Have you ever thought about why the skin is so darker or lighter? Well, it's because of a pigment known as melanin, and it decides the color of skin, hair, and eyes.
It is worth $350 to $550 per gram. However, it's possible to inject this pigment into the body through injections that cost as low as 30 bucks. Meanwhile, melanin surgery is a costly process where the charge per session is no less than $400.
It also works as a protection of your skin from harmful sunray, UV-ray, and blue light. Although every human body has a similar amount of melanocytes, it differs when the comparison comes between a black and a white person.
The availability of this pigment is so rare, and that’s the reason why the price is so high. Stay tuned as we’ll go through everything regarding this.
What's the average price?
On average, the cost of melanin ranges from $450 to $520 per gram. However, the cost can be as low as $350 per gram as well. The worth of the pigment per gram is way more than the worth of gold per gram.
Right now, the value of gold per gram is something around $55 to $60. At the same time, you have to spend around 500 bucks for one gram of melanin.
And the calculation says that the cost of one gram of melanin is almost seven to ten times more than the cost of one gram of gold. However, it is neither a precious metal like gold nor an easily available pigment.
One gram of melanin
One gram of melanin costs from $350 to $550. It is the determinant of skin color and the concentration of different colors makes the skin color, hair, and eye color variable from person to person.
If you take the cost of 1 gram of melanin, it becomes easier to get the cost of melanin present in the entire body. Because of the rare availability of the chemical in nature, it has become an expensive one as well.
How much is pure melanin?
Pure melanin means the chemical or pigment found in the body that keeps it safer from the harmful UV ray and other harmful elements on the skin. The cost of pure melanin is no less than $350.
Various moisturizing products are available in the market as well, whose manufacturers get the synthetic melanin for business purposes.
The cost of this synthetic melanin can cost you up to $550 as well.
Why it is so expensive?
The main reason behind making melanin so expensive is because unavailability. According to the research, it's found in the one algae that comes in two different forms.
These two different forms of melanin ensure the color tone of the skin, the hair color, the eye color, and also ensure skin protection.
However, the two forms of melanin that are available are –
- Alpha
- Beta
Beta in a moderate concentration can darken the hair or skin tone in the body. However, alpha is more used to keep the natural color tone on the body or in the hair.
How much to pay for melanin surgery
Melanin surgery means the reduction of melanin in one’s body, which may cost you up to $400 per session. However, it’s not the end of the surgical process in one session; rather it takes two or three sessions.
Depending on how dense the number of melanocytes or melanin pigment you have in your body, the longer the surgical process you will have to go through. The charge for each surgical session can also go up to $700.
On average, the surgical process can cost you from $1,500 to $2,500. The surgery is to reduce the melanin in your skin to whiten the skin, hair, or any other specific parts of the body.
Moreover, the surgical process also includes the reduction in the production of melanin in your body. Ultimately, it whitens the body or the particular part of the body that has gone through the surgical process.
The injections are comparatively cheap
The melanin injections can cost you from $30 to $50 for a month of supply from the vendors. However, you need not purchase it frequently as the injection has had its effects on the body for almost two months.
Although it's not an expensive way to inject melanin into your body to protect from sunscreen, it definitely has some bad effects.
Among the side effects having nausea, facial flushing, temporary freckling are some of the common problems the users have faced so far.
What is it used for?
Melanin is the naturally made pigment in the body that decides the body tone or shade, hair color, eye color, and other things. However, you can also inject melanin into your body if the body lacks it.
The main reason why melanin is injected or put in the body is to save it from UV ray, which is harmful. And it's good to know that it's the color pigment in different concentrations in the body that saves from harmful rays.
That is to say, many of us have gone through a surgical process to inject melanin into the body to increase the layer against sunray protection.
Benefits for the skin
Why you are black? It's only because of having a huge amount of melanin in the body. But have you ever thought about how beneficial this melanin is for your body?
Well, the first and foremost duty of this color pigment is to define the color in different parts of the body including the skin tone.
However, the main benefit of having a huge amount of melanin on the body means having a huge amount of protection from sunlight or harmful UV-ray.
Also, the lack of melanin can cause several problems in the body –
- Vitiligo
- Albinism
Both these diseases and skin problems are the results of having insufficient melanin in the body. These problems can happen on the skin or hair due to the lack of melanin.
How much melanin is in the human body?
The number of melanocytes is almost identical in each body. However, it differs a bit depending on the color tone of different people living on different ends of the earth.
However, experts have found that any particular region of the body can contain 1,000 to 2,000 or even more melanin that results in different color tones.
However, you will find three different types of melanin in the body –
- Eumelanin
- Pheomelanin
- Neuromelanin
Eumelanin is the body that defines the dark tone of the body including black and brown. However, Pheomelanin defines the color tone in the body as yellow or something else.
On the other hand, Neuromelanin works within the human brain.
Cost analysis
Melanin is indeed one of the precious substances that are hard to find. However, we don't need to know produce or inject this pigment or substance into the body manually; rather it is created in the body.
As the substance is rare to get, the cost is high. Per gram melanin is worth for $500 on average, which is almost ten times more than the cost of one gram gold.
The amount of melanin defines the color of the body, and also how much protection you will be getting from the pigment is defined by this pigment.
