The excessively scandalous myth of ‘lighter is better’ has taken shape and is continuously misleading many black women all over the world.
This has resulted in a huge market there for skin lightening products. Black skinned people use a lot of these skin lightening products, often knowing what the side effects are and still want to be whiter just to fit in.
Let us speak out against entrenched racist concepts. In third world countries, it is much worse. Poorly labelled or mislabeled products attempt to validate the myth and just feed profit motive.
Manufacturers may not be fully interested in the side effects or labelling may be misleading or downright false.
Why do skin exists in different colors is a trivial matter. It squarely involves genetics. Where your previous hundreds of generation has lived, food you eat.
Black is beautiful. Don’t you know? Keep your black skin in the best possible condition with daily refreshen Microdermabrasion. It is affordable and you are certainly worth it.
Beware of skin bleaches and lightening creams, most especially creams manufactured outside the United States. Topical Hydroquinone (C 6 H 6 O 2 ) comes in 2% (as a cosmetic) and up to 4% or higher, available from a physician by prescription.
Hydroquinone is available topically by itself or in combination with Tretinoin .05% to 0.1%. Research has shown Hydroquinone and Tretinoin to be both effective skin lighteners and dangerous substances.
Hydroquinone has been shown to cause leukaemia in mice and other animals. The European Union banned it from cosmetics in 2001. Still, it materializes in the third world countries particularly Africa.
Even in these strengths, it is unsafe and uncool. These products survive because of a corrupt profit motive and the shameful belief that the lighter your skin, the better.
Would you use a cream or soap that may cause skin cancer, liver damage, kidney damage or poisoning? At a subconscious level in contemporary society, there still exists the old myth that lighter complexions are the equivalent to beauty, assets and success.
That myth is just plain bunk. Let us be proud of our African skin. Let us take care of our African skin.