tanning

[Karen]

I never realized how white I actually was until I stopped exposing my legs to the sun about 5 years ago.
When I was a child I was always outside playing or in the pool. As I became a teenager I did the tanning bed thing for a while. As an adult I did go to the tanning bed before a wedding I was in since it was December. And I've gone to the tanning bed to get a base tan before going on vacation so I wouldn't burn and be miserable on vacay.
But since my arms and face are the only thing that sees the sun these days I also use Jergens Natural Glow on my lower legs so that I can hopefully wear capri pants here soon (I need to go buy some). A few years ago I had some light tan capri pants and my co-worker teased me and said my legs matched the pants perfectly. I stopped wearing them after that.
After high school my friends mom got a tanning bed in her old bedroom. We used that sometimes. I'm fine with tanning beds as long as you don't over do it. My friend was so dark at one point it was horrible. And she thought she was white!!! After several people telling her it was too much, she slowed down on it.

Tanning beds are not "safe" in that a tan is technically skin damage, so please be careful, and memorize the warning signs of skin cancer as well, okay?

[Taz_Zoee]

Tanning beds are not "safe" in that a tan is technically skin damage, so please be careful, and memorize the warning signs of skin cancer as well, okay?

Oh I don't use them anymore. I would, like I said to get a base tan, if we were going on vacation to a tropical place. But that's not happening any time soon. So no worries. I only use the foaming stuff like someone else mentioned......Jergens Natural Glow. And only on my legs from the knees down. Nobody sees any more of my legs than that.
I also don't think my friend uses them anymore either. She isn't overly tan anyway. I think she just gets sun when she is out at her kids games. She had severe burns on her face from skiing years ago, so she's always covered her face when tanning. A picture from our 20 year high school reunion shows her and another classmate. The other girl looks sooo much older than she does. So she's doing something right there.

[sallyandsnowx]

I'm very pasty white as well. I went tanning in a tanning bed once and only once. All it did was make me look like a lobster. I never went after that, it's not all that great like everyone says it is. I just stick to laying out in my backyard to get a little color.

[david p]

I don't believe in tanning beds. I used to get my tans the natural way. I'm half Italian so I get I my coloring from my dad, and 38 summers of mowing grass on a golf course helped keep me brown. I guess I was lucky I didn't get skin cancer.

[Karen]

I guess I was lucky I didn't get skin cancer.

You likely owe it more to genetics than luck, David! Those italian genes have served you well in that regard!

[pomtzu]

You likely owe it more to genetics than luck, David! Those italian genes have served you well in that regard!

LOL - but that doesn't always work that way. My dad was full blooded Italian, thus making me and my sibs half the same. My older brother has had skin cancers removed from his back, as did Dad. But they both spent a lot of time outside - shirtless - working in the sun in the yard, as well as spending a LOT of time on the ocean in their boats. And my brother lived in FL too, where the rays are much stronger than around this area. I tan very easy, but still choose not to bake myself anymore, and get a nice tan (except for my legs ) just being outside with the pups a few times each day.

[Asiel]

I've always been an outdoor person and would get a tan regardless, and I did stretch out in the sun with baby oil slathered on. I think it was a phase people were going through at the time. I started reading so much about skin cancer that I stopped the tanning but spending hours in the sun every day I would tan anyway. I've never had a burn though although I am as fair skinned as can be and blond. After realizing the dangers of too much sun I tried to avoid long exposures. Today I can't go in the sun even 5 minutes without getting too weak to move.
Just this year our city has banned tanning salons for any person under the age of 18, I thought it was a great move as most teens don't give skin cancer a second thought. I would never use those tanning beds myself but have friends who go every week in winter before they leave for warmer destinations. I do know a few who have had suspicious moles and lesions removed but they still tan and use tanning beds...
Glad I stopped getting all that sun yrs ago, who knows how things could have turned out.

[Jessika]

I don't go out of my way to tan. But I am sure rocking a nice combination of a farmer's tan/driver's arm since my AC doesn't work in my car... I've been wearing sunscreen on just my left arm to try to not look so off balance...

As for my legs and the rest of my skin... I've always been a pretty pale person... I will burn, then MAYBE have a SLIGHT tan left behind... my sisters and I are all that way, always have been, except as kids when you live outdoors during summer vacations. I think the only time I tanned is on a Hawaiian cruise when we cruised down to Fanning Island... not very far from the equator. ><

[catnapper]

I was ssssoooooooo peeved this morning. I am taking Cameron to Hershey Park for his birthday on the 11th. I was showing him the rides he's tall enough to go on this year. He can't wait for all the roller coasters.

Anyway, I also told him how we'll need to be prepared with waterproof sunscreen. His answer? Mommy said I won't burn and don't need sunscreen because I need a tan. OMG..... can I kill the idiot he has for a mommy? I ranted about how mommy can tan because she is an adult but she should never make that choice for a child. I told him cancer is serious and if she wants skin cancer she can continue to tan..... but there is no way she should make the choice to tan foy a child! He knew grandmom was livid.

[Freckles]

No suncreen?
No Hershey Park.

[catnapper]

No suncreen?
No Hershey Park.

Grandmom's comment, word for word. I told him even though mommy doesn't care about skin cancer, I do. I ranted a few minutes about her smoking and lung cancer too for good measure.

[Karen]

I was ssssoooooooo peeved this morning. I am taking Cameron to Hershey Park for his birthday on the 11th. I was showing him the rides he's tall enough to go on this year. He can't wait for all the roller coasters.

Anyway, I also told him how we'll need to be prepared with waterproof sunscreen. His answer? Mommy said I won't burn and don't need sunscreen because I need a tan. OMG..... can I kill the idiot he has for a mommy? I ranted about how mommy can tan because she is an adult but she should never make that choice for a child. I told him cancer is serious and if she wants skin cancer she can continue to tan..... but there is no way she should make the choice to tan foy a child! He knew grandmom was livid.

You could, if it comes up again, say "Sun screen isn't going to keep you from getting a tan at all, it just slows it down so you do not burn," as cancer is kinda hard for a child his age to understand. Sunburns HURT. That, a kid can understand!

[catnapper]

You could, if it comes up again, say "Sun screen isn't going to keep you from getting a tan at all, it just slows it down so you do not burn," as cancer is kinda hard for a child his age to understand. Sunburns HURT. That, a kid can understand!

He knows all about cancer because a couple family members passed away and he saw both mommy and her boyfriend already had "suspricous marks" removed already. He knows cancer is scary and makes a person very, very sick. He knows you can die from cancer.

I am still SO MAD at her. How dumb can a person be? Funny thing, she NOT dumb. She's just clueless and tries to bend the world to her will.