Skin Bleaching is now a common phenomenon in our world today. It is more common in Africa and most common in Nigeria. Statistics shows that one out of every six girls in Nigeria is using a dermatological product to either lighten or enhance her skin tone.
Before I take you further on the adverse effects of skin bleaching let’s take a look at some definitions given by different authors towards the subject of interest, below is the 1st definition;
” Skin Bleaching can be defined as the depigmentation treatment to remove dark spots caused by aging, blemishes, disease, hormone changes and the sun. It is not intended to lighten your overall appearance for the sake of beauty.
Author 2: en.Wikipedia. org:
Skin bleaching refer to the practice of using chemical substances in an attempt to lighten skin tone or provide an even skin complexion by reducing the melanin concentration in the skin.
Looking at the 2 definitions critically we should be able to understand what skin Bleaching means. Skin bleaching can also be called skin whitening, skin toning etc.
Skin bleaching can be carried out using certain types of chemical agents that tend to reduce the concentration of melanin on the skin. Chemicals used for skin bleaching may include the following:
Tretinoin:
This chemical is also known as all-trans retinoic acid and it is used in the treatment of skin discoloration.
Hydroquinone:
it is used in the inhibition of melanin production, meaning that it prevents dark skin from making the substance responsible for skin color.
Depigmenting agents
depigmentation of the skin is common among people born with vitiligo, which produces differing areas of light and dark skin. These individuals, if they so decided to use a lightening process to even out their skin tone, could apply a topical cream containing the organic compound monobenzone to lessen the remaining pigment.
Mercury
Many skin whiteners contain toxic mercury such as mercury(II) chloride or ammoniated mercury. However mercury has been banned in most countries for use in skin whitening because it accumulates on skin and it can have the opposite results in the long term.
HARMFUL EFFECT OF SKIN BLEACHING :
Hydroquinone, Mercury(II)chloride and Ammoniated mercury are capable of causing mutations in bacteria and are possibly carcenogenic in most cases. Just in case you dont know the full meaning of carcenogenic, I have compiled a little definition for you below
“A carcinogen is any substance, radionuclide, or radiation that is an agent directly involved in causing cancer. This may be due to the ability to damage the genome or to the disruption of cellular metabolic processes.”
Extracting from thedermatologygroup.com we could find out the following for ourselves :
“Overly bleached skin can look like: unnaturally white with a grayish, very dull tint. However, the corpse-like skin is not even the worse of it. When Hydroquinone is used in doses higher than 2% or over a period longer than three months, the whole skin lightening business can have some pretty negative, even paradoxical results. “With higher concentrations of the medicine, there have been reports of the development of exogenous ochronosis, the darkening of the skin which is permanent and very resistant to any treatment,”
agbonaija.com 