What can the colour of your bruise tell you about its healing stage?
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As bruises form and fade, they generally follow a colour pattern. By understanding why these changes occur, you can predict the age of a bruise on your body. The colour of your skin will also change their appearance. Generally, lighter skin tones will display more redness and visible yellow colours, while reddening in darker skin may be less noticeable.
1 Initial colouring
Occurring quite soon after an impact, newly leaked blood is bright red in colour, causing red tones to show through the skin.
3 Oxygen depleted
A day later, the blood has lost all its oxygen. The red cells begin to break down, and iron is released, turning the bruise darker blue, purple or black.
5 Final colouring
The biliverdin is converted into bilirubin. During this process, the green edges become more yellow.
2 Losing oxygen
After a few hours, oxygen levels in the leaked blood start to decrease, as it has left the circulatory system. This causes the bruise to darken in shade.
4 Healing begins
Shades of green indicate the first stages of healing. The green is caused by the pigment biliverdin, which is produced as haemoglobin is broken down.
6 Fading
Finally the bruise will begin to fade, becoming brown and lighter as it does so. Most will disappear within two weeks.