Talk:Freckles

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[edit] Deleted Vandalism

Found some vandalism, I deleted it. Yes, anonymous anti-vandals... ON THE INTERNET!! What next? Honest politicians? Heh. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.151.49.74 (talk) 11:34, 24 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Freckles don't just occur on skin

It is possible to get freckles not on just skin but other external sun exposed surfaces, if I knew the technical name I'd edit the page myself, let me clarify what I'm talking about.

I have a freckle on the head of my penis, it is definitely a freckle and the head of the penis has no skin but a membrane though it appears generally the same there are no layers as skin has. (I know this by both reading this factoid and owning a penis)

So if anyone can identify the correct name (perhaps just membrane?) then it can be added as I don't think the freckly page, oh hell I'm going to add it anyway but here's my explanation and invitation to find a better word.

Aether22 11:06, 3 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Do freckles dissapear??

Do freckles dissapear??

yes they will disappear if you avoid the sun or it may disapear with age
why though?
This is just a guess but maybe because if you have less exposure to the sun, the melanin draws away from the skin. I have more freckles in the summer than the winter so its just the exposure that causes my skin to make more melanin I bet.
D--66.30.84.242 03:47, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Why are freckles more common among children than adults?

Why are freckles more common among children than adults?

I was always pretty sparsely freckled, but I started to lose some when I was pretty young. They were almost all gone about when I turned 12, though some still show up after long-ish periods in the sun.

[edit] Suddenly freckles

I've never had any freckles until I recently went to Mexico for a week. When I returned I began to notice light brown spots appearing on my right hand, and only on my right hand. They went from barely visable to a dark brown, and now they go up the fingers of that hand too. I thought they might be freckles, but why did they only seem to target that hand, and why do they still seem to be increasing in number, size, & shade of brown?! If anyone could offer me some insight, I'm starting to get concerned. SmokinJoeC420

From your description, those sound like "sunspots" typical on people with years of sun exposure. They represent minor skin damage and are common among middle-aged adults or younger people who have had intense exposure. They seem to appear in specific clusters (like on your hand) rather than all over; I'm not sure why that is. Funnyhat 19:03, 10 August 2005 (UTC)


[edit] mt DNA shows no Neanderthal connection

I cut this paragraph and reference from the article:

Based on recent genetic research, it has been suggested that this gene had Neanderthalic origins. (The basis of the claim is the age of the gene; this is not in itself proof, since Homo erectus pre-existed the Neanderthals.)
Subjective news-article mentioning redhair/freckles genetic link with Neanderthals

I cut the paragraph because genetic comparisons of human and Neanderthal mitchondrial DNA show no evidence of genetic flow between H. sapiens and H. neanderthalensis (Serre et al. No evidence of Neandertal mtDNA contribution to early modern humans. PLoS Biology 2:313–7 (2004)). So the claim about freckles is wrong. Gdr 10:52, 2004 Oct 14 (UTC)

From what i've read on the mtDNA results, the claim no gene flow at all is premature. For one thing, mtDNA would (except in (very?) rare cases) show no gene flow to you from your father. For another, the commonly cited "24 mutations between Neanderthal-modern, compared to max 22 intra-modern" isn't the whole story; the minimum Neanderthal-modern is reported to be actually 13.
I'm not saying there was gene flow, but I don't see how these mtDNA results are anywhere near a proof of absence. If someone can find a non-dead link to a reference, particularly with more details on the genetic dating (e.g. if the studies indicate that the freckle gene entered the H. sapiens gene pool 50,000 years ago, that speaks well for it not being from an ancestor further back). --Anomie 23:13, 11 July 2005 (UTC)
Could you be more specific on this infamous 'Celtic Gene'? I have never heard of it before, I have however seen freckles in people from Asian, Latin American and African descent. Did this celtic gene spread everywhere then?

I thought this was an excellent point, but not something that belongs in the article, so I'm going to remove it and leave it on talk. fuddlemark (fuddle me!) 13:52, 29 November 2005 (UTC)

There no such thing as "Celtic genes" in the way you are describing it. 167.1.176.4 (talk) 07:57, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Freckle Puzzler

I was wondering if and why a freckle can appear overnight. In particular one was just formed on my neck and it's the middle of winter! How can this be? In the summer I'm a lifeguard and I'm in the sun all the time but I have hardly ANY other freckles. Also, I hate them. Why/how did I get this one NOW?

Happened to me once too, right in the middle of my hand. There was no freckle there, and then bam, there was a freckle. Funny thing is though, one day, about a month later, it was gone. This happened to me again, and a few weeks later I was scratching at it, and it came off. Kinda scary, I know, but wait and see what the future holds.

[edit] Getting rid of them

Is there a way to get rid of them without spending lots of $$$ on expensive treatments?

No. The only thing you can do is stay out of the sun as much as possible and they will fade.
Don't remove them. Freckles are hot. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 145.107.0.131 (talk) 11:51, 17 December 2006 (UTC).
100% agreed!71.235.155.139 02:51, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "...Night without stars"

The previous version attributed the "...night without stars" quote to Stephen Majercik, but Googling it turned up other attributions to Eric Machmer, Anon, Irish proverb, and so forth. So I have changed the attribution to "unknown," until decisive evidence can be produced for who originated this phrase. --Groggy Dice 00:29, 7 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] melanin

Is there a supplement or med that can increase melanin, and would that help fade or even out freckle prone skin types? ~~Cabernetsounds~~ —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Cabernetsounds (talk • contribs) 03:32, 3 December 2006 (UTC).

[edit] Freckle

Even if you do find a source, as anyone can post anything they want online, there is no such thing as a freckle fetish. What's next? If I like blondes, do I have a blonde fetish? See my point? -RiverHockey 19:05, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I am sure you can have a fetish for anything. Whether it is notable or not depends on many things though. Oh and a blonde fetish is quite common I think :) Lethaniol 19:13, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
RiverHockey: Your opinion (no doubt backed with a PhD in Psychology, and many by years of research into sexual fetishes) aside; if I find a citation from a WP:RS, I will restore the information. You can remove it if you wish; but I'll warn you that removing properly cited information from an article is a bad, bad thing, and could lead to other bad, bad things. Why are you even leaving this comment here, and not on the talk page for the article? It seems rather uncivil to me. So please stop.
Lethaniol: A blonde fetish, I believe, is called being "me". Har. -- weirdoactor t|c 19:25, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
Freckles, hair color, etc. is a sexual preference, whips, etc. and other wierd stuff is fetish.... Your resource would mean nothing. I can make 15 web sites in the next hour citing that everyone in Pittsburgh has a freckle fetish. But that does not make it true..... - RiverHockey 19:47, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
Look I do not really want to get dragged in here but I think you may want (both) to read up about these issues at WP:CITE, WP:VER and in particular Wikipedia:Reliable sources. Even if a website says X, it should be a reliable source before being used. If a reliable source says that there is a Y fetish in Z, then it can be used if appropriate to the argument/article.
Also, though I know little of psychology - definitions of fetish include -
A condition in which arousal and/or sexual gratification is attained through inanimate objects (shoes, pantyhose) or non-sexual body parts (feet, hair). Is considered a problem when the object is needed in order to obtain arousal or gratification and the individual can not can not complete a sexual act without this object present.[1]
So a body part - e.g. skin condition or hair colour may fall under these terms. A fetish can be for "normal" stuff but taken to a severe degree. A fetish may not just be for "weird".
According to wikipedia's definition itself, a fetish is defined as a non-human/innanimate object/idea that causes sexual attraction. Ie: non-sexual body parts are not fetishes by definition but are loosely considered fetishes in speech. Anyway I don't wish to dwell on this issue any further. -RiverHockey 20:54, 23 December 2006 (UTC)
Sorry Weirdoactor for butting in here, tell me to bug off if you like, but I found this quite an interesting argument. Talking about this on the talk page of the article may be a good idea - could cut paste the discussions from here. Cheers Lethaniol 23:11, 22 December 2006 (UTC)
Right have tracked down the article of concern - that being Freckle. I wish people when discussing things would make it explicit what article they are talking about - it was not obvious. Well Weirdoactor - you could not find a RS so you removed the information - good job - well done. Personally I have a red head fetish so I will go over to that article now and add the information - ah just kidding :) Lethaniol 23:33, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Freckle v. mole

Distinction not provided in article. —SlamDiego←T 09:46, 16 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Genetics of Freckles

Freckling is a dominant trait? I am 100% sure my parents are my parents, and neither one has freckles. Gene suppression? Also, they can occur in Asian populations. Lucy Liu, for example. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 65.184.137.141 (talk) 11:32, August 23, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] List of people ...

The list of people known for their freckles is nonsense. Wikipedia is not a collection of lists, and it isn't a gossip / glammagazine site either. Deleted as such. --Soetermans 14:41, 23 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sunscreen Cancer Debate

This is not a practicle place to put the debate about the dangers of sunscreen. Please leave it out of the freckle article. When the consensus on the sunscreen article changes to call it a danger, then it might be appropriate to add a section about it's dangers here.209.172.11.17 (talk) 16:48, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Freckles in culture

I've removed this section: reasons as follows

Pippi Longstocking (a childrens book by Astrid Lindgren) had freckles. When an adult friend of hers - who worked in a pharmacy -
suggested her to remove the freckles with bleach Pippi Longstocking answered full of self esteem that she would never do anything to remove
her freckles, but if a medicine came out that could increase the number of freckles she would be interested. 
The pharmacist was stunned by this display of self esteem and courage.

This is rather a lot of detail, and seems more or less trivia.

This small episode is intended to teach children that you don't have to be like the others. Instead, you can be proud of the small differences that make each person unique.

This is OR, as far as I can see.

Comparable to the message that J.K. Rowling was sending out with the redheaded Weasley family.

This is not a coherent sentence, and I can't quite work out what it means. Either way, it's trivia.

On Lost (TV series) The character James "Sawyer" Ford nicknamed Kate Austen "Freckles".

I confess I don't know the series, but if the character is generally knows as "Freckles" then it might be appropriate to have a disambiguation link "for the Lost character, see..."

Pseudomonas(talk) 21:10, 9 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] sunscreen and melanoma

Even the medical doctors agree nowadays that protective clothing should be preferred. Awareness of the discussion about the safety of sunscreens is a good thing. Those who are affected should know that there is a discussion about the safety of sunscreen in the scientific literature.Gerriet42 (talk) 17:47, 22 March 2008 (UTC)