Okay, when I saw this prompt I had to overcome that dread I ll feel if anything happened to my skin, but then it's for skin health awareness and I m glad I could join in today as well. In case you want to join, Med-Hive is a health post sharing community and they have prompts weekly and here the one for this week, I hope to hear from you too. Tag me if you do join
First, I am an African and I m proud of my skin colour as everyone should. It is something I really delight in every day, even though I m male I don't joke with my skin, both facial and every part, the other day I cought my self staring at my back though a mirror.
The skin is an important part of the human body and even though some people do not really take good care of your skin it's mostly because they have never had issues with it.
A lot of people suffer from skin diseases and this has caused the attention to always practice setting home remedies or even health prescriptions for their skin and they are very careful with anything that comes close. However many people still live with the ignorance of trying to make your skin better through the use of various dangerous and very harmful soaps and creams and even herbal concoctions.
Your skin is your cover and once that cover is broken anything within a range of harm can come to you.
Now let me take a look at answering the questions here.
You look into the mirror and your skin colour is different. What are your first thoughts?
I will scream... Haha.. I will let out a forceful scream, rush to the bathroom to take a look in the mirror and wish it was a bad dream. That will be a crazy idea, my passports, my certificates, my papers all have my facials and now it gone. My skin is part of my identity and it will be a hell of a day to see my skin colour change. Some people crave to have a different skin, they even bleach with all sorts.. but not me. I never will and I never advice it.
In your country, how do you think having a different skin colour would influence you access to health care?
To be honest, in an African country like Nigerian, seeking anything from goods to service, you may have an upper hand, but make sure you also have an upper cash. It doesn't matter what kind of white skin you have, if you don't bless them with money 🤣, you ll be on your own. People call white skinned people Oyinbo and often think they are more richer, more purposeful and more beautiful, which is really not right. I think one of the things that feeds racism is low self esteem of the other. There is absolutely no place for this, and not in any hospital I have worked with. Wether you re white or black, you will see a doctor when it's your time. No prejudice is served to anyone.
Does a different skin colour change anything in your daily life or relationships?
I bet my relations may run away if my skin colour changes hehe.. they can't even believe it's me, casue my identity may have been altered. There is a huge role our skin place like I said, it will have to be you starting all over again in fixing the things people think about you and what they know you for.
Whatever you skin colour or type is, it is important that when it comes to relations, you are loved for not just the appearance but for what is inside. The reason a lot of people want to be fairer is cos they don't feel beautiful in their skin an this predisposes them to so many skin disease. Africans are predominantly black because we have melanin in our skin and this keeps us from the hurts of the sun's radiation. Removing that could even result into a cancer.
This my response to the Med-hive prompt for the week 1 on Skin Health, you can also join in here
Read more about skin colour changes and diseases here
Thanks for reading.