A lot of things can cause your knees to darken, but there are actually several easy ways to help the skin in this area to breathe and heal. Here are a few body care tricks you may want to try:
1. Avoid friction.
When our skin is exposed to a lot of friction, like rubbing and stretching, it reacts by growing a thicker layer of skin to help protect the area. This usually causes that part to darken, which explains why our knees, elbows, and armpits are most prone to it. To reduce stress in your knees specifically, avoid wearing tight clothes and try to wear soft and protective clothing when engaging in strenuous workouts that apply too much pressure on the knee area.
2. Exfoliate regularly.
Dead skin cells accumulate faster on our joints than on our face, and if we don't exfoliate, the buildup will cause darkening. Using body soaps or scrubs with exfoliating acids like AHA will slough off those dead skin cells in a jiffy. For best results, do this at least once or twice a week!
IMAGE Rustans, Beauty Bar
TRY: MARIO BADESCU AHA Botanical Body Soap, P575, Rustan's; ONE EARTH ORGANICS Illumina Exfoliant Whitening Body Scrub, P929, Beauty Bar
3. Always moisturize.
After exfoliating or cleansing, apply a hydrating body cream or oil to protect your knees from irritation and to keep them soft and supple. Moisturizing helps prevent your skin from cracking, too!
IMAGE Human Nature, Cetaphil
TRY: HUMAN NATURE Sunflower Beauty Oil Luxe, P299.75, Zalora; CETAPHIL Moisturizing Lotion, P890, Watsons
4. Use body sunscreen.
If you love wearing above-the-knee bottoms, don't forget to protect your legs from the sun to avoid pigmentation. Look for body moisturizers with SPF or apply sunscreen on top of your favorite body lotion. Don't forget to reapply throughout the day, too!
IMAGE Biore
TRY: BIORE UV Body Care Serum Intensive White SPF 50+ PA+++, P399, Watsons
This story originally appeared on Preview.ph.
*Minor edits have been made by FemaleNetwork.com editors.
