A ticklish subject – but worth scratching the surface! If you have vitiligo I’m sure you will at some point have asked the question “why?” What caused this? There must be a reason why my skin, hair or lashes are randomly turning white. Surely this can’t be normal, so what […]
Vitiligo Blog
315 posts
A history of achievement, and hope for the future Vitiligo charities today are a godsend to millions of people around the world. But it wasn’t always that way. Growing up with vitiligo in the 1960s and ‘70s, I felt like I was the only person on the planet with this […]
How the endocrine system affects our skin colour Vitiligo is notoriously confusing. Scientists call it a multifactorial condition… Meaning that a variety of different factors can trigger it and it can follow multiple different pathways. The depigmentation process itself can develop in a number of different ways. And the factors […]
The era of the vitiligo ambassador When I was growing up with vitiligo back in the 1960s and ‘70s an ambassador was a top diplomat, a champion was the winner of a sporting event and an advocate was a type of lawyer. All three definitions still hold true, of course. […]
A personalised (more holistic?) approach to vitiligo therapy “Precision medicine for vitiligo” might seem like a daunting title if you were looking for a quick and easy read to fill a spare five minutes. But don’t worry. I’m not about to launch into any complex science or obscure medical jargon. […]
Weighing up the pros and cons Not everyone loves their white patches. More power to you if you do; I sincerely admire you. But, speaking as one who never came to terms with mine, I completely understand if you prefer to hide your vitiligo. After all, there are a lot […]
We’ve come a long way and there’s more to look forward to My vitiligo journey spans 6 decades, and counting. (Hard to believe – but yes, I really am that old.) Seen in the rear view mirror, it’s staggering how our world has altered in sixty years. In many ways, […]
Vitiligo information and a gateway to the products After a couple of months in a kind of website-limbo-land, I am pleased to announce a new look for Vitiligo Store. For the past 10 years the site has been a labour of love, born out of my own vitiligo recovery and […]
With no harmful side effects How do you react when someone makes a statement that you find hard to believe? A statement that sounds utterly ridiculous, irrational or unlikely like, for example, “Laughter could improve your vitiligo.” You might (rather fittingly) respond by saying “You’re the one having a laugh, […]
Pigment and personality From the moment we are born, life’s experiences start to mould us. We inherit certain character traits from our parents, of course. But, after that, external events and influences begin to have a cumulative effect on the people we become. We are not always conscious of this […]
What is it and why do most specialists prefer it? If you stay abreast of the medical literature you may have heard of combination therapy for vitiligo (sometimes called polytherapy). Most experts seem to agree that this approach is more effective than using just one type of treatment in isolation […]
If, like me, you are always keen to learn as much about vitiligo as you possibly can, you will have done a lot of research and collected a wealth of medical, personal and general information on the subject. And, in the course of your reading, you may have come across […]
Pigment loss and vision I was just a toddler when my vitiligo started. My parents had no idea what the small white patches were that appeared on my skin for no apparent reason. The tiny areas of discolouration on my spine and ankle bone were mysterious, to be sure. But […]
Spoiler alert: NO, but here’s why some people might ask Some bloggers like to pose intriguing questions in their titles, then take their readers on an exhaustive tour of the subject, only revealing the answer in the closing paragraph waaaayyy down the bottom of the page. I know I have […]
Why are extremities so prone to depigmentation and so hard to repigment? Vitiligo can occur absolutely anywhere on the body. (Even on the inside.) No area of skin is off limits as far as this pigmentary disorder is concerned, two of the most common sites being the face and the […]
Marketing products AND awareness Advertising is all around us all the time. Each new year – and 2026 will be no exception – advertisers bombard us with hundreds of thousands of advertising messages. They start with the January sales. Then come spring breaks, summer vacations and every imaginable activity and […]
Don’t let anxiety spoil the celebrations From one new year to the next life is full of celebrations. Whether it’s Christmas, Easter, Diwali, Ramadan or Hanukkah, there are always wonderful reasons for people to get together. And that’s before you even factor in birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, retirements, and all […]
How long is a piece of string? For most of my life vitiligo felt like a problem with no solution. A mystery without an explanation. A question without an answer. Eventually, I was lucky enough to find some answers for myself. And, even if I didn’t succeed in explaining the […]
Ironies and contradictions In part 1 of this article I referred to some of the mysteries and complexities that still surround vitiligo, even after a decade or more of increased awareness and scientific progress. Finding answers to these can feel a lot like searching for one particular pebble on a […]
Part 1: mysteries and complexities Assuming you landed on this page intentionally, you are probably looking for information about vitiligo. And, unless you are completely new to the topic, you will have discovered that any search containing the word vitiligo returns a lot of results. (Well in excess of 60 […]
An organic way to heal For hundreds (if not thousands) of years people with vitiligo have dreamt of being cured. Quite literally dreamt, if I am anything to go by. I remember waking up with that dream still fresh in my mind. It seemed to my half asleep brain that, […]