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Beauty Is Not Just Fair-Skinned: The Dangers of Skin Bleaching

We can all agree that there’s a certain level of bias towards light-coloured skin. The models on the cover page, the lead roles on the big screens, and even the most beautiful girls in the classroom are mostly fair-skinned because society thinks they should be. We see different ads, product names and brand logos; fair and lovely, light and ageless, white and perfect, and we start to wonder where exactly this leaves black skin. (Na just black we black now, we no kee pesin now, abi?)

Over time, the human mind has been conditioned to link beauty and attractiveness with skin colour, and for one reason or the other, lighter colours have been ascribed to superiority. But have we ever thought to ask ourselves why? Why should something as superficial and uncontrollable as skin colour determine our beauty and acceptability? And most importantly, why should we let it?

Slowly but thankfully, the narrative is changing. Colourism and racism still, and will probably always exist, but the outside world is beginning to see the error of their ways. They are starting to see and accept that beauty and relevance go way beyond the colour of one’s skin. However, many of us are yet to accept this fact ourselves. A large percentage of people, especially women, are still skin bleaching, actively trying to lighten up the colour of their skin. Whilst it may be your body, your choice, you might be inclined to think otherwise if you truly knew and understood the consequences of your actions. In this article, we’ll be looking at all the reasons you should see bleaching products and run the other way (at top speed), but before we go into that, let’s start with what skin bleaching is and what it entails.

Skin Bleaching and How It Works

Skin bleaching as we know it is the use of products to lighten or whiten the skin and give an overall lighter complexion. But that’s only the part we see, how about the part we don’t see? The process that goes on inside our bodies?

 Skin bleaching involves the reduction in the body’s melanin production and concentration.  Melanin, for those of us who only just know that it “pops”, is the pigment produced by cells called melanocytes and is naturally existing in our skin, hair and eyes. Naturally, this means that the darker your skin, the more melanin your body produces. This should at least give us confidence, the knowledge that dark skin is more and not less. Dark skin is never less.

Nevertheless, when we use bleaching products on our skin, melanin production is inhibited and our body’s natural state is tampered with, and this melanin like other things in our bodies has its important functions.

Skin Bleaching and Why You Shouldn’t

In many advanced countries, where the health of their citizens is a priority, the use of skin-bleaching products has been banned altogether.

Whether injected, swallowed, applied or even inhaled, skin-bleaching products have been associated with several adverse effects.

  • Mercury Poisoning: Mercury, one of the major ingredients of bleaching and skin-lightening products, has been discovered to lead to numerous detrimental effects on the human body, especially after prolonged absorption and accumulation. The results of mercury poisoning include the following; high blood pressure, fatigue, irritability, and much direr consequences like memory loss, kidney failure and brain damage. When you think about it, not every time village people, sometimes it’s just your beauty products.
  • Exogenous Ochronosis: Exogenous Ochronosis is a skin disorder caused by prolonged use of bleaching products containing hydroquinone, another major ingredient. It leads to a blue-black discolouration on the skin, and what have we? Even after discontinuation, the discolouration is mostly permanent.
  • Skin Cancer: Melanin as we said earlier performs important roles in the body. For one, it protects the skin to a certain extent against the harmful effects of sun exposure and UV rays. Skin bleaching deprives the skin of this barrier and so the skin is left exposed to sun damage and rays that can induce the growth of cancerous skin cells.

Skin bleaching also leads to skin thinning, scarring, steroid acne, weakened wound healing, stretch marks, nephrotic syndrome, dermatitis, and hypertension, and it only gets worse.

While these effects may not manifest immediately, what happens long-term when it’s too late to be rectified? Is our quest for “beauty” really worth these many risks?

Good and healthy skin can easily be achieved with the right natural products, a balanced diet and regular exercise, but always remember these two things. Beauty is not fair-skinned and dark skin is never less.

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