Discoloration Fading in Skin Creases

I have the most darkening I’ve ever had after my last girth focus. It’s the typical dark band starting about 1/2” - 3/4” from the base and continuing to the circ scar, and even past the scar on the bottom.

I’ve been taking a break, mostly, for a month now. My shaft skin hasn’t lightened much, and I didn’t expect it to. From past experience I’m guessing it will take 6 months to lighten significantly and probably a year until it’s not very noticeable. Of course I may make it worse again in the meantime. ;)

Getting to the point of this post, I’ve noticed that the areas in the skinfolds when I’m flaccid have lightened to almost a normal color. When I stretch the skin out it’s obvious where the folds were. Hmm. Very strange. It wasn’t like this a few weeks ago.

I can’t explain it. What caused the creases to clear up faster than the rest of the shaft? If anything, I would have thought those areas would take longer because there should be less bloodflow to the creased skin.

Any ideas? Figuring this out may lead to a breakthrough in discoloration removal.

hob,

Hmmmm, are you sure the creased area is not scarred at all? That would make it lighter, surely.

I only noticed something like this once, when I applied arnica regularly. I thought it must have happened because the arnica got ‘stuck’ in the creases and did not rub off as easily, but I have always had a little variation in discolouration so I’m not sure if it was related to the arnica or not. Besides there’s the whole trapped blood theory.

Are you using any arnica or vitamin creams?

SS4

It doesn’t look scarred, and I don’t know how I would have gotten scars in the creases.

I wasn’t using any creams, lotions or anything until today. I got some alpha hydroxy acid lotion (8% AHA of 70% solution). I’m giving it a test to see if it will speed up exfoliation and skin cell turnover to make the dark coloring slough away faster. I’ve only had it on my dick a few hours, but so far no irritation. I would have tried Retin-A, but the partial tube I have is about 15 years old and obviously well beyond its prime.

Hobby,

I have terrible discoloration from doing Bib’s theraband constrictors. I have being doing these for almost a year now with decent gains. Does anyone do these anymore? I haven’t posted here in about 1 year.

Anyhow, one guy on a another forum is using a pump to get rid of discoloration. It kind of makes sense that it might work since BIB said that light pressure (in this case negative pressure I guess) would pull the damaged cells out. Although it’s a lot of trouble I may try it. My circ scar is almost black!

Another possibility are those lightening creams which are readily available now although I don’t know the mechanism by which they work.

The AHA may be kind of hard on your skin since it’s already being stressed unless you are suspending your exercises.

I’ll keep you posted on any developments and please do the same.

PS. I quit PE once for about 6 months and thats how long the color took to go away. If I remember correctly, there was almost no change for about 4 months.

Wow. That IS some serious discoloration. Alex, how much of this do you attribute to your girth work and how much (if any) do you think was the result of length work?

And just to throw it out here: Has anyone successfully avoided discoloration by adding and maintaining any sort of topical(s) concurrent with their routine?

I like the pumping idea.

—Cap

For length all I do is A-stretches which only places pressure on the head.

I was a serious jelqer for almost a year and that did not cause much discoloration - I think it’s primarily a prolonged reduction in blood flow that causes it. Combining the wrap with squeezes seems to be very effective for gains but also makes the discoloration that much worse.

Alex,
The fresh blood deprivation you speak of; How serious was your wrap routine? Meaning, how much time out of a typical day was your unit exposed to this lack of blood (oxygen?).
And also, for what length of time did you continue the routine?

I ask because of my own interest in approaching girth in a similar fashion in the near future.
The gains were very good?

Thanks Alex. (and welcome back)
—Cap

>I have terrible discoloration from doing Bib’s theraband constrictors.

Do you mean wrapping Theraband at or near the base and allowing the penis to engorge in front of it? - aka “wrapping for girth”?

While Bib and maybe some others apparently had good luck removing discoloration from such engorgement, it hasn’t worked for me. If anything it seems to make it worse.

>Anyhow, one guy on a another forum is using a pump to get rid of discoloration.

I haven’t tried pumping consistently at very low vacuum to remove discoloration, but wouldn’t it accomplish the same thing as wrapping? I have pumped regularly though at moderate vacuum, and in my experience it hasn’t helped matters.

>Another possibility are those lightening creams which are readily available now although I don’t know the mechanism by which they work.

I tried a 2% hydroquinone cream for a couple months last year. No change. If what we have are hemosiderin deposits, skin bleaching creams probably won’t have any effect.

I think my discoloration is caused primarily by these deposits. Another possibility is that it is actual hyperpigmentation stemming from aggressive manipulation of the skin during PE exercises: post-traumatic hyperpigmentation or whatever it’s called.

Since the hydroquinone cream didn’t help me, I’m leaning toward hemosiderin as the cause. Also, the mechanism involved (squeezing) would tend to drive blood into layers of skin where blood cells could get stuck and subsequently decompose leaving dark iron deposits behind. If I’m wrong about this feel free to correct. I admit I don’t have much understanding of how hemosiderin discolors skin.

>The AHA may be kind of hard on your skin since it’s already being stressed unless you are suspending your exercises.

Yes. I have been taking a break from PE, and the cream is somewhat hard on the skin.

My shaft skin is ok, but the glans is a different story. Skin peeled off the head similar to a snake shedding. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but I don’t want to continue allowing the glycolic acid to contact the head. I’m taking a few days off of the cream and will be more careful to confine it to the shaft.

>I’ll keep you posted on any developments and please do the same.

Please do. I will.

>PS. I quit PE once for about 6 months and thats how long the color took to go away. If I remember correctly, there was almost no change for about 4 months.

I developed some darkening before. It wasn’t as bad as this, but after the better part of a year it had cleared substantially. I continued PE during that time, but avoided the intense girth work which had initially caused the discoloration.

My current thinking is that AHA may possibly speed the rate that skin replenishes. I don’t know if mild chemical exfoliation actually causes skin to grow faster, but it’s worth a shot. I’m convinced that I can’t flush the pigmentation out from underneath, so the obvious next line of attack is “growing it out” faster.

I wish we had a dermatologist on the forum.

For what it’s worth…

1.5 years after discontinuing PE, my circ scar discoloration faded about 60-70%. I did not use any creams or lotions during that time. When I was PEing, I tried Arnica and other so-called fading creams, but NONE of them worked even a little bit.

IMO, discoloration is the worst side-effect of PE. A big cock is nice to have, but a big UGLY cock is not something I strive for.

I’m glad you said that because on another site I got bombarded with people saying that they would rather have a big ugly cock than a small pretty one and they could not understand why I was worried about it.

Probably the best thing for me would be to switch to more traditional exercises.

I remember hearing your name mentioned quite often here over a year ago. You are something of a legend here aren’t you?

If the trapped blood theory is true, one could consider using a pentosan polysulfate cream.