What price are women willing to pay for whiter skin?

By Injil Abu Bakar

NEW YORK (JP): Have we become so impatient? Yes, like many, we have begun to run out of patience because today, everything seems to be 'fast', starting with instant noodles to Internet communications.

As a matter of fact, Dr. Lee Chui Tho, a dermatologist at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore, often meets beautiful young women who come to see him with a single urgent request: "I want to have white skin by tomorrow, doctor! Please give me a potent injection of skin whitener." Other less patient women often tell him they do not want to use any whitening cream as they were not patient enough to wait for the result.

Dr. Chui Tho asked me the other day, why Indonesians are so obsessed with white skin. Many of his patients have flown in from Indonesia with the single hope of "changing the color of their skin in Singapore". Some of them leave Indonesia for Singapore on Monday morning, and returned to Indonesia by first flight on Tuesday morning with white skin. What makes Dr. Chui Tho increasingly infuriated and concerned is the discovery of the "wonderful injection of skin whitener" which they say is capable of producing white skin out of dark skin! They say such stories have come from his Indonesian patients.

"Have you ever heard of such an amazing injection?", the doctor asked me.

"No. That is why I still have brown skin, in fact, it's browner than it was before. If only I had known of the wonderful injection, I would have ...!", I told him jokingly.

Is the "wonder medicine" capable of creating pure white skin out of dark? Millions of women who are so obsessed with becoming "white" or "whiter", have all of a sudden found the catharsis of their dream. But again, is the cream or promising injection really able to prove its power? Are these products safe for our health?

Hydroquinone is an ingredient used in many skin whitening cosmetics. This particular ingredient hampers the formation of melanin pigments which cause the skin to become dark. Accordingly, one's skin becomes darker because he or she has a larger quantity of melanin.

Melanin pigments actually protect the skin against the sun's rays. In other words, the more melanin pigments embedded in the skin, the more protection the skin has. We should, therefore, be thankful to God for having dark brown skin.

Most skin whitening cosmetics work by forcing the layers of the skin to peel off radically. Consequently, while waiting for the new skin cells to grow underneath the skin, the skin becomes totally unprotected from environmental impact, particularly sun rays.

Unfortunately, though, exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays is capable of stimulating skin cancer growth.

Sujata Jolly, a dermatologist from England, has been campaigning incessantly for the banning of all skin whitening products. When skin whitener is applied, the skin becomes flawless, tough (not easily cut), and all freckles totally disappear and indeed the skin looks whiter and smoother. The effect of this is very fast, and the results will be visible in a matter of weeks. However, this does not mean that skin whiteners do not have undesirable side effects. Sun rays will make the skin color of someone using this skin whitening cosmetics darker. If this happens, the user may probably use a larger quantity of skin whitener. The effect of such accumulation is, according to Dr. Jolly, very dangerous. The skin will be damaged, its surface will break down and open up, which enables the chemicals in the cosmetics to enter the blood, the kidneys, and the liver.

Another hazardous ingredient found in nearly all skin whitening cosmetics is mercury. Mercury has the potential to whiten skin, however, it also has the potential to cause damage not only to the skin, but also the brain.

Another side effect of skin whitener is called the "rebound effect", meaning that if the usage of the whitening cream is discontinued, the skin will return to its prior color. In fact it can be worse. The skin will usually become black with red spots on the skin, looking just like cooked shrimp.

Unfortunately, skin whitening cosmetics are widely marketed and in high demand particularly in the last few years. This product, selling piped dreams to millions of women is usually imported from abroad and has interested and convinced consumers.

The most saddening thing is, the target market of this product is colored-skin people, consequently cosmetic exports have been going on unchecked to Asia and Africa in particular. In South Africa, a country with very tight control of the marketing of hydroquinone material, doctors are extremely worried about uncontrolled sales of whitening cosmetics made in England in unlicensed supermarkets.

The situation has caused more concern because the company producing skin whitening cosmetics states that the hydroquinone content in their products does not exceed 2 percent, which is still within the permitted limit.

Nevertheless, the results of the tests conducted by the Research Center of Quality Guarantee of South Africa University revealed that two of the most popular whitener products, namely Amira and Jaribu, each has a hydroquinone contents of more than twice the permitted limit. A South African skin specialist, Dr. Hillary Carman has since 1992 been involved in campaigns urging tighter control on the usage of hydroquinone, calling English exporters immoral. She is of the opinion that the incident is another example of first world countries' exploitation of the third world!

And as has happened to women throughout the world, African women have been buying dreams full of lies!

While white-skinned people dream of having darker skin and darken their skin a little at beauty parlors, those of colored skin are infatuated with the dream of having whiter skin.

It seems that accepting and loving oneself is something not so easy to do. This, however, is the only thing that can stop us from becoming a victim of our own dreams.