None of us are strangers to dark circles underneath our eyes. Whether it’s from losing sleep to a more long-lasting cause, they can be a nuisance to have.
Let’s discuss the causes of dark circles, different treatments, and how to prevent them so you will know how to handle them when they occur.
What Are Dark Circles Under Your Eyes?
Dark circles are typically referring to the darkened area of skin that can be found underneath both of your eyes. They can come in varying shades, like blue, purple, black, and brown, and are generally associated with being tired.
What Causes Dark Circles Under Your Eyes?
- Age As you get older, the fat that naturally supports your eyes can sink underneath your eyes, creating eye bags and dark circles.
- Fatigue If you aren’t getting enough sleep, the skin beneath your eyes can grow pale and the blood vessels below become more visible.
- Allergies The inflammation that allergies in your eyes can cause, paired with rubbing your eyes due to how itchy they can get, creates dark circles.
- Ocular Hypotensive Drugs These types of medications can cause hyperpigmentation around the eye, causing the skin to grow darker.
- Eyestrain Eye strain can cause the veins around your eyes to expand, causing the skin underneath to look darker.
- Dehydration When you don’t drink enough water, the skin under your eyes becomes darker and dull.
- Sun Overexposure Too much exposure to the sun can cause hyperpigmentation, which is when your skin produces too much melanin.
- Genetics Studies show that dark circles can run in the family.
- Anemia The lack of iron from anemia can cause the skin underneath your eyes to darken.
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What Causes Bags Under Eyes?
Sometimes, dark circles under your eyes can be accompanied by eye bags, as well. Some common causes of eye bags to look out for are:
- Lack of sleep
- Allergies
- Tobacco and alcohol use
- Aging
- Eating salty foods
- Not removing makeup
- Genetics
- Too much exposure to the sun
How To Get Rid of Dark Circles
Dark circles are usually pretty harmless, but it’s understandable that you wouldn’t want them for aesthetic reasons. Fortunately, there are many ways to try and get rid of dark circles.
How To Treat Dark Circles Under Your Eyes At Home
- Get Adequate Sleep The average adult needs to get seven to eight hours of sleep at night. Anything less than this can cause dark circles and eye bags.
- Elevate Head During Sleep If you add extra pillows under your head when you sleep, it can help prevent fluid pooling in your lower eyelid.
- Apply Cold Compress Applying a cold compress to your eyes can help shrink the appearance of blood vessels around your eyes, as well as decrease any puffiness. A popular method of doing this is to use cold spoons.
- Minimize Sun Exposure Because the sun can cause dark circles under your eyes, it’s best to limit your exposure to it.
- Cucumber Slices For natural healing, it’s suggested that thick, chilled slices of cucumber on your eyes for about ten minutes can help reduce the appearance of dark circles. To maximize any benefits, this should be done twice a day.
- Tea Bags Similar to the cucumber slices, soaking two caffeinated tea bags in warm water, refrigerating them for a couple of minutes, and then placing them on your eyes can help reduce the dark circles under your eyes. You should keep them on your eyes for five minutes, and then rinse the area with cold water afterward.
- Vitamin C Vitamin C is known to brighten your skin, which is why it’s a great option to help reduce the dark circles under your eyes.
- Vitamin K Studies suggest that placing a pad with caffeine and vitamin K in it over your eyes helps reduce dark circles, as well as wrinkles around the eyes.
- Lemon Juice Lemon juice is generally considered to be a natural bleach and therefore can help reduce both eye puffiness and dark circles. To utilize it, cotton balls should be dipped in lemon juice to spread under your eyes and left for ten minutes. It should then be washed off with cold water and repeated twice a day.
- Almond Oil Almond oil and vitamin E combined and massaged into the area beneath your eyes every night will help reduce dark circles. This process should be repeated each night until the dark circles disappear.
Medical Treatment Options to Treat Dark Circles Under Your Eyes
When home remedies aren’t helping, there are a myriad of medical treatment options, as well.
- Topical Creams and Bleaching Agents You may be prescribed a skin-lightening cream with azelaic acid, kojic acid, glycolic acid, or hydroquinone to help reduce your dark circles.
- Chemical Peels A light chemical peel to lighten darker skin under your eyes may be suggested to you as a treatment. Typically, this type of treatment will include the use of glycolic acid, retinoic acid, or hydroquinone.
- Laser Therapy Another option for treatment is laser therapy, which uses heat to remove damaged cells. This is useful for not only reducing dark circles but for increasing collagen production, as well.
- Tissue Fillers Tissue fillers are injected into the skin underneath your eye to help with any volume loss that could cause dark circles.
- Eyelid Surgery Eyelid surgery, or blepharoplasty, can be performed to remove fat from your lower eyelid, which reduces the shadow cast by your eyelid and can help decrease the appearance of dark circles.
- Platelet-Rich Plasma Injections Platelet-rich plasma injections can promote blood circulation under your eyes as well as collagen production, which can reduce dark circles and eye bags.
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How Can You Prevent Dark Circles?
Now that we know the causes and treatments, let’s discuss how to prevent dark circles in the first place. Some big steps that you can take are:
- Use sunscreen regularly
- Ensure you get at least seven hours of sleep at night
- Reduce your stress
- Cut down on drinking
- Quit using any tobacco products
How Do You Cover Up Dark Circles?
While you’re working on your treatments and prevention, you can cover up your dark circles to reduce their appearance.
- Hydrate, Then Conceal Hydrating before you apply your concealer is essential to ensuring that your dark circles don’t look worse. When the skin is dry, it becomes duller and darker.
- Choose Your Finish Using foundation to blend the area under your eyes can help reduce the dark circle appearance, as well.
- Less is More Make sure not to use too much makeup, as it can dry out the skin under your eye and draw more attention to it.
Become a Licensed Cosmetologist
If you want to learn more about how to improve dark circles and have a passion to help others feel their most confident, then a career in cosmetology may be right for you. At Blue Cliff College, you can learn about cosmetology from experienced professionals, receive hands-on cosmetology training, and earn your own cosmetology license. Enroll now or contact us to learn more about this program and others that are offered by Blue Cliff College.
FAQs
- When should I call my healthcare provider? You should call a healthcare provider if your dark circles are causing self-esteem problems or if you’d just like to get rid of them for cosmetic reasons.
- Which vitamin is good for dark circles? Vitamins C, K, and E are good for dark circles.
- How long do dark circles take to go away? Many treatments require months before you can start to notice a significant difference.
- Are dark circles related to your liver? Dark circles can sometimes be an indicator of liver disease.
- What home remedy gets rid of black eyes fast? A favorite way to quickly treat black around the eye is to use cold compresses.
- Will dark circles go away? Dark circles can go away depending on the cause and using the right treatments.
