INTRODUCTION
Growing up, everyone around me I know used to be purely dark skinned or slightly fair on few occasions. Hardly encountered a 'yellow' human except albonios. Bleaching used to be something not socially fit back then. Very uncommon. You'll hardly see 1 out of like 30 women bleach then talk less of a man. People discriminate them a lot and make fun of them. The reverse is the case now. Its a new norm and widely practiced among blacks.
PERCEPTION AND METHODS
Bleaching/whitening or better still toning is now perceived as something social and normal. Its fancy and a thing of class. Soaps and creams are commonly used to achive the whitening effect. Bleaching sounds offensive now to most people. They'll tell you they are toning their skin and not bleaching. Some people even hide under using organic natural products on their skin and not bleaching agents. These sound more appealing and acceptable but how do we really Differentiate between them.
Are those new organic product really bleaching agents???
Using bleaching cream/soap seems stressful for some people. They'll rather visit a bleaching facility where they'll have the first layer of their skin peeled off with immediate effect courtesy of some powerful and magical bleaching reagents not primarily designed for human use.
Easy availability of these creams, soaps and reagent has made it possible for all financial class of people to easily practice this act.
MECHANISM OF ACHIEVING BLEACHING
Most skin bleaching agents contain steroids mostly hydroquinone or its derivative. You can't miss that smell if you've encountered it before. It usually nauseates me those days in fact I nearly throw up sometimes ago while seating beside a woman in a taxi. I had to alight from that taxi immediately to save myself that day. I think I'm getting used to it daily having encountered lots of patients who bleaches.
Medically speaking, steroid based skin bleaching agents are still better compared to those made up of very toxic chemicals like mercury. Some even combine varieties to improve its effectiveness. They all work similarly. The aim is usually to destroy the cells of the outermost skin layer called melanocytes. Melanocytes produce melanin which is responsible for the blackness of dark skinned people. Nature conferred that on us all thanks to our location on the planet in relation to the sun. It is meant to be protective and it is.
WHY DO PEOPLE BLEACH THEIR SKIN
Skin bleaching is commoner among woman/ladies. From my observation, their reasons differ. The commonest excuse is that men prefer and are more physically attracted to fair ladies. This is actually true to some extent. I once had a friend who always boast that he'll rather die being single than date/get engaged to a dark skinned lady. Other reasons include peer pressure and wanting to belong to a class, fashion ideology, self esteem and boosting self confidence.
Why do you think women bleach their skin?
Its fascinating though to think some men chose to bleach. How? Why? They must have their legit reason for doing it. What do we say of children then. They don't even know their right from wrong yet but their parents chose to do it for them.
THE FINANCIAL PRESSURE
Once skin bleaching starts, there's no going back as maintenance is needed. You have to keep it up so you can continue to 'glow' Lol... I've heard people say they'll rather go hungry than not have money for their bleaching cream. The financial pressure can be that bad. Some engage in some prostitution to have money procure their bleaching soaps. As skin side effects begin to show forth, They'll have to keep upgrading their skin care products to a 'better' product which will consume more money.
THE RAINBOW SKIN
The skin colour we used to know range from beautifully very dark to fairly light. Which one is chameleon skin? Human beings with shades of rainbow .... Blue? Pink? green? Purple?... Name it...I've seen it all in the name of exploring skin bleaching agents.
Is this side effect related to prices of these product or can occur with any product??
This color change usually affect skin area directly exposed to the sun. The forehead, cheeks, hands and feet. You'll see them wearing hand gloves and socks to reduce people's attention to their ugly skin colours. Some people even only bleaches the exposed part usually the face. Yellow face with black tommy. Why not just bleach it all to make it uniform.
HEALTH IMPLICATIONS
Being a medical doctor, I'm more interested in this aspect. To start with, almost every possible skin disease can evolve as a result of bleaching ranging from skin color abnormalities discussed above to various skin rashes including ugly looking hyperemic stretch marks. In fact, there's increase in skin cancer rate all thanks to those bleaching agents.
It takes more time for their wounds to heal and even difficult to suture when the need arises.
Imagine doing an abdominal surgery and the wound refused to heal up to the point of abdominal organs popping out. Yea.. That's burst abdomen.
I remember a patient in orthopedic clinic back in medical school days. She came in limping. Xray later showed that the part of her thigh bone connected to her hip bone is dead. We call it avascular necrosis of head of femur. She did nothing wrong other than bleaching.
What prompted this discussion was my encouter this week with a middle aged woman who developed chronic kidney disease as a result of long term steroid cream use. Health related issues from bleaching are endless. It can also exercerbate some medical conditions like diabetes mellitus. Just know it can affect any organ in the body especially vital organs like kidney because the bleaching agents gets absorbed directly into the system and circulates round the body. A lot is yet to be known about skin bleaching in relation to health as the practice is still relatively new.
Have you seen or experienced any health challenge as a result of skin bleaching??
Don't get me wrong
There are people among us who are naturally and genetically light skinned while some people's skin colour and texture improves when they actively and consciously take Care of their skin with good skin care products.
I'm not even saying bleaching is good or bad. Its a choice. I'm just making you aware of things to anticipate as complications and lifestyle changes. However, let us not involve children yet. Let them grow up to make their decision themselves and choose to either practice skin bleaching or not. don't do it for them.
A lot of questions left un answered. I'll await your opinions in the comment session.
Thank you.