How to Treat Sun Damage on the Face, Scalp & Hands

“Sun damage” is a broad term. It can mean freckles and solar lentigines, diffuse discoloration, wrinkles, rough texture, broken vessels or precancerous actinic keratoses. The treatment that works for one of these may be wrong for another.

What Does Sun Damage Look Like?

Years of ultraviolet exposure can change both pigment and skin structure. Common signs include freckles, flat brown spots, uneven color, visible small vessels, roughness, fine lines and loss of elasticity.

On the face and hands, a flat, evenly colored brown spot may be a solar lentigo, often called an age spot or sun spot. But not every dark spot is caused by the sun. Melasma, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation and other skin conditions can look similar.

The scalp deserves extra attention. A rough or scaly patch on a sun-exposed or balding scalp can be an actinic keratosis, a precancerous growth caused by UV damage.

What Can You Do at Home?

At-home care is best for prevention and gradual improvement. It cannot safely diagnose a suspicious lesion, and it usually cannot erase established sun spots as quickly as an in-office procedure.

1. Use broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher every day

This is the foundation of any sun-damage plan. Sunscreen helps prevent new UV injury and reduces the chance that treated pigment will return. Apply it to exposed areas including the face, ears, scalp, neck and hands. A hat or scalp-covering clothing adds important protection.

2. Consider a retinoid for photoaging

Prescription tretinoin has some of the strongest evidence among topical treatments for photoaged skin. Systematic reviews have found improvement in fine wrinkles, mottled pigmentation, roughness and other signs of chronic sun damage.

Tretinoin can irritate the skin and is not appropriate for everyone. A dermatologist or other qualified prescriber can help decide whether prescription tretinoin, an over-the-counter retinoid or another topical plan makes sense.

3. Use pigment products only after you know what you are treating

Some creams can fade true age spots, but the American Academy of Dermatology recommends making sure a spot is actually an age spot first. Treating an undiagnosed skin cancer as “pigmentation” can delay care.

Which Professional Treatments Work for Sun Damage?

A 2025 systematic review of 41 clinical trials on solar lentigines found useful evidence for several light, laser, topical and procedural treatments. The best choice still depends on skin tone, pigment type, treatment area and whether texture or redness is also part of the problem.

Best Options for Sun Damage on the Face

For facial brown spots and redness, IPL photofacial is often a good starting point when the skin is appropriately screened. It can treat broader areas of pigment and redness in the same session.

For more focused brown pigment, picosecond laser treatment may be considered. If the main problem is rough texture, fine lines or deeper photoaging, fractional resurfacing can make more sense than repeatedly targeting individual spots.

If the pigmentation is melasma rather than simple sun spots, the plan changes. Melasma can be recurrent and sensitive to light, heat and inflammation, so aggressive laser treatment is not automatically the best first step.

Best Options for Sun Damage on the Hands

The backs of the hands receive years of daily UV exposure and often develop solar lentigines before people notice similar changes elsewhere.

IPL, selected pigment lasers and chemical peels can improve true age spots on the hands. Skin Works has a dedicated age spot and sun spot treatment guide covering the face, hands, arms and other sun-exposed areas.

Before treatment, any spot that is rough, raised, changing, bleeding or uncertain should be checked. The AAD specifically notes that actinic keratoses commonly occur on the hands.

What About Sun Damage on the Scalp?

The scalp is different from the face or hands because cumulative UV damage can create a field of actinic keratoses, especially where hair has thinned.

If the concern is a rough, scaly or crusted scalp patch, the right first stop is a dermatologist rather than a cosmetic laser appointment. Depending on the diagnosis, medical treatments for actinic keratoses can include cryotherapy, prescription field treatments, photodynamic therapy or other dermatologic procedures.

For prevention, use a hat or other scalp coverage and sunscreen on exposed scalp skin.

IPL vs. Pico vs. Resurfacing: How Do You Choose?

Choose the treatment by the dominant problem, not by the device name.

If the concern is widespread superficial brown spots plus redness, IPL may fit well. If a few discrete brown spots are the main issue, a pigment-focused laser may be more precise. If wrinkles and rough texture matter as much as pigment, resurfacing can address more of the photoaging pattern at once.

A provider should also consider skin tone, tanning history, previous pigment problems, medications and whether the spot is safe to treat cosmetically.

Can You Stop Sun Damage From Coming Back?

You can reduce new damage, but no treatment makes skin immune to UV exposure.

Use broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher every day, reapply during prolonged outdoor exposure, wear a wide-brimmed hat, protect the hands and scalp, and avoid tanning beds. These steps help protect both the cosmetic result and long-term skin health.

Maintenance treatment may be useful for some patients, but it should not replace daily sun protection.

Sun Damage Treatment at Skin Works

Skin Works treats selected cosmetic sun damage with IPL, picosecond laser, chemical peels and resurfacing treatments. We do not treat every brown or rough lesion as a cosmetic spot. If a lesion has features that need medical diagnosis, dermatology evaluation comes first.

For a broad overview of available options, see our age spot and sun spot treatment page. If your main concern is broader hyperpigmentation rather than clearly sun-related spots, our dark spots guide covers other causes of discoloration.

Frequently Asked Questions