Vitiligo and UV

[Timber]

I am having a vitiligo since I was 6ish (it was a allergic reaction the doctor says). I never really mind it as girls always found it interesting but sometimes I got really bad sunburns there

 

Anyway, if someone does not know what's a vitiligo here's what NHS says about it: "Vitiligo is a long-term condition that causes pale, white patches to develop on the skin due to lack of a chemical called melanin." ... Even the hair that grows at that spot is white.

 

Today as I tried a setup for portraits I noticed that I have loads of "freckles" on that spot. In visible light it's a very pale light pink patch, no sign of that much of freckles or anything. But in UV... see the photos.

 

 

And here's a closer look at my vitiligo:

 

Here's one in VIS, I tried to make it as contrasty as I can... that reveals some freckles:

 

I know it's nothing fancy as photographs, but I found it really interesting to have such a strong pigment activity in a melanin-free zone

[nfoto]

The girls would swoon if you show them the UV portrait ;)

[Andrea B.]

Timber, thank you for this very interesting post about Vitiligo and its appearance in UV.

It is a nice addition to the Forensics section.

 

You look absolutely Tuff in that foto!!! :D Love it.

[Timber]

What suprised me that vitiligo is the lack of pigments (melanin) and freckles are concentrated melanin spots. So how comes the skin is pale, totally lack of the melanin we can see in visible spectrum but it's full of uv-freckles?

 

My theory is that since that part is not protected by normal melanin the UV from sun can damage that area easier and the higher concentration of UV-freckles are the result of this. Which gives me a warning to use sun-lotion on that area often :)

 

Andrea as english is not my native language I googled "Tuff" :) I am not sure what makes me look like a type of rock consisting of consolidated volcaninc ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption, but it sounds cool :) (ps.: I looked up on Urban Dictionary as well just in case you didn't mean Wikipedia's version :D )

[nfoto]

Andrea probably intended 'tuff' to be a cool version of 'tough'.

[Andrea B.]

yeppers, i was being a slangy american girl....