What are the best treatment for hypopigmentation?

I hear how frustrating this must feel for you, when your skin loses pigment, especially after a procedure, it can really affect how you feel about your appearance. Hypopigmentation after laser resurfacing can be one of the trickier things to treat, but there are definitely options that may help bring back some balance and color to your skin.

Sometimes, treatments that stimulate melanocytes (the pigment-producing cells) can help, such as excimer laser therapy, microneedling, or even targeted phototherapy. In certain cases, topical medications like tacrolimus or other pigment-stimulating creams may also encourage some repigmentation.

That being said, results can vary, and hypopigmentation is often more challenging to fully correct than hyperpigmentation. Some people also explore cosmetic options like skin camouflage or light self-tanners to help even things out while working on longer-term solutions.

The most important part is tailoring the treatment to your skin type and history — what works for one person might not for another. With the right approach, we can usually find a way to make the contrast less noticeable and restore more harmony to the skin’s tone.

Fractional laser is an amazing and highly effective treatment in our office. We use the laser treatment to help with acne scars, large pores, fine wrinkles, tissue collagen loss, scars, sebaceous hyperplasia, active acne, and for brightening dark pigmentation. Although there are very strong fractional lasers such as CO2 laser, we use lighter treatments for corrective skincare and maintenance of results. Our Thulium fractional laser, clear and brilliant laser, and Ultra Thulium laser are excellent options in our clinic. We also perform CO2 fractional and erbium depending on skin tone and tolerance for downtime. Patients do have to use a Melarase cream before and after treatment to help further reduce pigmentation after laser. Melarase AM, Melarase PM, and Melapads can seriously improve surface sun damage and UV related pigmentation. Dark spots can improve with these treatments. I recommend fractional laser for incisional scars as well, especially after plastic surgery.
Best,
Dr. Karamanoukian
Realself100 Surgeon