Skin bleaching???

Skin bleaching is the process of lightening or whitening the dark areas of the skin. bleaching is done to even out the skin or change skin color from dark to light skin.

Bleaching can be quite dangerous to our health because most of these products contain chemical ingredients like hydroquinone and mercury, Using these products over time can greatly disfigure the skin and can ruin the melanin.

Growing up, I’ve seen people bleach their skin and in just a few years they look way older with bad-looking skin, I’d advise people who are invested in bleaching their skin to stop because of the adverse effects. If you’re using a bleaching product to clear dark spots, it’ll most likely make your face way lighter than your body, some even make the spots more visible. It may eventually clear out the spots but other parts of your body will be darker and you’d want to balance it, that's where body bleaching begins.

My societal view on skin bleaching

Bleaching products come mostly in form of creams, injections, soaps, pills e.t.c. People in society encourage bleaching, when I was much younger I used to feel ugly because I saw how light skin was more appreciated and if you’re dark skinned you automatically become ugly and inferior. In my secondary school, there were times bants like who is the finest girl in the class came up, and every time it did a light-skinned or even two light-skinned girls were always picked before the dark ones. There were even times people would tell me “ oh if you were light-skinned like your mother, you would have been so beautiful” but my mum was strongly against it, she’d tell me how perfect my skin color is and how it suits me. I had friends who told me “ You look very pretty, if you were light-skinned, you wouldn’t be as pretty as this” these words comforted me, and I stopped feeling less beautiful because of my skin color. I feel like one of the reasons why people bleach is due to how dark skin is being discriminated against, they bow to the pressure of you have to be light-skinned to be beautiful but thank God modeling agencies nowadays appreciate dark skin thereby making other people see the light and realize everybody is pretty/ beautiful their natural skin color is. Another reason some people bleach is because they want perfect skin, they see adverts for skincare products where the celebrity or model is having perfect and clear skin, and they get carried away forgetting all of these are advertising strategies and all these videos and pictures are edited to look perfect. As Nigerians or even Africans, the society we live in plays a solid role in skin bleaching, we need to encourage people to stick with their skin color, and use products that’ll give that natural glow regardless of the skin.

Consequences of bleaching

1. skin irritation, scars, swelling, acne, numbness, redness e.t.c

2. kidney failure

3. Fatigue, loss of appetite

4. Large and painful lumps

5. Skin ulcers

6. Discoloration

Skin bleaching does not benefit the health in any way and if you've done it please see a dermatologist. You should also know that bleaching doesn’t lighten the skin permanently, you have to continue using the products.