June is once more upon us, and many have wondered what happened to 2020 as the year seemed to steal away while the world hidden from sight behind closed doors or face masks. It seems to have been acceptable behavior in a world challenged by a virus, but just imagine if that were how people behaved when they displayed signs of Vitiligo! I shall leave you to think about what would be said about people with Vitiligo and hope you will connect with us this year for World Vitiligo Day 2021.
But June is Vitiligo Month and 25 June is World Vitiligo Day. It is a day when Vitiligo is put in the public eye to shine a light on the challenges faced by those suffering from Vitiligo. Vitiligo Day creates an awareness of the skin condition, and it calls out the bullying, the social neglect, the psychological trauma, and the disability of those who have the visible signs of Vitiligo.
World Vitiligo Day 2021
For some Vitiligo sufferers, 2021 is hard to celebrate. When people were complaining about masks to protect us from the spread of Covid-19, those people with Vitiligo around their noses and mouths were able to walk the streets incognito! Vaccines are going to steal that brief respite from them. But let us recognise the possibilities for change and development. Covid-19 has shown us how quickly the world can change and how vaccines that normally take a decade to produce were produced in millions of doses in a matter of months once people had become fully aware of the horror of Covid-19.
We need World Vitiligo Day 2021 to draw attention to a condition that many people find debilitating. We need to start a movement such as the #MeToo movement or wear a ribbon such as the pink ribbon worn to support cancer sufferers. I think it would be a great idea to wear a double ribbon on World Vitiligo Day – a brown ribbon symbolising the colour of skin, which ranges from pale shades through olive to shades of brown and black, combined with a white ribbon to symbolise the white spots produced by the lack of pigmentation in the skin. But the official colours of World Vitiligo Day are purple and white. I guess that purple is a royal colour but, colours aside, celebrate World Vitiligo – it’s the one day when you can really be proud of being special.
Michael Jackson’s birthday on World Vitiligo Day reminds us again of the challenges experienced by those who are constantly in the limelight and who have every aspect of their lives and bodies scrutinised by every magazine, blog, vlog, talk show, and Joe and Jane Bloggs on the street. The tragedy is that the scrutiny becomes unbearable for those who carry a burden – be it an internal shyness or depression or an external condition such as Vitiligo. Michael Jackson became one of the most misunderstood celebrities because he had no idea how to deal with Vitiligo when the symptoms started appearing. At just 24 years of age, and already a worldwide star and a highly visible public figure, he simply could not deal with a skin disorder.
Michael Jackson’s birthday on World Vitiligo Day
Dermatologist, Dr Arnold Klein, suggested that Jackson began battling the chronic skin disorder in 1982, around the release and success of Thriller, which makes one wonder about stress as a trigger. It was his long-time makeup artist who first became fully aware of his Vitiligo and covered the patches with a camouflage cream. Apparently in the early stages, the Vitiligo was on the right-hand side of his face, down his neck and on the back of his hand.
Within ten years, there were too many patches to hide and Michael Jackson started using a depigmenting cream. In I993, Jackson’s skin condition was controversial and he was accused of trying to look white, so he had a live interview on television with Oprah Winfrey and spoke openly about his skin condition. 90 million people around the world watched that interview.
Fortunately, few, if any, of us are subjected to that kind of intense scrutiny that Michael Jackson endured, but they say you cannot judge how another person experiences the world until you walk in his or her moccasins and I think that walking in the moccasins of many people who have Vitiligo would not be a pleasant experience.
That is precisely why we need to join in a day of happiness, of celebrating the fact that Vitiligo is a recognised skin condition as the more attention a condition acquires, the more likely it is that someone will be prepared to fund research into addressing the condition and one day, find a complete cure. A complete cure – does that sound like a dream? We must not forget that our grandmothers thought it was an impossible dream that people would travel through space and even walk on the moon. I won’t even talk about cell phones and the internet that have changed the world. Anything is possible, given the right conditions!
So, with hope in our hearts for a bright future, let us look at what we can do here and now to make life in those moccasins just a little bit easier. Let all who have Vitiligo join hands, breathe deeply and move forward, confidently using the treatment and camouflage creams available. Be glad of those who offer help, accept the help, and be glad to be alive.
Vitiligo Can Be Treated
Remember that Vitiligo can be treated and our testimonials and confirmed reviews on Amazon, Takealot, and many other global websites do make mention that our Vitilox® Products are the most advanced and effective range of products available for the recovery of your natural skin colour.
Treating Vitiligo with a ‘one product fixes all’ product does not work or shows very slow results. This is evident from the many assessments we receive and looking at other products that our patients have tried. Vitiligo can be treated, and at Vitiligo Treatment we do have a range of products available to treat most Vitiligo cases.
One important factor is that we first need to slow down and stop the spread of Vitiligo before effective and positive results are seen. Only once the spread of Vitiligo has stopped, are the pigment-producing cells in your body (Melanocytes) able to start producing Melanin which is your natural skin tone again.
At Vitiligo Treatment we offer a large range of products to help treat most Vitiligo conditions. This is one of the factors that has contributed to our success in Treating Vitiligo.
We do have a combination of products formulated to treat Low, Medium, and High Vitiligo body coverage. Contact one of our consultants or read more on our website for information pertaining to your own Vitiligo condition.
As always, please don’t hesitate to contact us if you require any further information pertaining to this article – World Vitiligo Day 2021 – or require any additional detailed information on our products.
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