06/03/2026
Skin cancer happens in darker skin — and the AAD says it’s usually caught later than it should be. That’s the part nobody tells you.
This carousel pulls straight from the AAD’s skin-of-color guide. Three things from it that change outcomes:
1. Look where the sun doesn’t reach. In skin of color, skin cancer often shows up on palms, soles, fingers, toes, nails, inside the mouth or on a lip, buttock, and groin — not just the face. The late diagnoses come from not checking those places.
2. Five warning signs the AAD names by name: a bump, spot, or mole that’s growing, bleeding, itching, or changing; a new color change (especially skin darkening); a sore that won’t heal or heals and returns; a dark line or streak in a fingernail or toenail (or darker skin around a nail); a scaly, rough patch that won’t go away.
3. Sun protection that’s actually built for melanated skin. The AAD recommends a tinted sunscreen with iron oxide, SPF 30+, broad-spectrum, water-resistant — because iron oxide also blocks the visible light that drives hyperpigmentation in skin of color. Sunscreen and dark-spot prevention in one step.
That is exactly why Levels 2 Skin Soft Skin SPF 30+ is our house SPF. Tinted, mineral, no white cast, calibrated for darker skin tones.
If you see something changing — including under a fingernail or on the bottom of your foot — book a skin check. We do them, and we do them right for skin of color.
CTA: Book a skin check at Divine Dermatology — link in bio.
Source: AAD, ‘Finding skin cancer in darker skin tones’ (aad.org/skin-of-color) ·
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