Veteran Nigerian actress, Taiwo Ajai-Lycett, has advised celebrities and women generally to desist from skin bleaching in a bid to present themselves as beautiful.
Ajai-Lycett gave the advice during the maiden edition of the Creative Designers Guild of Nigeria (CDGN) culture and entertainment exhibition, themed, Expanding Cultural Creativity Through Entrepreneurship, held at Citiheight Luxury Hotel, on Friday in Lagos.
“It is disheartening to observe that celebrities and women who should be role models to the youths spend hugely to bleach their skin because they do not see the beauty in being Africans,” she said, urging celebrities to take pride in being Africans as there were lots of businesses that could be generated when African beauty is explored creatively.
She continued, “As celebrities and women, we need to respect, love, and be proud of who we are, starting from the externals. A lot of us don’t want to be dark, we don’t like the colour of our skin, which is what I call low self-esteem.
“Our responsibility as women is to represent our race, we are raising children and when they see that we are not happy with our skin and hair, then, you have those children believe that to bleach their skin and wear wigs will beautify them more.
“And what breaks my heart most is that celebrities are found in that habit of promoting skin bleaching, wearing wigs and they go as far as selling it to the public, this is bad and I advise that they desist from that bad habit.
Ajai-Lycett further noted that there is an industry and creativity the nation is killing ignorantly as Nigerians look up to the western world to develop virtually everything for the nation, pretending to be sophisticated.
“If we accept to maintain our natural skin and hair, we will be creative with them to improve our economy as a nation because there is huge business in it for us but we are unconscious of it,” she said.
“We do not need to imitate the western world, I advise that we remain black, bold and beautiful.”
In conclusion, Ajai-Lycett said individuals must be cautious of the health implications of skin bleaching as it affects the liver and could lead to skin or liver cancer, and urged filmmakers to desist from the habit of always looking out for light-skinned ladies to feature in their movies.
The highlight of the event was an exhibition of cultural attires cutting across different ethnic groups, beads, different forms of makeup, and African hairstyles among others.
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