Skincare tips: There are many reasons why people tend to develop dark lips. Here are some of the reasons and solutions as per expert.
Smoking and sun exposure can lead dark lips
Everyone has an individual lip colour. Many factors including your natural skin tone, lifestyle choices, beauty products and others determine the colour and condition of your lips. Irrespective of all this, people wants to have healthy lips. After all, it is one of the first things that someone notices about you as soon as they see you. Right? However, sometimes, certain habits or lifestyle choices may damage your lips in various ways. Dark and pigmented lips show that maybe you aren't taking enough care of your lips. Maybe this part of your body needs a little more pampering. Dermatologist Dr Jaishree Sharad speaks about the causes and some possible ways to avoid darkening of lips. Take a look.
Factors that can make your lips dark:
1) Lip licking: This can be a bad habit. Yes, people who are used to licking their lips time and again may experience darkening of their lips.
2) Smoking: You may have noticed that smokers end up witnessing this condition. Excessive smoking may result in darkening your lips. Also, it accelerates the skin's ageing process and causes wrinkles.
3) Allergy to lipsticks, lip glosses and lip plumpers: Make sure the products you are using suit your skin well. Don't opt for the ones that you are allergic to as that may make your lips darker.
4) Sun exposure: Just like your skin overall, too much exposure to the Sun may cause darker lips. Remember that your lips can get a sunburn too.
5) Allergy to silver-coated mouth fresheners: Sometimes, silver-coated mouth fresheners also cause allergies to your skin, which may lead to discolouration of lips.
6) Allergy to tooth whitening toothpaste: Have your lips gone darker over time? Check out the toothpaste you are using. That may be the cause behind it.
7) Genetic: It's true that sometimes, people have dark lips due to genetics and you really can't do anything much about this.
8) Conditions like lichen planus: Broadly, this is a condition that can cause swelling and irritation in the skin, hair, nails and mucus membranes.
As per Dr Jaishree, these are some of the solutions that you can follow to deal with dark lips:
1) Eliminate the causes: First of all, make sure, you go through all the points mentioned in the causes. Ditch bad habits and take care of your lips.
2) Keep your lips well hydrated: It's always good to keep your lips hydrated. You can drink sufficient water and apply a suitable lip balm all day. This will also prevent dry and cracked lips.
3) Avoid smoking: If you want to avoid darkening of lips, avoid smoking.
4) Fragrance-free lip balm: It's suggestable to apply a fragrance-free lip cream three or four times a day
5) You may apply ghee or almond oil too: If you believe in home remedies and trust natural products more, do apply ghee and almond oil to your lips.
6) Avoid fragrance-based lip products: Lipsticks, lip balms or any other lip-related product that has fragrance may carry certain chemicals or elements that you are allergic to. So, it's good to avoid fragrance-based lip products.
7) See a dermatologist: Despite everything, if you still feel like you are struggling with this condition, it's better to consult a dermatologist.
Do you think you have pigmented lips?
Disclaimer: This content including advice provides generic information only. It is in no way a substitute for a qualified medical opinion. Always consult a specialist or your own doctor for more information. NDTV does not claim responsibility for this information.
DoctorNDTV is the one stop site for all your health needs providing the most credible health information, health news and tips with expert advice on healthy living, diet plans, informative videos etc. You can get the most relevant and accurate info you need about health problems like diabetes, cancer, pregnancy, HIV and AIDS, weight loss and many other lifestyle diseases. We have a panel of over 350 experts who help us develop content by giving their valuable inputs and bringing to us the latest in the world of healthcare.
