Darcel de Vlugt Vitiligo Skin Condition Turned Her From Black to White. We must admit that when we first heard reports that Michael Jackson’s skin color turned white because of some skin condition, we went, “Yeah, right. What a convenient excuse for someone who must have spent millions of money on some skin whitening cream.” We were skeptical. Why? Mainly because a condition that causes one’s skin to turn from black to white is kinda just too weird to be true.

Anyhoo, it turns out that there is really such a skin problem. It is called vitiligo. The British tabloid Daily Mail has an article about a girl — Darcel de Vlugt — who, like Michael Jackson, turned from black to white. Check out the excerpt below but, first, here’s Darcel as a little girl.

And here’s her adult version.

If that’s not a dramatic transformation, we don’t know what is.

Anyhoo, here’s the Daily Mail report on Darcel’s vitiligo condition: “Darcel’s parents Peter and Charmaine, both from Trinidad, noticed white spots on her forearm and forehead when she was five. Doctors diagnosed vitiligo, the same condition said to have affected Michael Jackson. By the age of seven, white patches had appeared on her legs along with white spots on the rest of her body. These gradually grew bigger until, when she was 17, the transformation was complete.”

Vitiligo reportedly affects one in 100 people in any age, race or color. If you ask us, one in 100 isn’t rare at all. However, maybe we are not more aware of it because its only more noticeable among those with naturally dark skin.

Those of you who want to know more about vitiligo might want to check out these resources from Amazon: The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Vitiligo, Leucoderma: Vitiligo, and Book: Turning White: A Memoir of Change.

Darcel de Vlugt Vitiligo Skin Condition Turned Her From Black to White. Posted 11 August 2009.