“If you want to see how serious people are about skin lightening, consider the use of filters on social media whereby people always use filters that make them appear lighter, hence they perceive themselves as more appealing to the eyes of the online community.”
Sadly, Muchiri confirms that the pursuit of lighter complexions through bleaching or skin lightening is not going away any time soon.
But as Atieno admits, there are safer ways of skin lightening compared to uses bleaches.
“The right way of doing this is using skin lightening products such as those made from plants rather than skin bleaches. They are however much more expensive than bleaches. For instance, lighteners made from plants only remove discolorations caused by too much exposure to the sun, or spots left by acne breakouts. What they essentially do is brighten the skin and restore it to a much lighter version of the user.”
Hence, while skin lighteners brighten the skin, they do not change skin tones as do skin bleaches.
“With the correct treatment, one can restore their skin to a shade equal or closer to their original skin tones. However, it is impossible to convert, for instance, a dark brown complexion to a very fair complexion,” she adds to conclusion.