If you are a kid and you have freckles, you probably hate them. The funny thing is, grown-ups seem to love them! Do the grown-ups in your life make you absolutely cringe when they say your freckles look cute? Yes? Thought so! Read on to get the freckle facts.
What are freckles?
They are little, flat, brown patches in the skin that generally appear on the nose and face. They are usually light brown in colour and appear because the melanin* clusters together. People with light complexions have small amounts of skin melanin and people with darker complexions have more. However, freckly people are often fair-haired or skinned and their melanin is often unevenly distributed so that freckles appear. The sun, as we know, can cause your skin to go red or tan and freckles can darken. The tanning of the skin or browning of the freckles is the melanin at work.
Are freckles harmful?
No. Freckles are completely harmless. It’s very important to note that freckles are different to moles which are raised darker brown spots on the skin. It is also important to protect your skin from the sun with high-factor creams and lotions. In fact, if you use plenty of the sunscreen stuff on your freckles they won’t be as dark, so get slopping and while you’re at it, stick a hat on your bonce and T-shirt on your bod to protect your skin from the sun.