50 SHADES OF… WHITE?
Why are millions of women across the globe ignoring serious health risks to obtain lighter skin?
Skin lightening’s a multi-billionrand industry that dominates the cosmetic market. Largely uncontrolled, it offers consumers hundreds of whitening products and treatments, many of which are illegal. Powders, creams, face washes, masks, capsules and intravenous injections are but a handful of ever-evolving methods used to whiten the skin.
While many countries have tried to regulate the industry’s trade, the high demand for its products has led them to flourish on the black market. Wealthier consumers have access to pricier but safer ingredients, but everyone else has no choice but to stick with cheaper alternatives laced with dangerous chemicals. Hydroquinone, a chemical that inhibits melanin production, is one of the most harmful ingredients found in skin-lightening products, but it’s also the most sought-after ingredient due to the results it yields. Despite being banned, it still shows up in black-market products all over the world.
Accessing skin-lightening products and advice on how to use them has never been easier, especially in the digital age. A host of online stores promise only the best imported products, while people use countless forums to share information, tips, product recommendations, and both positive and negative experiences. On Youtube, skin-lightening videos often accrue several million views –among the most popular are those made by vloggers who focus on the use of products with natural (or at least naturalsounding) ingredients, either made at home or created by pharmaceutical companies. Many modern-day, skin-whitening products are also said to contain collagen; so aside from satisfying the consumer’s desire for lighter skin, they also promise to keep them looking forever young. Is there any truth in it?
What is it?
Also known as skin bleaching, it’s a cosmetic procedure to reduce the skin’s pigmentation (its natural colouring). Most of these products contain a chemical that suppresses melanin, the pigment that gives your skin its colour.
What are the longterm effects?
Long-term use of skin-lightening treatments can lead to premature ageing, and may raise the risk of skin cancer as a result of sun damage. Creams that contain hydroquinone can cause exogenous ochronosis, a disorder that causes blue-black pigmentation. If you use topical steroids for a long time, it can result in steroid-induced acne, skin thinning or striae (a form of scarring on the skin with an off-colour hue). It can also cause numbness, memory loss, high blood pressure and kidney failure, as a result of mercury poisoning.
can it be reversed?
Yes. But, like the process of skin lightening, it takes weeks, if not years.
What’s the difference between skin brightening and lightening?
Skin brightening’s known as skin illuminating. Its role is to maintain a bright, radiant complexion, not to whiten your skin. As we age, the rate we produce new skin slows down, and because we don’t shed cells as fast, our skin appears dull, especially if we’ve also subjected it to sun damage and stress. Treatments that brighten the skin do so via exfoliation (sloughing off the top layer of the skin’s surface).
What happens When you stop having treatment?
The skin’s renewed regularly, including the formation of new melanin. When you use a bleaching cream, it either reduces the activity of the cells that produce melanin or stops it altogether. Even once the skin’s lightened, patients have to go back every few months.
“long-term use can lead to premature ageing”
What are the risks?
Many skin-lightening agents use harsh bleach to strip the pigment from the skin, which irritates it and causes discolouration. Other patients may develop ochronosis (yellowish discolouration of the tissue), which is impossible to treat. Some agents contain mercury, ➻
which can cause serious health problems. Not only is mercury dangerous for you; but it can also affect other people who breathe in the vapours released by it, or touch the same surface you’ve touched. Of the people who’ve had intravenous glutathione, some have developed serious skin disorders, and thyroid-function impairment.
do you offer skinlightening services?
I prescribe skin lightening for people who have hyperpigmentation, chloasma and acne spots, and treatments are performed under my supervision.
Why do Women do it?
Skin bleaching’s been around since the Egyptians considered darker skin a sign of the lower classes and didn’t regard it as beautiful. Local celebrities such as Mshoza and Khanyi Mbau say they look beautiful now that they’ve bleached their skin. It’s wrong to define black women’s beauty by European standards.
a culture of colourism
“it’s wrong to define beauty by european standards”
The idea a white complexion is beautiful is a deep-rooted cultural norm that featured prominently throughout the slave trade, colonialism and racial segregation. South African women lightened their skin and straightened their hair during Apartheid because they believed a paler complexion and hair that couldn’t hold a pencil could win them a more advantageous racial classification, and, therefore, better access to resources and benefits.
In a country with deeply embedded racist foundations, negative connotations about skin colour will inevitably be prominent, leading to the phenomenon of colourism – discrimination against people of the same race based on the shade of their skin. This happens mostly in black communities. The socialisation that white or light skin’s better starts with the family unit. The moment a child’s born, relatives start comparing their skin colour to their siblings’. Girls with lighter skin are considered prettier than girls with darker skin, which changes their perception of what it means to be beautiful as they enter puberty. Children and teens learn to be dissatisfied with how they look and want to ‘fix’ the problem, a mindset that extends into adulthood and intensifies with age.
Companies are profiting from exploiting skin-colour insecurities, using black women to market lucrative skin-lightening products.
Many people around the world still consciously or unconsciously associate being white with a higher status, beauty and intelligence. With this in mind, skin bleaching’s used to advance everything from careers to relationships. Some argue that people only lighten their skin to distance themselves from their race – it’s where the term ‘light-skin privilege’ comes from.
Women look to social media to affirm their beauty against the dominant mantra that being fair is lovely. Even though brands such as Fenty Beauty have fine-tuned formulas for all women and pushed the conversation around inclusivity to the forefront, colourism still dictates to what degree we’re allowed to celebrate our colour.
While it’s good that that blackness is being celebrated, it does seem that there’s this constant need for reinforcement that dark skin is attractive.
To challenge colourism, we must draw attention to the lack of people with darker skin shades in high-profile or high-status positions, and the obstacles they face. These obstacles include a global beauty industry that thrives on insecurity and the allure of achievable enhancement built upon ideals that privilege whiteness and light skin. Only in recognising and challenging the racism that underpins colourism can we begin to address this pernicious prejudice.