‘I want the world to know black skin is beautiful’

By 2027, the skin-bleaching industry is set to be worth over £6bn. Many lightening products have been banned under safety regulations but can still be bought under the counter or online, leading to experts calling it ‘a public health emergency’. Closer speaks to two women who have experienced pressure to change the colour of their skin…

Akua Blacq was just 14 when she started buying bleaching treatments in an attempt to lighten her skin.

Akua, 28, says, “After I moved from Ghana to the UK, people would constantly stare at me and comment on how dark my skin was. Boys at school would tell me that they only fancied girls who were white or mixed race.

“I turned to lightening creams that gave me terrible eczema and dry skin, hoping they would make me ‘more desirable’.

“Now, I realise my skin is beautiful, and I look after it with oils and moisturisers. I even became a model to show the world that black skin is beautiful.”

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A survey by the British Skin Foundation found that a third of those using skin-lightening products did so because they believed lighter skin was more attractive. This belief is often referred to as colourism. Rooted in white supremacy, it’s led to dark-skinned people fighting against prejudice, even within their own communities.

But many lightening products – which include creams, scrubs, pills and injections – contain chemicals such as hydroquinone, corticosteroids and mercury, which have been banned under safety regulations.

Prolonged exposure to these are linked to liver and kidney malfunction, skin thinning and nerve damage. But 21 per cent surveyed said they continued to use the products anyway, and five per cent said they’d used them on a child.

Powerful skin-lightening creams are usually given on prescription by a doctor, often used to improve the appearance of birthmarks, and are only to be used for one week. But many products can also be purchased under the counter or online.

Singer Alexandra Burke recently spoke out about being advised to bleach her skin by music industry bosses after she’d appeared on The X Factor. In an interview, she said, “I got told... because you’re black you’re going to have to work 10 times harder than a white artist because of the colour of your skin.” And Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong’o revealed she was told she was “too dark” to appear on TV.

Dr Mary Sommerlad, consultant dermatologist and British Skin Foundation spokesperson, tells Closer, “It’s hard to know the scale of this problem, but we consider it a public health emergency and are aware that we only know about the tip of the iceberg. It can lead to serious health risks and even death.

“We need to educate children from as young as 10 about the risks of these products. But there also needs to be more campaigns featuring dark-skinned black models and actors so people don’t feel pressured to change the colour of their skin.”

Akua, who lives in London, remembers the day she realised her skin made her “different”. She says, “When I walked into the classroom at my new school, aged just 14, the first teacher I met stopped what she was doing and just stared at me. A lot of my peers were black, too, but I was darker than them.

“I really struggled with how people reacted to me because of my skin colour and I was teased relentlessly – I just wanted to be like everyone else.

“I couldn’t talk to my mum about it, as she’s quite reserved.”

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Akua began using lightening creams that she found easily on the high street or in hair salons specialising in black hair, before moving to other products she bought online. She estimates she spent around £600 a year on products. She would save up her allowance – and kept it secret from her mother. She says, “Mum would have been so upset if she knew what I was doing. And it was pointless anyway – looking back, I can see the products didn’t really work. All they did was dry out my skin and I had sore patches all over me. I developed eczema – and I still have bad flare-ups now. I convinced myself it was worth it, but it really wasn’t.

“My skin can be so dry and itchy. It’s such a shame as, before, my skin was so lovely.”

Then, aged 26, Akua began researching lightening injections – which often include skin-bleaching products – and found out she could get them at a local salon after hearing about them online. She says, “They cost £250 a shot and claim to lighten the skin and give desirable results after three or four rounds. I couldn’t believe I was contemplating spending so much money on changing my skin colour.

“It was a lightbulb moment and I realised I needed to change the way I saw myself. I decided to love myself and look after my skin instead of torturing it. In 2019, I started modelling as I want to be a role model to young black women and show them they should be proud of their skin.”

Akua now feels happy with the way she looks. She says, “I don’t want any other 14-year-old girl with darker skin tone to think they are inferior.

“It’s taken me a long time to accept me for the woman I see in the mirror. I now see my skin as my strength and that’s given me a whole new level of confidence.”

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‘I was offered skin bleaching when I was just 11 years old’

Journalist Victoria Sanusi, 27, from London, says, “When I was 11 years old, I went to the hairdressers and a new stylist was doing my hair. She looked at me and said, ‘You’re pretty, but you’re too dark. I have some bleach in the back for you.’

“I didn’t try the bleach, but it played on my mind for a long time. I’d compare myself to other black women who were lighter and notice they were treated differently. They received more attention from boys and would be deemed as more attractive.

“As a teenager dealing with puberty and living in a town that was mostly white, colourism destroyed my confidence. Even now, when I go to the hair salon, I always see skin-lightening products at the tills and it makes me so angry – not only because I believe black skin is beautiful, but also because of how easily accessible the products are.

“It’s an issue I sometimes struggle to talk about, even though it’s abundantly clear that colourism exists. For example, on Love Island, black girls are often picked last. It was evident from the Black Lives Matter movement last year that a lot of people are just getting their head around the fact racism exists, so I think colourism feels baffling to them.

“Along with my friend Jas, we host an award-winning weekly podcast called Black Gals Livin’, where we discuss pop culture and mental health. For me, this is a safe place where these conversations about colourism can take place.

“Our listeners have told us that they have unfortunately had similar stories. Some bleached their skin as a result, which is truly disheartening. I’ve embraced therapy – my therapist is a dark-skinned black woman and has changed my life. I’m able to have frank and honest discussions about how I feel the world sees me.”

How to help

Sign the petition encouraging the government to enforce stricter laws against over-the-counter skin-whitening products to ensure that they can only be available via a prescription.