Changes in Skin Tanning with the Changes in Initial Pigmentation of Skin

Abstract

Experiment has been conducted upon 91 adult males by irradiating their medial upper arm sites with a standard dose of polychromatic ultraviolet irradiations emitted by the Philips U.V.lamp, and measuring the induced pigmentation with the help of an E.E.L.spectrophotometer, in order to study the tendency of the variation in skin tanning with the variation in initial melanin pigmentation of skin.It is found that despite the high variability in the maximum skin tanning so produced among the individuals even at similar initial pigmentary level, the skin tanning, on average, tends to increase with the increase in initial pigmentation up to a certain level of initial pigmentation.A further increase in the initial melanin concentration of skin, then, causes a slight but gradual lowering of the skin tanning.It is further found that in the initially heavily pigmented skins, an increase in initial pigmentation tends to lower even the threshold time of the maximum skin tanning.The frequency distribution of the threshold time of the maximum skin tanning by the present amount of irradiation, has also been discussed.