This blog is inspired by “Mind the Gap: A Handbook of Clinical Signs and Symptoms in Black and Brown Skin” by Dr. Malone Mukwende, Dr. Peter Tamony, and Dr. Margot Turner (Mukwende et al., 2020).
Fitzpatrick skin type (FST) is a classification system for skin tone. Turns out that in 1975, FST was created to categorize the skin tones of white patients. The system was based on how easily white patients tanned or burned in the sun. Now, FST is used for all things dermatological. Someone rated FST-I has very fair white skin that always burns and never tans. Someone rated FST-VI has skin that is intensely pigmented — brown or black — that never burns and always tans darkly. Just to recap, FST was developed based on white patients to describe how UV affects white skin. So, FST is the standard for diagnosing skin conditions (Okeke et al., 2023).
References
Mukwende, M., Tamony, P., & Turner, M. (2020). Mind the Gap. Black & Brown Skin. https://www.blackandbrownskin.co.uk/mindthegap
Okeke, C. A. V., Tran, J., Wright, I. P., Okoye, G. A., Burgess, C., & Byrd, A. S. (2023). Skin tone representation in dermatologic direct-to-consumer advertisements: a cross-sectional analysis and call to action. International Journal of Women’s Dermatology, 9(3), e101–e101. https://doi.org/10.1097/jw9.0000000000000101
