Does Anyone Know What Causes Freckles?

Freckles are caused by melanin. That is what gives skin its color. Over time the more you are exposed to the sun the more the freckles show up. If you have melanin that builds up in one place, it will result in freckles. Sunlight also causes freckles already present to become darker. I have them too. I did not have them on my shoulders until I got a really bad sunburn one year. I have had them since. I was told not to go tanning because I would end up being one big freckle.

I have in the past looked this up and they are our bodies way of protecting our skin from the suns uv rays. After I had my son I started to look into this because he wasn't born with any and they started appearing LOL I was always a freckle face as a child and now he is too lol

It is caused by the melamin in the skin. Some people have very little and others have heaps of it and generally the latter ones are those who end up with freckles after being in the sun. Actually I do not think a person has to be directly exposed to the sun but rather the UV rays. Some people take care of their skin. They never expose their skin to either the sun or UV rays and in fact always make sure that not only are they slathered in sun screeen but also well covered clothes-wise when they do go outdoors. Now you are thinking "if only I had listened to my grandmother/mother/aunt when she said to wear sunscreen and a hat". lol The melamin in our skin is a genetic factor but it can be dormant until/unless the right conditions appear. For example say that normally we are fair skinned but then one day we get badly sunburnt, and that can affect the melamin. It could lead to a light sprinkle of freckles the next time we are out in the sun or we could be pecfectly okay with no change. One other interesting thing is that if we are wearing clothes of thin material and it is exceedingly hot, then we can get sunburnt through the clothes. Or maybe those UV rays will just change the melanin in our skin without us even realising it. That is we do not realse it until freckles appear on parts of our body that are not normally exposed to the sun. Remember too that water reflection, particularly if we are in or close to water on a hot sunny day, can also cause the skin to burn.

Freckles, like a tan, are sun damage. if you have freckles, they will become more obvious when your skin develops sun damage. I actually have always had a lot of freckles. since staying out of the sun and always wearing sunblock, they have gone