From melanocytes to medicine: understanding the science behind vitiligo. When Your Skin Starts Losing Its Color Did you know that when Michael Jackson, one of the world's biggest pop stars, started looking noticeably different in the 1980s, people accused him of changing his skin color on purpose? What many didn't know was that he had vitiligo, a skin condition that causes patches of skin to lose their natural color. At the time, there was still a lot that scientists didn't u