Method
The popular method of bihaku is to use cosmetics that stop the production of melanin.
For skin whitening cosmetics for use by the public, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has recognized a combination of active ingredients. These are mainly arbutin and kojic acid. Other ingredients include Vitamin C derivatives, tranexamic acid and ten-odd other types. Many of these active ingredients work through inhibiting catechol oxidase. Some types of BB cream products are also said to have skin whitening effects which contributes to the popularity of the cream in Asian markets.
As for other methods of skin whitening, other decolorizing chemicals can be used. Aesthetic skin decolorizing surgeries can also be performed, but excessive cleansings can cause a number of problems, such as facial inflammation, but in the 2000s this is in decline. Historically, the droppings of the Japanese bush-warbler (uguisu (鴬?)) have been used as an ingredient in face-washes for whitening skin.
Read more about this topic: Whiteness In Japanese Culture
Famous quotes containing the word method:
“In child rearing it would unquestionably be easier if a child were to do something because we say so. The authoritarian method does expedite things, but it does not produce independent functioning. If a child has not mastered the underlying principles of human interactions and merely conforms out of coercion or conditioning, he has no tools to use, no resources to apply in the next situation that confronts him.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“Government by average opinion is merely a circuitous method of going to the devil; those who profess to lead but in fact slavishly follow this average opinion are simply the fastest runners and the loudest squeakers of the herd which is rushing blindly down to its destruction.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The insidiousness of science lies in its claim to be not a subject, but a method. You could ignore a subject; no subject is all-inclusive. But a method can plausibly be applied to anything within the field of consciousness.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)