tanning

[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.

[david p]

Would sweating a lot prevent skin cancer? I used to sweat a ton mowing all of that grass and I wonder if a coating of sweat might have prevented it?

[Karen]

Would sweating a lot prevent skin cancer? I used to sweat a ton mowing all of that grass and I wonder if a coating of sweat might have prevented it?

Hee hee - dunno about that, but I know that olive-skinned people are less likely to get it than we pasty white folks, but there are myriad factors involved. I'm just one of those people whose general description matches the list on all those posters:

fairskinned? - check
blonde or red hair as a child? - check
pale or blue eyes? - check
burn easily? - check
freckles? - check
Frequent sunburns as a child? - check - despite the best efforts of parents and sunscreen!

And Paul, despite having dark hair, matches all the rest of these, plus has a history of skin cancer in the family.

[david p]

Hee hee - dunno about that, but I know that olive-skinned people are less likely to get it than we pasty white folks, but there are myriad factors involved. I'm just one of those people whose general description matches the list on all those posters:

fairskinned? - check
blonde or red hair as a child? - check
pale or blue eyes? - check
burn easily? - check
freckles? - check
Frequent sunburns as a child? - check - despite the best efforts of parents and sunscreen!

And Paul, despite having dark hair, matches all the rest of these, plus has a history of skin cancer in the family.

Guess what, Karen. When I was a kid, I was blonde which turned dark brown, (now grey!)

[Karen]

Guess what, Karen. When I was a kid, I was blonde which turned dark brown, (now grey!)

Yes, but you got your Dad's olive skin tone - which counts a LOT, apparently!

My hair is what we call jokingly "the transmogrifying Peterson hair" - When I was little I had blonde curls, bright strawberryish blonde, big curls, Between Christmas and Easter when I was four, it not only turned darker - brown, to be precise, it went straight. It stayed straight for a long time, but would always get reddish or blonde streaks in the summer, and by the end of summer the ends of my hair were pretty light, especially compared to the color it was when it started out! Then it got to be kind of wavy, and now, after years, it is fairly curly if I don't blow it dry. It still gets streaks, if I am out in the sun much. My nieces have been warned this could, indeed, happen to them! Niece #3 actually straightens her hair at the present time - trying to delay the inevitable I guess!

[Miss Z]

I am a fan of sunbathing, and only ever in the sun. I've never been on a sunbed (by which I mean a tanning booth, as I think you guys across the pond call them ), and I never use fake tan. I hate the streaky effect and the smell of those products. I suppose can't shake off the memories of the girls in my teenage days who looked like they bathed in Tango every morning, either!

I don't believe that I have any lineage that would lend me 'olive skin', but I don't usually burn and go brown quite quickly. I of course still use high factor suncream and moisturise my skin when I come out of the sun. I definitely don't want to end up like a leather satchel!

I actually find that I work very well when out in the sun, and by work I mean revision, going over notes, writing essays, etc. Last year in April, the weather was glorious here, and I spent all my time in the garden sat in my sun-lounger revising for my exams, and got so much done. The weather wasn't so kind this year, and I found it a lot harder to keep the concentration up. The sun has only recently showed its face over here, and I spent the weekend out in a quiet corner of Hyde Park writing my 2nd year lab report. Again, got way more done than I ever would sat at my laptop in my room. Perhaps I am just more relaxed and motivated when outdoors in the warmth, and less prone to distraction.

Perhaps it is partly a British thing, too. The high sun is a fickle friend over here. As quickly as he comes, he's gone, so I suppose we take full advantage in that short space of time!

[carole]

I am another pasty white person (i am scottish after all) got the freckles, so i don't look that white, and i do not care, that is what i was born with and i am happy to stay that way, sure a tan looks healthy, but we all know in general it is not.

We in NZ have one of the harshest suns in the world, and even though i have kept out of it, i see my aunts and uncle when they come over from scotland who are older than myself and they have hardly a wrinkle, so everyone should remember getting a tan is just skin damage and it does age you prematurely.,and it does not matter what type of skin you have you are still damaging your skin. I know had i remained in Scotland i too would have that beautiful lily white skin,however i do know a lot of Brits go to spain and get tanned these days.Personally there is nothing more beautiful to me than a peaches and cream complexion.

When i was younger i tried to get a bit of tan, but only resulted in freckles, so i gave up, maybe just as well, they seem to fade with age, then you get other ones like on your hands and age spots which i detest, and can do nothing about,despite staying out of the sun, GRRR...

Trouble is because i am so scared of getting skin cancer i now have to take vitamin D every month, due to the fact i do not spend much time outside,catch 22 really.

[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.

[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!