Discolored patches of color on the face that cover the upper lip, cheeks or forehead can make you look bad. What are they and how do they form? Let us find out more about these colored patches or melasma as it is called. This is a problem both for men and women, and not only for women, as it is wrongly believed. Let us find out more so you can stop them. Skin- Why Do Colored Patches Form? The color of our skin is because of melanin that is produced by cells called-melanocytes. These melanocytes sometimes get hyper active and produce much more melanin than needed. This activity can be triggered by some phototoxic allergies, hormonal imbalance, pregnancy etc. If you use a product that is photo toxic there are very good possibilities that you will develop melasma. Photo toxic means that the product is safe for use if no sun is present, but will produce allergy as soon as sunrays strike it. Hair dyes are a good example of this. In women during pregnancy and while taking birth control pills, hormones activate the melanocytes in the skin and produce more of melanin-the skin color. You will therefore get the colored patches on the facial skin. Skin And Sun protection- Protect your skin from sun as much as possible. The sun is activating factor for melanin. If you protect your skin from sun, you will save lot of damage to skin including keeping these colored patches away. This article is only for informative purposes. This article is not intended to be a medical advise and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Please consult your doctor for your medical concerns. Please follow any tip given in this article only after consulting your doctor. The author is not liable for any outcome or damage resulting from information obtained from this article.