Asian women aren’t the only ones obsessed with having light and fair skin. It seems to be the problem in Nigeria too, and they go as far as to using bleach. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 77% of women in Nigeria use skin-lightening products, which is the world’s highest percentage.
In various parts of Africa, lighter-skinned women are deemed more beautiful and are more successful and likely to find marriage, and this doesn’t stop with women too. Some men are also involved in bleaching their skin too.
Skin-lightening creams are not effectively regulated in Nigeria, where even roadside vendors sell tubes and plastic bags of powders and ointments, where many of these packages are unlabelled as to their actual ingredients.
A cosmetic shop owner says that 90% of her clients come asking for skin whitening products. She sells them the product while giving them advice on what product’s best for them and how to use them. The staff also mix different ointments and creams for customers depending on their “desired level of lightness”.
Bleaching products, especially when used on the skin can cause cancer. We firmly believe that everyone’s beautiful the way you are and going to drastic measures to change that seems quite uncalled for.
Source: Al Jazeera
