Well, as someone who hates bleaching, there is a chance some readers are not going to like what I have to say. As a Nigerian who has also been with foreign ladies, I believe I qualify to speak about this topic.
Bleaching creams used to be sold by companies and one very popular brand is CAROWHITE. But these days, there are way too many Instagram vendors that sell bleaching creams in all sorts of containers and under other guises.
The most popular guise under which bleaching creams are sold is the so-called “GLOW UP” creams. Please ladies, call a dog by its name.
There is also a massive amount of backlash online if you tell a bleaching woman that she is bleaching. I can only assume that people who bleach tend to defend each other and since there is a massive amount of them these days…well, the bleachers can cancel you online.
I didn’t have to write this blog post this way but I just have a huge disdain for these products. People who use it just tend to smell funny and it just always catches up with you.
Here are a few reasons why Nigerian ladies bleach.
Inferiority complex
This is perhaps a result of colonization where the whites controlled our lands. There is this impression that anything white is good and anything bad is evil.
It is everywhere. It is in our churches and mosques where the major messengers of God are depicted as someone who has fair skin.
Young girls are usually told by their bigger aunties that the only way to attract guys or get their attention is to GLOW up. But this is not entirely wrong. The whole country is obsessed with color. But for people who know the importance of keeping their skin just the way God intended it, people like me, I will always go for the natural. If you happen to be naturally fair, so be it.
Dark skin is a sign of poverty
People have a sick mentality and there is a tendency to see black-skinned people as people who are poor. It is not supposed to be, but the madness sometimes beats my imagination as well.
I get that a lot of people need to work under the sun in their bid to make ends meet. I get it that spending too much time in the sun can make you darker over time. But the issue is that even girls or guys who have never had to work under the sun are still stereotyped and thought of as being poor due to the dark shade of their skin.
It is not uncommon for girls who hit some money to hurriedly bleach their skin. If you ask them why they are now darker, they will claim they now have more money and don’t need to work under the sun, hence the reason why their skin is now glowing.
To attract more males
As a guy, I must admit that girls with lighter skin shades usually draw most of the light to themselves in a gathering. The reason why a lot of our girls are bleaching is because a lot of our guys are patronizing them.
A lot of Nigerian guys also believe that fair girls are usually more beautiful than dark girls. It is absolute nonsense, but that is the reality.
Go on Instagram, girls who are light-skinned often get more likes and follows, than dark-skinned girls. I didn’t make the rules.
Our culture and Parenting
It is not always the case, but fair-skinned girls are usually more favored than the darker-skinned ones in the family.
For example, beating is part of the Nigerian culture. A mother is less likely to beat her child who has fair skin as the marks will be too pronounced as compared to a child who is dark-skinned.
Even in the Yoruba culture, there is always hype about maidens whose skin is fair. If you read most folklore about the mermaids in Africa, they are always described as being fair and their beauty help lure men in.
Here is our bit on this one. We hope we have answered your questions.
Author
Abbey Johnson has a Masters degree as an engineer and has over 3 years of teaching and research experience. He is happiest when on a bike and is also interested in electric energy and computer Science.