What should you know about hyperpigmentation during wound healing?

A wound activates inflammation and repair. Melanin-producing cells may then make extra pigment, leaving a brown, grey, or darker mark where the injury occurred. The mark can outlast soreness, redness, or the original lesion. Repeated rubbing, scratching, picking, or sun exposure may prolong the colour change.

Colour alone does not show whether a wound is fully healed. Open skin, warmth, increasing pain, pus, or spreading redness can signal a complication. A dermatologist can distinguish healing-related pigment from infection, an active skin disease, or a scar with altered texture.

Follow the wound-care instructions you were given, keep the area clean, and do not remove a scab or peel newly formed skin. Once the surface has healed, protect it from ultraviolet light with clothing or sunscreen as appropriate. Use only products recommended for closed skin; strong acids, bleaching products, and fragranced products can irritate a recovering barrier.

If the mark persists, a clinician may consider hydroquinone treatment, a chemical peel, skin brightening treatment, IPL photofacial, or picosecond laser treatment. These options are not interchangeable, and procedures on recently injured skin may cause further inflammation. The underlying wound should be stable before cosmetic treatment is considered.

Contact a clinician promptly if pain, warmth, swelling, drainage, fever, or redness is increasing, or if the wound edges separate. Seek assessment for a mark that continues to change, becomes raised or firm, or develops bleeding or ulceration. Get urgent help for severe swelling or a rapidly spreading reaction after treatment.

Ask whether the wound is fully closed, whether the colour is expected for its stage of healing, which dressing or cleanser to use, and when sunscreen or pigment treatment can begin. Ask how to recognise infection and whether your planned procedure could delay healing or trigger more darkening.