I feel kind of embarrassed asking this, but I am an MJ fan and I never fully understood his vitiligo. I know he didn't bleach his skin, so how did he become lighter each era? Did he just let the vitiligo take over??
“Did he just let the vitiligo take over?”
You ask that as if vitiligo was something he could control. It was not. He had no choice but to let it take over.
How did he become lighter each era?The vitiligo started to intensify during Thriller era (though it could be seen during the Off The Wall era too).
Behind the scenes of Captain EO (1985-86), he’s rehearsing without makeup and you can see huge blotches on his face (can’t find video of it rn but here’s a pic where it’s on his hands)
Then we get to Bad era (1987), and his skin got a lighter still. His vitiligo was a gradual thing, that made him lighter over time. The reason people during that time thought he “all of a sudden” got lighter is because 1) Michael never publicly said anything about his disease and 2) quite simply put, the man wore makeup to cover what would have made those people realize he had something wrong with his skin: the blotches. Also 3) though Vitiligo was attacking his face during OTW/Thriller era, it did not fully cover his entire face. But you could tell it was starting to cover his entire face in late 1984, basically when Say Say Say was being filmed (and even before Say Say Say was filmed). In fact you could tell because his makeup looked a little funny
(a.k.a. He was trying to cover the vitiligo using darker makeup—which didn’t work in the end and brings us to why he was so light-skinned in BAD (1987). It was because in BAD and Captain EO, he finally realized he could no longer use darker makeup and had to use makeup that matched his Vitiligo progression at the time).
If you’re covering up the blotches with makeup every time you’re out in public, without explaining what’s happening to you, you get what MJ got: people assuming that he either just became light-skinned out of the blue, or assuming that he bleached his skin. So between 1982 to 1987, which is 6 years of Vitiligo progression, MJ went from this
Then at the VERY start of the Dangerous era (when he was still recording for the album), it progressed further. In The Dilip Mehta photoshoot (early 1991), Michael still looked like he did during Bad era.
But between the period of that photoshoot and when the video for Black or White came out (late 1991), the vitiligo progressed a LOT.
The Dilip Mehta photoshoot was done in January of 1991. The video for Black or White was shown in November of 1991 (and filmed a few months before that). That’s 9 to 10 months of Michael’s skin getting lighter because of Vitiligo. 9 to 10 months of Vitiligo further attacking his face and hands with blotches.
The rest of Michael’s Dangerous era videos were released in 1992, like Remember The Time (filmed in January of 1992; shown to the public in February of 1992). Again, that’s 3 to 4 months of the Vitiligo progressing more.
(obviously he’s wearing makeup here, but without makeup this is what was really going on in 1992):
Essentially, I’m trying to get you to understand that Vitiligo is a progressive disease, that usually shows up in a person’s childhood as very small, unnoticeable blotches, then gradually progresses into bigger blotches and a much more noticeable and lighter complexion. And Michael was so embarrassed by this disease he had that not only did he wear makeup to cover it, but he also forever wore long sleeved shirts and long pants to hide all the blotches that were slowly but surely taking over his body.
With all that being said, what we got was his skin appearing porcelain in appearance toward the end of his life.
So yes, he got lighter year after year after year because of the disease he had. Here’s a final look at what I’m trying to get at.
That’s 10 years in between photos and 40 years overall that Vitiligo was gradually taking over MJ’s body, turning his skin tone from brown to porcelain white (don’t get that confused with the skin tone of actual white people). 40+ Years of blocthes, various discolorations and him covering it up with makeup
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