Chemical Peel

Many people come to us after months of creams for brown patches on their cheeks or the marks old pimples left behind. The creams help a little, then progress stalls. Much of that pigment sits in the top layers of the skin, and a peel is one way to reach it faster.

In a chemical peel, a dermatologist paints an acid solution onto clean skin, leaves it for a set time, then neutralises or rinses it off. The acid loosens the bonds between dead surface cells so they shed over the next few days, taking some of the excess pigment with them, and the skin underneath renews itself. For Indian skin we mostly use superficial peels, because deeper ones carry a real risk of leaving dark or light patches.

One peel gives a brighter, smoother look for a few weeks. Lasting change takes a course of sessions and daily sunscreen. Melasma can improve a lot and still come back after a summer in the sun, so it usually needs maintenance.

Chemical peels are among the cosmetic procedures our skin and hair department does regularly, alongside microneedling and laser therapy. Before your first session a dermatologist examines your skin, with a Wood's lamp where it helps, to see what is behind the pigmentation. You'll hear plainly how many sessions you are likely to need and what a peel can't do.

Peels work on problems in the upper layers of the skin. The diagnosis comes first, because some patches that look like pigmentation turn out to be something else, such as a fungal infection.