Don’t fat-shame your skin. Plump skin actually has positive connotations, attributed to youth. Asian, and black skin, you notice hyperpigmentation and sun spots more so than in Caucasian skin, because of melanin,” says Dr. Asian may not raisin, but we do speckle. According to the urban dictionary “Black Don’t Crack is a term used for the description of why African-Americans rarely look their age”. I didn’t need the urban dictionary to tell me that- I actually went there hoping the definition would at least set us up for some comedy and maybe satire if we were lucky. As crass racial stereotypes go, the old adage “black don’t crack” – i.e. That black skin doesn’t wrinkle with age – is right up there. It's black don't crack. It means black skin doesn't get fine wrinkles like whites' skin or asian skin. Something to do with fat layer under the skin and the melanin protecting the skin from sunlight. Natural black hair natural curls naturally curly natural hair natural beauty beautiful black black hair embrace curls embrace natural hair black don't crack curly curls curly hair beautifulcurlz 4bhair 4b. We've all heard and seen shining examples of the age-old adage, 'black don't crack.' Thanks to good genes, lots of ultraviolet ray-shielding melanin, natural oils and some say the grace of God.
You've heard the phrase 'black don't crack.' For the most part, this phrase, despite its terrible grammar, has a ring of truth. Darker skins are more resistant to fine lines and wrinkles, due to the increased amount of melanin (the pigment that gives skin its colouring) that makes it more resistant to UV rays. Unfortunately, we're not entirely immune to the toils of time itself, and one of the key aging concerns for women across a kaleidoscope of ethnic backgrounds is hyperpigmentation - the darker spots and patches that lead to uneven skin tone.
Black Don T Crack Asian
Pigmentation is my resolute beauty bugbear. Firstly, it seems to occur almost overnight – mine was on a trip to India, foolishly, minus adequate sun protection. The usual culprits are trauma to the skin, acne, sun damage and hormones. Secondly, patchy pigmentation in the skin doesn't reflect light evenly, and one of the biggest indicators of youthful skin is the ability to reflect light. Thirdly, if you're still with me, congratulations - that's not even the science bit yet.
While skincare targeted at lightening areas of pigmentation certainly isn't new, the utter amount of little vials of hope that have recently landed on my desk, promising to fix the problem, is astounding. I met with consultant dermatologist Dr Susan Mayou to find out more about the problem. 'Pigmentation can be superficial and located epidermal layers, or deeper in the skin, which is trickier to treat. A dermatologist can confirm at what level your pigmentation is – but whatever kind, it's always exacerbated by the sun.'
Black Don't Crack Picture
I'm loathed to admit this as a beauty journalist, but I'd always – carelessly- thought of my darker skin as impenetrable to the sun's power. Now I'm vigilant about wearing an SPF every day. 'Even in the winter months it's important to wear a daily moisturiser with a broad spectrum sunscreen,' Dr Mayou scolds me. 'It's to protect against the longer wave UVA rays, as well as the UVB rays, and, the SPF should be at least 15-25 for darker skins.'
We're noticing a shift in favour of darker skins in the beauty industry in general, and it extends to the current crop of pigmentation-fixers. The language used on the products is far more race-sensitive - gone are the archaic, racially-loaded phrases like 'whiten' and 'bleach', in favour of lighten and brighten. These products are designed to even skintone – regardless of race - and the research that's gone into these new products is second to none.
Black Don't Crack Meaning
But I have one caveat before we come onto these wonder-potions. You'll need to become your own investigative journalist; take a picture of the affected area before, commit to the amount of time recommended by the manufacturer (unless irritation occurs) and take another picture afterwards to compare. That's the only true test of efficacy in pigmentation products; and hopefully, the results will speak for themselves.
The newest products to treat pigmentation
Darphin, Melaperfect Anti-Dark Spots Perfecting Treatment £57
This silky potion from the hugely underrated French brand promises to reduce the size and intensity of dark spots by 50% in eight weeks. Et Voila, you might say.
darphin.co.uk
Crème de La Mer, The Brightening Essence Intense cremedelamer.co.uk £220
This range was originally developed to cater to the needs of the eastern Asian skin, and it's increased vulnerability to sun damage. But, we can all benefit from this pigmentation-healer, infused with Crème's patent Miracle Broth.
Dr Nick Lowe, Super Light Skin Tone Perfector Cream £18.99
With nine lightening ingredients including acai and vitamin A, this cream evened out the skin tone of 71% of its testers in four weeks.
boots.com
Clinique Even Better Skin Tone Correcting Lotion, SPF 20 £35
This magical liquid exfoliates, breaks up clusters of pigmentation and provides an SPF 20 to protect from further damage. Genius, bottled.
clinique.co.uk
La Roche Posay Pigment Control £29
It's a brand that always comes highly recommended by dermatologist, and after eight weeks of use 82% of testers noticed their darker spots had lightened.
boots.com
Kiehls Clearly Corrective dark Spot Solutionn £36
Filled with natural ingredients, this serum is clinically tested to reduce the intensity of dark spots in a mere two weeks.
kiehls.co.uk
•Thanks to Dr Susan Mayou, consultant dermatologist and adviser to Neutrogena. Anita is the Beauty Assistant at Stylist magazine
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Black Don T Crack Asian Ain T Aging
Is It True That Black Don’t Crack?
For one, black and Asian skins tend to have a thicker dermis layer compared to white skin, founder of non-surgical treatment company Naturaskin, Dr Jasmeet Baxi explains: 'By being thicker it contains more collagen. By having more collagen in the skin, in effect it can delay the visible signs of ageing.'
Dr Askari Townshend, who runs Askinology clinic in London, explains the main reason that the signs of ageing appear 'so, so much later' in people with darker skin tones is because of their natural protection from sun damage. 'Because we have different amounts of melanin in our skin, that offers us different amounts of natural sun protection and that in turn changes the way that UV radiation damages us. There actually is truth to that whole thing about black don’t crack because that person is walking around with a natural SPF for their entire lives,' he says.
Quick science lesson: everyone has melanin in their skin; it’s the pigment that gives our skin colour. There are different types, the two main kinds being eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin is the pigment that makes our skin darker, and it’s also the one that protects our skin from UV radiation, while pheomelanin gives the skin its red or pink shades. Lots of eumelanin means a darker skin tone, whereas if you’re fair or a redhead, you’ll have some pheomelanin in there as well.
'Black skin generally has a much slower rate of photo-ageing, because the eumelanin is more effective in protecting against UV damage,” explains Dr Stefanie Williams, a leading dermatologist and founder of European Dermatology London clinic. People with black skin can start to show the signs that we usually associate with ageing – i.e. lines and wrinkles – as much as 20 years later than people with white skin tend to. Dr Baxi puts it another way: 'The SPF of very dark skin may be naturally as high as 13.4, compared to three or four, or even less for Caucasian skin.'
One thing the doctors make clear is that when it comes to skin ageing, it’s not so much your racial heritage that plays a part; it’s literally the colour of your skin. Or to put it in doctor speak, it’s where you fall on the Fitzpatrick Scale – that’s the official scale used to categorise skin colour, ranging from Skin Type 1 (Jessica Chastain) to Skin Type 6 (Lupita Nyong’o).
'If you take two siblings with the same parents, one parent might be black and the other parent white, the children can have completely different skin tones, and will age at different rates,' explains Dr Williams.
Of course, lines and wrinkles aren’t the only signs that skin is starting to deteriorate. Problems with hyperpgimentation and uneven tone are another indicator that the years are catching up with your skin, and the doctors say that it’s this type of problem that people with darker skin tones are likely to see.
'The people with the skin types 3 and 4 particularly are more prone to pigmentation disorders,' explains Dr Townshend. 'For example, I’m a skin type 5, and I’m prone to post inflammatory hyper pigmentation (PIH). If I cut myself shaving or I get a pimple, I get a brown mark, and that brown mark hangs around for a long time. Whereas if I was white it would be much less likely that I would get that brown mark. I would get a pink mark and that would probably just pass.'
Very dark skins get pigmentation problems too, but Dr Townshend says that often they go unnoticed purely because it’s harder to see the discolouration. 'People think that black skin is very resilient, it’s not,' says Antonia Burrell, a London-based facialist and skincare expert. 'It’s actually quite sensitive and scars easily.'
According to Dr Baxi, darker skin groups tend to dehydrate more quickly as they are more permeable to water. 'They can often look like they do have lines,' says Burrell, 'but often it’s not actually lines, it’s chronic dehydration. But if they don’t address that then it will age their skin.'
Dr Townshend is sceptical about these findings, and points out that it can be dangerous to characterise skin too broadly based just on its colour. And of course, your melanin isn’t the only thing that determines how your skin will look as you get older. There are plenty of lifestyle factors like pollution, bad diet, stress and smoking that are no friends to your dermal tissue, and genetics plays a part too.
So with all this considered, what should you be doing to take care of your skin, depending on its colour? Well, if you’re white, you should be wearing an SPF. A good one, every day.
That’s not to say that you don’t need to use an SPF if you have darker skin. 'Black ladies will still get pigmentation problems, and the way they can avoid them is by wearing good sun protection,' says Dr Townshend. But he says, his patients with darker skin will not get the same telling off for scrimping on their suncare as the patients with fair skin will. Burrell also says it’s particularly important for patients with darker skin to keep it well hydrated, and when it comes to treating hyperpigmentation, Dr Williams says arbutin, kojic acidd and azaeic acid are the hard hitting ingredients you need to be looking out for.
Of course, nothing truly stops you ageing. Black will 'crack'. No matter how great your genes, how well you look after skin, or what colour your skin is, no one is yet immune from the gradual deterioration of skin tissue over the years.