Fairness cream - an article which is found in every home today. even if we are watching T.V & advertisements come in beween the show, atleast one ad is that of a fairness cream. with so many brands doing the rounds in the market,people even have variety in choosing which cream they want. The situation is such that we have fairness cream for every age, every skin-type,every weather and it goes for both the sexes. With the fairness cream for men also out in the market,even the males are openly using them now. And, girls' fetish for make-up and to look fair is well known since ages. From cleopatra to nefertiti, from greek godesses to indian queens, all had their ways by which they maintained the fair complexion of their skin. So, no doubt that fairness creams sell like hot cakes even today. But,there is one question- CAN THESE CREAMS REALLY MAKE SOMEONE FAIR COMPLEXIONED..?
The answer is a very faint yes. the yes is faint because these creams can only save our skin against sun-tan and stop the darkeining of skin. But,they can't improve one's complexion. And there is a perfect scientific reason for that.
Acording to science,our skin gets darkened because of producton of melanin cells secreted by the pineal gland. The gland becomes active when our skin gets exposed to the sun. In order to pevent or skin from sunburn,melanin gets produced which protects our skin from harmful rays of sun. Due to these malanin cells' production,our skin gets tannes and thus darkened. Thats why people living in snowy and less sunny regions have a fairer complexion than those living in hot and sunny regions. This also implies one more fact- our skin is most fair when we are born and as the time progresses our skin gets exposed to sun and our complexion becomes darker. So,if you are one of those fairness cream freaks,then just look at the colour of your armpits (they are least exposed to sun during our lifetime). Your skin can never ever become fairer that the colour of your armpits naturally.
Lets discuss the functioning of a fairness cream. When we apply fairness cream on our faces, the cream acts as a shield. since it acts as a barrier between sunrays and our skin,the melanin need not be produced and hence our skin does not get tanned and stops the skin fron darkening.Thats all they can do.They can't make our skin fairer. Thats about the creams that are relatively cheap and used by the maximum percentage of people.
Now,about those creams that actually make your skin fairer.Yes,there are creams that can actually make your skin fair. Such creams contain tropical salts(name witheld deliberately). What such creams do is that they remove the layer of melanin that gets deposited on our skin due to tanning due to sunrays.so,they react with melanin & remove it from our face and thus our skin looks fairer than before. this is basic way of action of various "anti-ageing" and "get fair in 7-days" creams that burn a hole in our pockets with their high prices. But that harmful effect is that it reduces the thickness of your skin. Since.it removes the layer of melanin,it makes your skin thinner.So if one uses it over a period of time,the skin becomes a lot thinner and it's defence against the harmful rays of sun becomes very weak as most of the melanin cells are dead due to the reaction of the cream on our skin.This is equivalent to the exposure of sun due to depletion of ozone hole.thus it really increases the risk of skin cancer and other skin related diseases.and the hazards don't end here. it may make our skin look younger and fair for a short periond of time. But,take my word,in five years time,the skin would look like that of a fifty-year old person. one would atart getting wrinkles at very realy age. you would need more and more of it with time to maintain your complexion which would make our skin further thinner. So,its a catch-22 situation. It would either get you heavy wrinkles and ageing over time or else give you skin diseases like skin cancer.The choice is yours.
If that isnt enough,have this. All of us have seen michael jackson. Did his fair skin ever look natural to you? NO. Yes,even if one gets fair by such creams,it wont look like naturally fair skin. Morever,your skin will become so thin that one would start bleeding even if the skin just gets lightly bruised by something.
If that isnt enough to get over the fetish for fair skin,analyze this fact.people living in china,japan,kashmir,nepal and other regions also have fair skin. But,how many of them actually look beautiful even with fair skin? Not even 50%. the fact being that looking beautiful doesnt have anything to do with skin texture. It depends more on the shape of the face. the shape of people's face in cold regions is moulded due to the climate. So,not many of them are beautiful. there is perfect mathematical formula for position of various features of your face that contribute to them looking beautiful(If you don't believe me,read wikipedia).if a handsome person is given any skin colour or hairstyle,he'd still look as handsome beacuse the position and shape of eyes,nose,ears,lips,etc wouls still be the same.So,if one is handsome,he is born that way. Skin colour hardly goes to modify your beauty. So.we should remember that stayin natural is the best way to have a good and lifely skin. Fairness wont help much. And,remember the fact- We cant have a skin fairer than the colour of our armpits in a natural way.
(this article is wriiten as my personal opinion. Facts may vary with time or place.)
(with inputs from hemant yadav)
