Patient guide

What is your Fitzpatrick skin type?

Ten questions, about two minutes. The same scale Dr. Nawas uses to plan lasers, peels and sun protection.

By Dr. Zeena Nawas, MD, FAAD, FACMS

Dermatologists describe skin by how it responds to ultraviolet light: how readily it burns and how it tans. The Fitzpatrick scale sorts that response into six types, I to VI. Answer the questions below to find yours and what it means for your care.

Take the quizSee the six types

The quiz

Answer all ten, then read your result.

Pick the answer closest to you. Think about how your skin behaves without sunscreen, and about skin that never sees the sun, such as the inner upper arm. There are no right answers, only accurate ones.

0 of 10 answered

AYour natural coloring.

1What color are your eyes?
2What is your natural hair color?

Before any graying or coloring.

3What color is your skin where the sun never reaches?

The inner upper arm is a good place to look.

4Do you have freckles on skin the sun never reaches?

BHow your skin reacts to the sun.

5If you stay in the sun too long without sunscreen, what happens?
6Do you tan (turn brown) after being in the sun?
7How dark does your tan get?
8How sensitive is the skin on your face to the sun?

CYour tanning habits.

9How often do you tan on purpose, in the sun or a tanning bed?
10When was your skin last in the sun or a tanning bed?

The six types

From always burns to never burns.

Thomas Fitzpatrick, a Harvard dermatologist, described the scale in 1975 to set safe starting doses of ultraviolet light for psoriasis treatment, and extended it to six types in 1988. It now guides laser and peel settings worldwide. Your total score from the ten questions, out of 40, places you in one of these six types.

Score 0 to 6

Type I: pale white skin.

Always burns, never tans. Extremely sensitive to the sun.

Score 7 to 13

Type II: white skin.

Burns easily, tans minimally.

Score 14 to 20

Type III: light brown skin.

Sometimes burns, tans slowly to light brown.

Score 21 to 27

Type IV: moderate brown skin.

Burns minimally, tans easily to moderate brown.

Score 28 to 34

Type V: dark brown skin.

Rarely burns, tans well.

Score 35 to 40

Type VI: deeply pigmented dark brown to black skin.

Never burns.

Why it matters

Three decisions your skin type shapes.

Sun protection and skin checks.

Lighter types burn fastest and carry the highest risk of skin cancer. Darker types burn less but are not immune, and melanoma in darker skin often appears on the palms, soles or nails and is found later. Every type does well with broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher, reapplied every two hours outdoors, and with regular skin checks, more often after a skin cancer or with many moles.

Laser and light treatments.

Melanin absorbs laser light, so the amount of pigment in your skin decides which wavelengths and settings are safe. For laser hair removal, Dr. Nawas uses the 755 nm alexandrite setting of the GentleMax Pro on lighter skin and the 1064 nm Nd:YAG setting on darker skin. Fraxel FTX treats every type, with gentler settings and sometimes more sessions for types IV to VI. Vbeam targets red, and in darker skin it is used more conservatively because pigment competes for the light.

Peels and pigment.

Types IV to VI are more likely to respond to irritation with dark marks, so peel depth is chosen carefully and the skin is often prepared for a few weeks first. Melasma and sun spots are most common in types III to V. For everyone, a tan in the weeks before a laser or peel raises the chance of dark marks afterward, which is why treatment is timed around your sun exposure.

Good to know

What the scale can and cannot tell you.

  • It measures how skin responds to ultraviolet light. It is not a measure of race or ethnicity, and people of the same background can land in different types.
  • Self-scores are often off by a type, most of all for brown and black skin. The in-person assessment is what Dr. Nawas plans from.
  • The scale says nothing about skin sensitivity to products, about rosacea, or about how you scar. Those are assessed separately.
  • Every type can develop skin cancer, and every type benefits from daily sun protection.

Sources

Where this comes from.

  • Fitzpatrick TB. The validity and practicality of sun-reactive skin types I through VI. Archives of Dermatology. 1988;124(6):869-871.
  • Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency. Fitzpatrick skin phototype, the scored questionnaire this quiz is adapted from.
  • Ware OR, Dawson JE, Shinohara MM, Taylor SC. Racial limitations of Fitzpatrick skin type. Cutis. 2020;105(2):77-80.
  • Eilers S, Bach DQ, Gaber R, et al. Accuracy of self-report in assessing Fitzpatrick skin phototypes I through VI. JAMA Dermatology. 2013;149(11):1289-1294.

This page is general information, not medical advice, and does not create a doctor-patient relationship.

Next step

Ready when you are.

Your skin type is one of the first things Dr. Nawas confirms at a consultation, because it shapes every laser setting, peel strength and sun protection plan she recommends. Bring your result, or let her score it with you.

Schedule a consultation Or call (346) 696-3376

New to ZN Dermatology? Book a consultation. If you would like treatment the same day, add a note when you book and we will set aside the time.