"How skin lightening products work

There are two chemicals found in skin lightening products, Hydroquinone or Mercury.

O Hydroquinone (C6H6O2) is a severely toxic and very powerful chemical used in photo processing, the manufacture of rubber and is an active agent in hair dyes.

O Mercury in the form of Mercury Chloride & Ammoniated Mercury is carcinogenic. They appear on the list of toxic substances that can only be purchased via pharmacies with prescribed labels of toxicity.

Both products perform a similar process. In the short term they will initially cause the skin to lighten by inhibiting the production of melanin. Without melanin formation in the basal layer no brown pigmentation will be visible.

The long term effects, however, are those that must be addressed.

The long term effects of using skin lightening products

Hydroquinone or Mercury applied to the skin will react with ultra violet rays and re-oxidise, leading to more pigmentation and premature ageing. More product is then applied in an attempt to correct the darker blotchy appearance.

These are the beginnings of a vicious cycle. By altering the skins natural structure and inhibiting the production of Melanin, it's natural protection, the skin is more susceptible to skin cancer.

Prolonged use of Hydroquinone will thicken collegen fibres damaging the connective tissues. The result is rough blotchy skin leaving it with a spotty cavier appearance.

Mercury will slowly accumulate within the skin cells striping the skin of it's natural pigment leaving behind the tell tale signs of gray/ blue pigmentation in the folds of the skin. In the long term the chemical will damage vital organs and lead to liver and kidney failure and mercury poisoning.

Are these products legal?

Products containing up to 2 percent Hydroquinone were legally available in the UK until 2001 when the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) issued the draft 24th Commission Directive. This bans preparations with Hydroquinone due to the long term effects as it accumulates in the tissues. The UK Cosmetic Product Regulations 1978 prohibits the use of Mercury compounds."

To read the whole article please refer-http://www.pressbox.co.uk/detailed/Health/skin_bleaching/_lightening_its_dangers_37431.html
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In our quest for light skin,what are we really setting ourselves up for?

Wow, that's awesome. We'll work that into a sticky for that board ;)

How about making Skin Lightening into its own topic so that I can uncheck it?

It is it's own topic.
What do you mean by "uncheck it"?

Ah so it is! Sorry Rick I was referring to "Forums to exclude from View". I find the those Questions/threads to be extremely repetitive.

Yeah, the exclude feature is good. It has a limit, though. Not sure what that limit is - but I'm thinking 30 or so...

Wow, that's awesome. We'll work that into a sticky for that board ;)
Thank you.

Thank you for bringing this up Firm, I have been meaning to for a while now.

There are also steroidal based skin lightening creams. I was reading about the side effects of those the other day, it caused Cushings syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cushing's_syndrome), a very dangerous disease.
BBC NEWS | Health | Warning over illegal skin bleach (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7244374.stm)

Why does that forum exist? You might as well add a proana one whilst it's there and perhaps a deliberate self harm board as well. I really don't understand why a forum like this that on the most part is against people harming themselves has this section?

The only reason it's there is because it's such a fad that those people will ask it somewhere.

They used to clog the Skin Care board with it, so because of the volume, we had to make a board of it's own.

It's much easier to have a spot for it than to try to prohibit asking about it.

Thank you Temp.
I worry a lot about the amount of fairness creams in the market and the way the younger generations seems to be obsessed with it.

Being an Asian,I am dark skinned,fortunately I have never wanted to change my colour,but many kids today find the in-thing to do is to become fairer.

I can understand the need for such things by certain individuals because of discriminations they may have faced in their communities.Here where I am,there are ranges of skin colours and discrimination regarding skin colour is almost non-existent.There maybe an isolated cases.

The melanin maybe protecting us from harmful microorganisms according to the following article.
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"In mammals, melanin is contained inside vesicles called melanosomes. Larger, more numerous melanosomes make for darker skin. Mackintosh suggests melanosomes might act like lysosomes in the immune system, which engulf invading microorganisms and use enzymes to kill them.

"Melanin is a sticky molecule. The bacteria and fungi get tangled up, and it stops them from proliferating." Also, a protein called attractin is known to regulate both melanisation and immunity in humans, suggesting a link between the two."
To read the whole article-http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/Dark-skin-protects--337-1/
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You're the mod Rick so what you think is best goes but I think it would be brilliant of Firm's post makes it as a sticky. Can I suggest that the information about steroid creams gets included as well and possibly some pictures of side effects.

I also think that people should be encouraged to post their side effect stories in the thread such as this one https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/skin-lightening/lightening-skin-monobenzone-has-messed-skin-up-188828.html

I was serious about the comparison between skin lightening and anorexia. They have so much in common, young vulnerable women pressured to be perfect by society; both leading to the abuse of their bodies to fit some fabricated ideal. It's just so heartbreaking.

The timing on this is perfect. Just this week we added a Skin Lightening expert (PunkChic) to that baord. She's helping clean it up, monitor it to report the advertisements and cat-fights that are numerous there, and has some additional helpful info to share in a sticky.

For starters, I'll copy the opening post in this thread and stick it on Skin Lightening.

I was serious about the comparison between skin lightening and anorexia. They have so much in common, young vulnerable women pressured to be perfect by society; both leading to the abuse of their bodies to fit some fabricated ideal. It's just so heartbreaking.

I agree.
Wanting to try skin lightening and other alternatives to physically change who we are does seem to be signs of a bigger underlying problem.

Not to mention all the things media bombard the youngsters with their stereotypes of who is beautiful and who is not.
Dark skinned ones want to get lighter and the light skinned ones want to have their skin tanned.
Diet when they really need to eat,to grow and to feed their brains in their school years.

The sad part is that many girls do it to please their friends,guys or themselves but in the end their problems do not go away with a physical change.They forget that they need to understand what the real problem is and deal with that ,which in turn helps them view their bodies differently.