PUNCH
VICTOR AYENI examines the skin-whitening epidemic, why it has much appeal, the dangers inherent in the practice and how the beauty industry exploits people for profit
Sewa Adekoya felt much unease as she sat upright in the salon armchair while her hair was being worked on.
She would pause occasionally to giggle with her friend seated on a sofa placed against the wall, fiddling with her phone as risqué music lyrics played in the background.
About five years ago, as seen in her old photos, Adekoya was her natural, dark-skinned self, but she opted for lightening her skin with a cocktail of skin products.
As she stared directly into the mirror while an attendant braided her hair, sweat drops streamed down her face in spite of the fan blowing in her direction from across the room.
“Could you please increase the speed of your fan or put on another fan? I’m feeling too hot here,” she told the salon attendant, gesturing her need for air with a wave of her palm.
Although Adekoya’s fair skin had a striking visual appeal from afar, on a closer look, her face now had streaks of red patches, her knuckles had dark pigmentation, and her ankles down to her feet had an odd mix of colours that resembled the skins of overripe plantains.
“I take my skincare routine very seriously. I have an organic skincare customer who helped me get the particular skin formulation I use.
“It’s quite expensive but it works in bringing out your real skin colour. If you use them too, your real skin colour will show too, you won’t be this dark,” she told our correspondent with a reassuring smile.
By unraveling one’s “real skin colour” what she meant was skin bleaching – the practice of deliberately using chemical substances to lighten the skin or evenly change one skin’s colour through the reduction of melanin or pigment concentration in one’s skin.
Scary statistics
According to research conducted in 2017 by the International Journal of Dermatology, 15 per cent of the world’s population used skin-whitening products.
The study stated that the practice became popular in many African countries in the 1950s.
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