone, or in some skin types, the area can quickly darken again. My treatment philosophy is to achieve as beautiful a finish as possible, and at the same time stabilise the melanocytes so that the same pigmentation does not easily return.

Because there are so many types of pigmentation, we divide the treatment into several stages. If we compare it to cleaning a floor, if you don’t first vacuum up the surface dust and debris, mopping afterwards will only be half as effective. Pigmentation treatment is similar: we begin by removing the superficial pigmentation on the skin’s surface, then gradually treat deeper issues like melasma in stages.

I always end up talking too long when it comes to pigmentation, but I’m out of time.We are also running our annual Pigmentation Treatment Special this year, so if you’re interested, please have a look at the “Seasonal Special” section on our website.

Check our April May specials from here