# Are there any chemical substances that darken the skin as opposed to lightening it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 9, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037 "2017-12-09T19:34:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rastafarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6a8cbe/32.png) [@rastafarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rastafarian)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/1 "2017-12-09T19:34:25Z")
Skin lightening is a more popular but controversial method than skin darkening that patients seem to inquire from dermatologists in many countries. The ingredient hydroquinone I believe has been either banned entirely in the EU or restricted to only a prescription medicine at no more than 4%. There are many other ingredients however that people who lighten skin say are as effective though governments seem to be catching up and trying to clamp down as they have been shown to have various levels of undesirable effects on the body. Back to my question, are there medications that do the opposite; darken human skin? I know a Canadian American classmate of mine was given some medicine to ‘even’ the skin on his face because he had some significantly noticeable blotches however, I strongly doubt it had anything to do with vitilgo as they were moderately lighter than the rest of his dark face and never lightened over time or grew to other parts of his face. I’ve heard birth control even in men can cause this? How true is this? ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/2 "2017-12-09T19:36:48Z")
The drugs and light treatment used by this guy: > **[John Howard Griffin](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard_Griffin)** > > John Howard Griffin (June 16, 1920 – September 9, 1980) was an American journalist and author from Texas who wrote about and championed racial equality. He is best known for his 1959 project to temporarily pass as a black man and journey through the Deep South in order to see life and segregation from the other side of the color line first-hand. He first published a series of articles on his experience in Sepia magazine, which had underwritten the project, then later published an expanded account... ---
**Author:** ![watchwolf49](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9c0ed/32.png) [@watchwolf49](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/watchwolf49)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/3 "2017-12-09T19:43:31Z")
That’s got to be the very best username/first post combination of all time … congratulations **rastafarian** , welcome to the SDMB and may all your posts here be so … “enlightened” … ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2017, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/4 "2017-12-09T23:04:53Z")
If you’re willing to settle for a permanent bluish-gray complexion, [silver](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argyria) is the cheap option. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/5 "2017-12-10T02:18:23Z")
Here is a paragraph from the Wiki article on Griffin cited above: > [@](#): > > In late 1959, John Howard Griffin went to a friend’s house in New Orleans, Louisiana. Once there, under the care of a dermatologist, Griffin underwent a regimen of large oral doses of the anti-vitiligo drug methoxsalen, and spending up to fifteen hours daily under an ultraviolet lamp.[2] When he could pass as an African American, Griffin began a six-week journey in the South. Don Rutledge traveled with him, documenting the experience with photos. It sounds like a treatment I could not recommend but it apparently worked. One black man saw through the disguise, I recall from having the read the book when it first came out. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/6 "2017-12-10T02:35:55Z")
Gasoline and kerosene work very well though the results are often patchy and blistering is common. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/7 "2017-12-10T03:31:38Z")
Depends on your starting shade, but as a child we used to use dandelions. Do you like butter? ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/8 "2017-12-10T06:17:26Z")
Melanotan II, Here you go: [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanotan\_II](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melanotan_II) Do some google image searches and you can find some frightening before and after pictures! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RetroVertigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@RetroVertigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RetroVertigo)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/9 "2017-12-10T16:02:52Z")
Ortho-phthalaldehyde will react with proteins and turn your skin gray. ---
**Author:** ![JerrySTL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e274bd/32.png) [@JerrySTL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerrySTL)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/10 "2017-12-10T16:14:01Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > The drugs and light treatment used by this guy: > [John Howard Griffin - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Howard_Griffin) I was just about to mention the book Black Like Me. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2017, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/11 "2017-12-10T23:47:31Z")
Investigative journalist Grace Halsell did a Griffin and took chemicals to darken her skin, too. She tried living Black for a while in the 1960s. The book _Soul Sister_ reports her experience. Years later, she died of skin cancer. Don’t take those drugs if you can help it. When _Black Like Me_ was published, everybody was amazed at what Griffin had discovered firsthand about Black life. Malcolm X retorted something like: You’re impressed by a white guy turning black for a few months, then turning white again? Have you ever thought what it’s like to be black every day of your life? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2017, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chemical-substances-that-darken-the-skin-as-opposed-to-lightening-it/804037/12 "2017-12-11T00:11:49Z")
When I was in junior high in the late 1970s, someone put out “tanning pills”, which I know now were beta carotene, and would give skin a bit of an orange glow at supratherapeutic doses. One of my classmates, being a junior high girl, smuggled a bottle of them into her house and took quite a few of them before going to bed, and when she woke up the next morning, orange from top to bottom, her parents shoved her in the car and made a beeline to the nearest ER. The instant they walked in, the ER staff knew exactly what she’d been up to. :smack: Those didn’t stay on the market very long, for obvious reasons. p.s. I’ve heard of this happening to people who went overboard on juicing.