Do you have patches on your skin and feel embarrassed by it or are you black and have considered using a bleaching cream? If yes, have also considered the consequences it can have on your skin? If no, then I believe you’ve got to read this article.
Fairness creams sell in countries where people are predominantly dark skinned, but aspire towards lighter complexions. This very basis is wrong. They are also very bad for the skin. I read that there can be no fairness cream without skin-bleaching agents such as hydroquinone, steroids, mercury salts, and a number of other ingredients, including bismuth subnitrate, hydrogen peroxide, magnesium peroxide and zinc peroxide -- all of which have negative effects. These range from irritation, allergies and sun sensitivity to even cancer!
Then Why bleach?
Black skin renews itself quickly, rapidly producing new skin cells, this ability for regeneration keep our skin looking younger for longer. Whenever Black skin is traumatised, it produces an excess of melanin in the area. This hyper-pigmentation can eventual cut producing a dark patch where it is healed. Skin bleaches are often used in an attempt to even out skin tone or remove dark patches caused by injury. However, in some sections of the society, particularly in African communities, skin bleaches are used to lighten the skin in the misguided belief that a lighter complexion is better.
Hydroquinone is a very powerful chemical that it used as the key ingredient in the photographic process of development, but is also used in the rubber industry as an antioxidant, and as an agent in hair dyes. Mercury is another product often used in some cosmetic products as a bleaching agent. Severly toxic, it can cause skin to go grey or blue black, rather than lighter, and in many cases has resulted in the user suffering from mercury poisoning.
The production of the most commonly used bleaching agent, hydroquinone (chemical formula C6H6O2), came into existence by accident, after Black workers in a rubber plant found that when a certain chemical came into contact with their skin it caused light patches of skin. The workers sued for damages as a result of their injuries, but their ‘discovery’ led to the commercial production of cosmetic creams containing hydroquinone as a bleaching agent.
How does bleaching cream work?
Bleaching creams work by stripping the skin of its natural pigmentation. However, in dark skinned people, the pigmentation is the skin’s natural protection from the sun. Bleaching doesn’t just superficially lighten the skin, it alters the skin’s ‘natural’ structure, removing and inhibiting the production of the colour creating melanin.
Once the skin has been ‘bleached’ it loses its natural protective barrier, making it susceptible to damage by the sun’s rays. This is also why many bleaching products contain either sunscreen, or come with instructions advising people to use sun protection creams along with the product. Prolonged use of these bleaching products can also prevent the formation of melanin in the deeper basal layers of the skin, which will leave the skin lighter, but also leave it more vulnerable to damage. Hydroquinone in particular, has been found to damage the connective tissue in the skin and cartilage, hence its removal from skincare products. People who use bleaching products can end up with rough and blotchy skin, and then get caught up in the ‘bleaching trap’ by using more cream to try and correct the problem, and by doing so, find themsevles causing even more damage to their skin. Alternatively, they may find that because of exposure to the sun, their ‘lightened skin’ gets darker.
Fairness creams sell in countries where people are predominantly dark skinned, but aspire towards lighter complexions. This very basis is wrong. They are also very bad for the skin. I read that there can be no fairness cream without skin-bleaching agents such as hydroquinone, steroids, mercury salts, and a number of other ingredients, including bismuth subnitrate, hydrogen peroxide, magnesium peroxide and zinc peroxide -- all of which have negative effects. These range from irritation, allergies and sun sensitivity to even cancer!
Then Why bleach?
Black skin renews itself quickly, rapidly producing new skin cells, this ability for regeneration keep our skin looking younger for longer. Whenever Black skin is traumatised, it produces an excess of melanin in the area. This hyper-pigmentation can eventual cut producing a dark patch where it is healed. Skin bleaches are often used in an attempt to even out skin tone or remove dark patches caused by injury. However, in some sections of the society, particularly in African communities, skin bleaches are used to lighten the skin in the misguided belief that a lighter complexion is better.
Hydroquinone is a very powerful chemical that it used as the key ingredient in the photographic process of development, but is also used in the rubber industry as an antioxidant, and as an agent in hair dyes. Mercury is another product often used in some cosmetic products as a bleaching agent. Severly toxic, it can cause skin to go grey or blue black, rather than lighter, and in many cases has resulted in the user suffering from mercury poisoning.
The production of the most commonly used bleaching agent, hydroquinone (chemical formula C6H6O2), came into existence by accident, after Black workers in a rubber plant found that when a certain chemical came into contact with their skin it caused light patches of skin. The workers sued for damages as a result of their injuries, but their ‘discovery’ led to the commercial production of cosmetic creams containing hydroquinone as a bleaching agent.
How does bleaching cream work?
Bleaching creams work by stripping the skin of its natural pigmentation. However, in dark skinned people, the pigmentation is the skin’s natural protection from the sun. Bleaching doesn’t just superficially lighten the skin, it alters the skin’s ‘natural’ structure, removing and inhibiting the production of the colour creating melanin.
Once the skin has been ‘bleached’ it loses its natural protective barrier, making it susceptible to damage by the sun’s rays. This is also why many bleaching products contain either sunscreen, or come with instructions advising people to use sun protection creams along with the product. Prolonged use of these bleaching products can also prevent the formation of melanin in the deeper basal layers of the skin, which will leave the skin lighter, but also leave it more vulnerable to damage. Hydroquinone in particular, has been found to damage the connective tissue in the skin and cartilage, hence its removal from skincare products. People who use bleaching products can end up with rough and blotchy skin, and then get caught up in the ‘bleaching trap’ by using more cream to try and correct the problem, and by doing so, find themsevles causing even more damage to their skin. Alternatively, they may find that because of exposure to the sun, their ‘lightened skin’ gets darker.
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