really, exactly how DID Jackson become white all over his body?

[Brandus]

I don’t see how anyone can view those photos and NOT believe he actually had vitiligo. I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt so here is an alternative explanation for his whiteness.

He’s a popular black entertainer who has a disease that destroys pigmentation. Have you seen pictures of albino africans?

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=albino%20africans&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

The brain sees white skin so expects white features, but you have african features and white skin. It can be a little unsettling to those not expecting it. Since appearance is everything in the entertainment industry, he basically had whiteness forced on him. It was logical for him to embrace it.

[Swallowed_My_Cellphone]

@barbitu8

The fact that he sustained third degree burns to his scalp may have had something to do with it.

What?

[Laudenum]

@Brandus

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=albino%20africans&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

The brain sees white skin so expects white features, but you have african features and white skin. It can be a little unsettling to those not expecting it. Since appearance is everything in the entertainment industry, he basically had whiteness forced on him. It was logical for him to embrace it.

I didn’t understand your point until I clicked on the link.
It’s bizarre how animalistic they look. Like some kind or gorilla-human, or tiger-human crossbreed.

I wonder how white people turned black would look?
Or albino asians?
Or black asians?

EDIT: don’t mean that in a racist way, but black features on white skin is sooo not attractive if those pictures are representative. Kept looking and found some worse ones.

[Freudian_Slit]

Is it at all relevant to point out that I’ve seen video clips of him jumping into swimming pools/being squirted with water guns without him looking at all splotchy afterward? Or is his make up just that good?

[Laudenum]

I think it was made permanent after a while, so save him the hassle of continuously reapplying.

[Freudian_Slit]

@Laudenum

I think it was made permanent after a while, so save him the haste of continuously reapplying.

So that gets back to the OP’s question. How did he permanently bleach his skin? Are there pills you can take for that?

[DiosaBellissima]

@Freudian_Slit

So that gets back to the OP’s question. How did he permanently bleach his skin? Are there pills you can take for that?

Doesn’t vitiligo just continue to progress? I did read that there is some pill you can take when you have vitiligo that will speed up the process and some people opt for that instead of staying super splotchy. Any truth to this?

[HorseloverFat]

I’ve seen pictures of Michael Jackson where he most definitely was splotchy.

Right, those look nothing like real vitiligo

http://www.greathomeremedies.com/vitiligo3.jpg

[holmes]

@DiosaBellissima

Doesn’t vitiligo just continue to progress? I did read that there is some pill you can take when you have vitiligo that will speed up the process and some people opt for that instead of staying super splotchy. Any truth to this?

From Blue Moon’s link:

The depigmentation process takes awhile to complete and it is permanent. The medication monobenzylether of hydroquinone is used to do this and is very strong, it is only prescribed to vitiligo patients.

[holmes]

Sorry, I don’t think there’s pill. It appears to be topical.

[DiosaBellissima]

@HorseloverFat

Right, those look nothing like real vitiligo

http://www.bagofnothing.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/bwthomasap.jpg

http://www.bio.davidson.edu/Courses/Immunology/Students/Spring2003/Leese/Vitiligo.jpg

http://www.greathomeremedies.com/vitiligo3.jpg

Okie dokie, I can Google search, too:

http://atozbeauty.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/vitigilo22.jpg

http://www.indiandermatology.org/gallery/vitiligo/Vitiligo.jpg

The appears to be a tremendous difference in how the disease effects people and the fact that a doctor has come in this thread and said MJ isn’t atypical in his experience should say something to the layman Googlist.

[Guinastasia]

@Cabbage

Yes they did. I remember wondering at the time if that could be used as evidence in his conviction. However, before that time he had already mentioned he had vitiligo, so I remember thinking that it wouldn’t be a big stretch for an accuser to gamble on that. Not that I’m trying to defend him; I’ve always been fairly agnostic about everything I hear regarding MJ, but I don’t think this is damning evidence.

No, but they were able to describe them in detail is.

@Swallowed_My_Cellphone

What?

Here:

Jackson suffered a setback on January 27, 1984. While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Jackson suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire. Happening in front of a full house of fans during a simulated concert, the incident was the subject of heavy media scrutiny and elicited an outpouring of sympathy.[40] PepsiCo settled a lawsuit out of court, and Jackson gave his $1.5 million settlement to the “Michael Jackson Burn Center” which was a piece of new technology to help people with severe burns.[40] Jackson had his third rhinoplasty shortly afterward and grew self conscious about his appearance.[20]

[barbitu8]

@Swallowed_My_Cellphone

What?

OK. They were 2d degree burns. Wikepedia:

Jackson suffered a setback on January 27, 1984. While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Jackson suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire.

[Guinastasia]

Word is -and note, this is JUST a rumor, sorry, no cite – that is when he started getting hooked on pain-killers.

[barbitu8]

@Swallowed_My_Cellphone

What?

OK. The burns were second-degree. Wikepedia:

Jackson suffered a setback on January 27, 1984. While filming a Pepsi Cola commercial at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, Jackson suffered second degree burns to his scalp after pyrotechnics accidentally set his hair on fire.

The latest issue of TIME, Vol. 174, No. 1 states:

After he was injured in a fire while shooting a Pepsi commercial in 1984 and, later, in a stage fall, he became dependent on prescription medication and on Dr. Feelgoods who cater to the pharmacological demands of the stars. “The doctors prescribed so much [sic] drugs, it was crazy,” said a longtime Jackson family attorney, Brian Oxman. Jackson often looked frail and wasted away in his public appearances, the result said another tabloid [referring to a prior paragraph and not the grammar handicapped lawyer], of a malady called alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, a genetic condition that leads to the breakdown of the lungs…

[Cagey_Drifter]

@HorseloverFat

Right, those look nothing like real vitiligo

you’re ridiculous. If he did have it, and i’m inclined to believe he did, he wouldn’t go out in public without putting on tons of makeup to cover it up-- like he and his assistants maintained.

[Johnny_L.A]

Cicely Tyson said that her costume designer also designed for Michael Jackson. She said the vitiligo started on his hand, and that’s why he started wearing the glove. TIFWIW.

[Johanna]

@Laudenum

I wonder how white people turned black would look?

Tamil?

Or black asians?

Malagasy?

[Swallowed_My_Cellphone]

@Guinastasia

Here:

I know full well about his head getting burns back in the 80s, but I was wondering what the hell that had to do with his vitiligo.

[Johanna]

@Laudenum

I wonder how white people turned black would look?

Godfrey Cambridge in Watermelon Man.