Throwback to my experience with skin bleaching

Hi and welcome to the throwback series. 

This is the last throwback for this season and I hope you love it. 

The throwback picture for today is this photo of me in my typical way of dressing at the time. I loved this dress because it was simple and sexy. I was also a lover of blond hair so this two-coloured human hair was one of my favourites especially for this occasion I was attending which was a military decoration ceremony commonly called "gallon" in Cameroon. 

The shoes I bought from "Okirika" were comfortable and blended with the colour of my skin at the time. At the time I bleached my skin. I'm not proud of anything, but I was happy with what I was doing. I found a product that did the job well and also at an affordable price, a combination that was rare to see so I was happy. 

Thinking about it now makes me realize that we may have different perceptions of beauty at varying stages of our lives. These perceptions are mostly influenced by what society appreciates the most consciously or unconsciously. I was so determined to have lighter skin as I felt that was what I needed to feel and be beautiful. Growing up and seeing the attention that light-skinned girls always received contributed to setting that standard in my mind that the lighter you are the classier you are, the more beautiful you are, the more favoured you are, etc. So it felt normal for me to buy and use skin-lightening products at the time so that I could give society what they want to see and then benefit from the privileges that come with being light-skinned - which included having "better men" ask you out, being invited to VIP events and just making it through life easily because of the colour of my skin. 

But what I was ignorant about was the fact that everyone has got a preference when it comes to who they want to date. Some prefer dark skin and others light skin so you can be dark-skinned and still meet a good person to be with. Another thing is those beauty standards are like trends that fade away after a while. At a certain time, dark-skinned girls were owning up to their skin tone and they were appreciated more and more. But that was not what determined the turning point for me. I started having serious skin problems that wouldn't go away caused by the skin-lightening product I was using. The product that once did a perfect job did more harm than good to my skin and I had to stop it and give time to my skin to heal. The healing took a while. This experience made me realize that skin bleaching is not worth the stress. So I decided to stop bleaching my skin completely. 

I know as black women we feel unnoticed with our dark skin. But bleaching is not necessary and should be really discouraged.

That's it for this post. I hope you loved it. If you did please share.