Read any matrimonial ad, fair girls are the most sought-after. Not fair, is it? We are socially and culturally conditioned to appreciate fair skin, in fact the fairer the better! Where does it leave the ‘not-so-fair’ ones among us? Lost and confused with an unfair disadvantage? Now begins the chase for fair skin. Supermarket shelves are full of fairness creams and soaps. There are whitening deodorants, beauty salons offer whitening facials, bleach treatments and the ever popular face polish.

“Face polish is just a kind of bleach, perhaps a more sophisticated one. It will in the long run have the same skin issues that happen with regular bleach,” says Dr Seema Hirji, a dermatologist. “Skin whitening creams that are heavily advertised and available everywhere are commonly used because young women easily fall for the quick result solution. Yes, the skin will become lighter in a matter of a few days. The crunch comes after that. They are basically steroid creams and the skin reacts after a while which includes hair growth, hyper pigmentation and acne. We have seen some terrible cases where the skin has reacted badly.”

To begin with, young girls should understand that to look and feel good, one does not have to have skin a few shades lighter. Lighter colour of skin or being fair-skinned has no comparison with healthy skin, weight control, healthy hair and knowledge — attributes that will always make you confident and take you somewhere substantial in life, explains Dr Hirji.

But if someone wants to improve skin colour tone which sometimes appears unattractive and uneven due to tanning or not drinking enough water or eating unhealthy food, whitening injections or creams that work over a longer period of time can provide a solution and these are not harmful. “Skin whitening injections are becoming very popular and available everywhere. The correct way, however, is to use them with Vitamin C injections and a liver test is done as well. One to four injections over a short period of time are needed to give desired results.” The crunch here is that discontinuation of these injections will take you back to your original skin tone. So to stay the desired skin tone, you need to continue using whitening injections.

That cleared, it is best to make an educated choice, one that suits your pocket, your urgency to become lighter in skin colour or whether you would want to look after your health and weight and have a healthy body and mind.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, February 28th, 2016