Fair and lovely, if the advertisements would have us believe, go together. Political incorrectness aside, what about the health effects of fairness creams? Kavita Devgan finds out
All of a sudden there is a deluge of advertisements for men’s fairness creams, with all the big guys of Bollywood endorsing a brand each, beaming ‘light’-headedly into the camera, selling the promise of success in life and love if one has a fair skin. It would have been laughable if not for the numbers. The market for fairness creams for women has always been robust, especially in Asian countries where people tend to be darker-skinned and therefore a lighter skin commands a premium, but now a whole new segment has been added, and obviously adding to the coffers. According to a study by XLRI Jamshedpur in 2009 the current market size of men’s fairness creams is about Rs 200 crore. They found that while the growth of the cosmetics industry as a whole is at 15 per cent, men’s fairness creams —there are six big names in the market— seem to be growing at around 30 per cent.
Clinical psychologists agree that this trend began about five years ago and has increased manifold in the last two years. All of a sudden, from the ‘lions don’t need to wash their faces’ generation of our fathers we have a whole new breed wanting to just look good as they feel this will give them a lead in all spheres of life. And fairness creams apparently seem to be the big ticket in this scheme of things. The focus, they say, seems to be shifting from physical power to physical appearance — read lighter skin — in men, especially in the 18 to 30 age bracket, resurfacing again between 40-45 years. They attribute it to a general attitude of looking for a quick panacea for low confidence and self-esteem, more than anything else. The truth is that what one needs is a change in the thinking process and behaviour rather than in the colour of one’s skin.
Do you need them?
Dermatologists opine that if you have a skin problem like pigmentation or freckles, then maybe you need specialised creams, but definitely there is no need to try and modify the colour of your skin. One should work instead to try and improve the texture of the skin and to keep it healthy. Brown and darker skins are ideally suited to tropical regions as they are protected against the excess heat of the sun. It doesn’t make sense to tamper with what nature has bestowed as a protective shield.
How they work
Fairness creams work only on the upper layer of the epidermis. They prevent the secretion of melanin (which gives the dark colour to the skin). But in doing so, the increase in exposure to UVA and UVB rays increases the risk of skin cancer due to UV exposure, not to speak of the carcinogenic effects of the chemical itself. In any case, all these products give only temporary results to make sure that people use them regularly. In fact one website even claims that the effect is reversible. That means the skin will return to its original tone in a few weeks, once you discontinue using the product.
The damage metre
Doctors list the most common side effects of regular usage of fairness creams as a ‘thinning’ of the skin; you can get an unhealthy reddish hue and often the blood vessels become visible. It could also lead to patchy pigmentation, aggravate acne and cause hair growth on the face. And if this is not enough, in some cases photosensitivity could also occur leading to mild itching or severe blisters, depending on how sensitive the skin is.
It is the steroids in fairness creams which cause the real damage; clobetasol being the more harmful. The bleaching agent Hydroquinone (banned in the European Union) is present in most creams and has the potential to cause cancer and kidney problems in the long run, besides being a skin irritant. Dermatologists warn of ‘paradoxical hyper pigmentation’ — chronic use can make the skin look even darker. Another common bleaching agent found in fairness creams is mercury — mercurous chloride — which also causes similar problems. The fact is that you may get skin a shade lighter, but what about the other harmful effects?
On the damage scale, men tend to be even more affected than women as fairness creams formulated for them contain a higher concentration of the bleaching agent (often on the misconception that their skin is ‘harder’ than that of women).
Final call
Most dermatologists feel that fairness creams should be used, if at all, under medical supervision. The lack of scientific studies to back their efficacy, vague labelling and tall claims — all of this stand poorly up to the question of whether they are needed at all. And as for the more serious matter of reinforcing prejudices and lulling the susceptible into a false sense of self-esteem, the less said the better.
(Kavita Devgan is a Delhi-based nutritionist and writer)
