I
woke up this morning and this thought came to my mind; HUMANS ALWAYS WANT TO BE
WHAT THEY ARE NOT. You want to doubt me? Fine, like me prove my point.
In Africa, we are dark-skinned, so we go for SKIN
BLEACHING. The Light-skinned people go for SUN TANNING.
Some people say they don’t bleach, they TONE. What is
toning? Wikipedia described a skin toner as a lotion or wash designed to
cleanse the skin and shrink the appearance of pores, usually used on the face, while skin whitening, skin lightening,
and skin bleaching refers to the practice of using chemical substances in an
attempt to lighten skin tone or provide an even skin complexion by lessening the concentration of melanin.
Do you still think you are toning?
Skin bleaching did not start today. The women of the
Elizabethan times used a lot of skin whitening agents just to get the pale skin
that was considered a sign of beauty. The dark skin was associated with slaves
and people of low socioeconomic class, not until a fashion designer, Coco
Chanel ACCIDENTALLY got sunburnt while visiting the French Riviera. When she
arrived home, she arrived with a suntan and her fans apparently liked the look
and started to adopt darker skin tones themselves.
What is responsible for skin colour?
Melanin, a pigment (colour) produced by specialized cells
(a specialized cell is a cell that does only one function) in the body called
melanocytes, is responsible for how dark the skin appears; dark people have
more melanin, while light skin people have less.
What is the function of melanin in the body? Melanin absorbs
the dangerous ultraviolet rays from the sun and prevents it from causing damage
to the skin. This means that the more you are exposed to the sun, the more melanin
you will require, and the darker you will become. Melanin is an effective absorber of
light; the pigment is able to dissipate over 99.9% of absorbed UV radiation.
Because of this property, melanin is thought to protect skin cells from UV
radiation damage reducing the risk of cancer. Furthermore, though exposure to
UV radiation is associated with increased risk of malignant melanoma, a cancer
of the melanocytes, studies have shown a lower incidence for skin cancer in
individuals with more concentrated melanin, i.e. darker skin tone. Melanin is
also found in the hair, brain, eyes (people with gray, blue, and green eyes are
more at risk for sun-related eye problems), ears and adrenal glands. Albinos lack
melanin; that is the primary disorder.
What happens when you are exposed to a lot of sun light yet
you have CHEMICALLY BLOCKED the synthesis (or production) of melanin? The UV
light now gets to you directly since there is nothing to absorb it. This is
what bleaching the African skin does.
In 2015, the World Health
Organisation described Nigeria as having the highest number of women bleaching
their skin in Africa. People who bleach have easily identifiable uneven
patches of darker skin fading away and the dark colour still retained by the
joints, the elbows and knuckles.
Bleaching
has several dangerous medical consequences. Hydroquinone, a bleaching agent
found in most skin lightening products, suppresses the production of melanin,
reducing the skin’s natural shield against the sun’s ultraviolet rays
increasing the risk of skin cancer. It also penetrates the skin and causes
damage to connective tissue, inducing premature aging. Mercury, another toxin
found in bleaching creams, causes cancer.
Bleaching weakens the skin so that it cannot be stitched
when cut during surgery. This is because a bleached skin has decreased
thickness, hence wounds won’t heal and stitches may come off. If the chemicals
are absorbed in the bloodstream they can cause organ failure and brain damage.
The
society needs a complete attitude adjustment concerning the meaning of true
beauty. The phrase “black is beautiful” needs to be revived both in speech and
action.
The only thing about dark skin is
that you need a longer time in the sun to get enough vitamin D. This is for ‘foreign’
sun. Nigerian sun will give you enough vitamin D in 10 minutes. The sun is hotter here and UV rays are more. This
means you need more melanin. Lifetime cumulative UV exposure to skin is also responsible for significant
age-associated dryness, wrinkling, elastin and collagen damage, freckling, age
spots and other cosmetic changes.
My advice to you; if you are dark,
remain the way you are because you need that melanin to protect you from
accelerated aging and cancers.
We appreciate what you think. Drop your
comments below.
No Responses to "Effects of bleaching the black skin"
Post a Comment