Nigerian Women Desire Fair Skin, But At What Cost

Omo pupa oooo (fair-skinned woman)
Omo pupa le mi fe…… (It’s a fair-skinned woman I want)

In the 80s, that chorus was a prevalent one in Nigeria; it simply refers to a Nigerian singer earnestly declaring his love for fair-skinned women, but since time immemorial, skin lightening, and bleaching has been common practice with Nigerian women, despite all efforts by medical practitioners and the Food & Drug agency to warn women of the damaging complications that arise from this unhealthy skin care practice.

It is important to note that the increased desire to bleach one’s skin amongst African women, particularly Nigerian women, stems from various psychological, cultural, sociopolitical and historical factors. Unfortunately, many local cosmetic companies have used these driving factors as a tool to capitalize on this market.

A study by WHO in 2018 revealed that 77% of Nigerian women use bleaching creams which was the highest in Africa compared to other countries like Senegal and Togo, meaning that there is still a lot of awareness to be done regarding the dangers of using skin bleaching creams.

Although the factors that contribute more to making bleaching cream enticing to Nigerian women, however, on close observation, are the continuous glorification of light-skinned women by societal beauty standards in general, media & cultural influences as well as some psychological trauma which influences women to believe that they have to become light-skinned to appeal to the male gaze.

A recent altercation between a skin-bleaching product merchant, popularly known as Igbinoba Jennifer, the owner of a popular skincare brand, Jenny’s Glow and a displeased customer, Amaka Duru, caused an outrage on social media after the former called out the latter for damaging her face, making it unappealing with her skin lightening products.

Amaka Duru’s predicament with the skin- bleaching merchant is just one amongst a thousand others who, due to the desperate need to lighten their skin, fall prey to harmful skin products that are unhealthy for their skin.

Effects Of Skin Bleaching

Speaking about the harmful side effects of skin bleaching, beauty writer and skincare enthusiast, Nelly Nwose told Naija News that “bleaching could result in acute (short-term) or chronic (long-term) adverse reactions and can occur in different people based on the duration of use of the bleaching product, individual skin types, and ingredients used in the product formulation.

“Majority of these bleaching creams are ladened with ingredients like Hydroquinone & Mercury in excessive amounts which have toxic effects with chronic use. Sometimes they even mix ingredients like hollandia yoghurt, powdered milk, raw lemon juice in these skincare potions which could trigger certain kinds of bacterial and fungi skin infections.

“Acute (short-term) side effects include skin irritation & inflammation, which may present as a burning sensation, excessive dryness of the skin, stinging, bacterial or fungi acne and general discomfort of the skin whenever the bleaching product is applied.

“In contrast, Chronic (long-term) side effects include permanent discolouration, scarring or thinning of the skin and systemic damage such as kidney failure, fertility problems and neurological issues. Chronic abuse of hydroquinone mostly results in a condition called Exogenous Ochronosis which is characterised by the permanent discolouration of the skin as depicted in the image below while chronic abuse of products containing Mercury usually results in kidney failure and neurological issues as it is readily absorbed into the bloodstream once applied on the skin.

“Oftentimes these ingredients, especially Mercury & Steroids, are not included on the product labels making it hard for customers to discern so it is generally safe to avoid products with claims of skin whitening that do not come with appropriate ingredient listings on their labels.”

Arm with stretch mark

For long term side effects associated with skin bleaching, the beauty writer maintained that the risks involved with the act greatly outweighs its benefit so it is paramount that women will begin to accept and care for their natural skin tones in ways that accentuate their beauty without resorting to changing their skin tone.

A Way Forward?

Following the rapid growth in the use of these unlicensed skin products, it is of utmost importance that severe consequences of skin bleaching are continuously spread till more women decide to let go of this unhealthy practice, desist from patronizing bleaching cream merchants and wholly embrace the use of clean skincare products and practices. 

Government established agencies like the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and SON, among other regulatory agencies must ensure that local vendors go through the process of learning from certified skin experts, and also create the need to increase their surveillance efforts to ensure that these bleaching cream merchants are adequately penalized for engaging in such harmful businesses.

It is high time these agencies woke up to their responsibilities of discouraging women from the use of bleaching products and patronage of the harmful  products from uncertified skin vendors littered everywhere.

And lastly, consumers should take intentional steps towards safety by ensuring to read product labels and strictly adhering to the direction and duration of use.