Hi,
I am a type 2 skin, really dark brown/black hair, ginger/blonde/brown beard (Depends on the light) but mostly dark ginger beard i'd say.
I have freckles on my arms, shoulders and chest.
8 years ago I started to fight this as I kinda became obsessed about it (unfortunately), when I was 19 I did this laser treatments to remove freckles which actually made my skin completely clean (for a while).
I still was far from being pleased with the result as I still burned in the sun and my skin is light and a little 'pinky' and then I started to do some research and I encountered a forum of Melanotan (I forgot its name) and a month later I took the courage to start using MT2, a few moles appeared and I freaked out and stopped using it and then I found a way to remove those new moles and decided to try again.
I was dosing about 0.4mg every other day for a while and I was super happy with the results, especially that my beard became black/blonde about 2 weeks later, it was an awesome feeling.
After a few months I was perma-tanned almost without any ginger remains.
I felt super confident and good about myself, especially in photos, I pretty much didn't believe that it's happening to me.
About a year later, I started to dose only 0.4mg every fifth day and I was able to permanently keep the results, never got burned in the sun, was always tanned (Even in winter), amazing color beard.
I didn't have a smooth clean skin but it was still pretty good.
The results were so natural that no one ever even asked anything about it.
For 6 years straight I never stopped using it, even in the winter and I felt really confident and good about myself (I know it's related to obsession so don't judge me, this is just how I felt).
I flourished, I could pretty much get almost any girl I ever dreamed of, opened a pretty big & successful high-tech company and was doing great socially.
After those 6 years the police knocked on my door after I ordered some more MT2 and they suspected that I am some drug dealer or some shit and my girlfriend for two years was at the house and she got all scared about it (she didn't know that I inject myself) and then I had to tell her.
After long discussions with her she made me stop using it (as I was already becoming a little hypochondriac during my last year of usage about every small pain that I randomly felt).
1-2 months later my ginger beard returned and then I had some serious anxieties about it and after about 8 months my color completely faded away (gradually).
After a few months of not using it I pretty much fell into semi-depression and had many anxiety attacks, in my head it was like someone is taking the mask of my true face and revealed my bluff.
My g/f never left me and was extremely amazing about it and told me that I don't look even a tiny bit less good than I was, she was there the whole time.
Unfortunately her encouraging didn't help much and during the last year I started seeing a shrink once a week (sometimes twice).
I did made a pretty huge progress with the shrink (I have some sort of OCD / Childhood traumas) but unfortunately until this very day I am pretty depressed and every time there is some mentioning about my skin color / beard I feel really bad, even if it's just from my employees.
Obviously they do not know how it hurts me as I am very strong, funny and successful to the outside world.
In a retro-perspective this may have have been like Dumbo's magic feather to me and the only real change it did was to give me the confidence to fulfill myself.
Or not.
A few months ago I broke up with my G/F (After 4 years) which made me like 10 times weaker as I had no real supporting shoulder any longer, except my shrink perhaps.
Since then I dated dozens of girls, pretty much most of the dates were successful but all of the dates were at night as well as I am much less confident in the sun (I know that this is part of my obsession).
During those last months, no matter how successful my night is, I am still really depressed about my skin (or about what it represents for me at least).
I am not exactly sure what made me share all this but I read some interesting questions/stories so I thought it'll make me feel good to share it here and hear your thoughts...
You can also consider it as some sort of AMA thread if you'd like to ask something.
Sorry for the long post and thanks for reading.