Do you go suntanning? If so, what method do you use?

[Deja Q]

Lotions that'll make you turn bright orange?

Tanning booths to feel claustrophobic in?

Outside to let the ozone fry you away?

I am a pale person, curious to try out something new.

What might you recommend to a hoser like me?

Thx! :D

[Heidi]

1. No sunbathing for me.

I'm a fair-skinned redhead and when I was 14, I got a sunburn so severe that it required an emergency room visit. Doctors warned me then to avoid the sun and when I'm doing outdoor stuff, to wear the most protective sunscreen available. Nonetheless, I get pretty good color by wearing sunscreen while I'm gardening, trekking, etc. As a color "booster" I've used Estee Lauder self-tanning cream sparingly.

[yardwork]

2. When I was young I used to lie in the sun and turn deep brown

Now that I'm 45 I avoid letting the sun fry my skin. Years of tanning causes wrinkled, dry skin, age spots, discolorations, and skin cancer. It's not worth it.

As the above poster said, I can get a little color by wearing strong sunscreen when I garden or have to be outside. I also wear hats and good sunglasses.

Protect yourself from the sun. The radiation is very harmful and will make you look old before your time.

[emulatorloo]

3. Airbrush Tan at a Salon - I have done it twice

you stand there in your underwear, they spray you like a car w an airbrush, you go home, and 4 hours later you shower. It looks natural and lasts a few weeks. No you do not turn orange. Doesn't damage your skin like sun. About 35 to 50 dollars.

[Ilsa]

8. I've seen this! Beautiful results. eom

[terrya]

16. I'm considering getting an airbrush tan this summer.

I used to have a tan, years ago. I did the tanning booth thing as well as lay out in the sun. But the dangers of skin cancer from both the sun and tanning booths have deterred me from getting a tan. Thus, I now have really pasty white skin. I miss not having a tan.

I'm looking into the airbrush tan method. Thanks for the info.

Terry

[Mr.Green93]

4. Work

outside

[gizmo1979]

18. ditto

[In_The_Wind]

5. I do and I do it carefully.

I freckle. My tan never goes beyond a light honey color.

I avoid being in direct sunlight during the brightest part of the day. My tanning hours are early in the morning or very late in the afternoon. I wear loosely woven hats to provide a partial shade for my eyes and face, light weight cotton clothing as a cover up when I must be out in the noonday sun.

:hi:

[Enraged_Ape]

6. There are modern lotions that won't make you turn bright orange

Banana Boat has a good one (that comes in a couple of shades) called VitaSkin.

Here's the URL for a great website all about sunless tanning:

http://www.sunless.com/index.php

Whatever you do, stay OUT of the sun and OUT of tanning parlors. My wife avoids the sun as would Vampirella, and she has also never smoked. She's well into her forties and looks like she's in her twenties.

[TrogL]

7. Every time I feel that certain tingle

slap on another quart of sunscreen.

I grew up in the 60's when a deep dark tan was sexy and a sign of good health. Little did we know.

Unfortunately, now I'm hooked. I fall in to a deep dark depression if I don't have at least something resembling a tan.

[unhappycamper]

9. My preferred method

Wait till June & then go here:

[Lindsey]

10. I've been wondering about how the airbrush worked...

I havn't spoken to anyone personally who had tried it...good to hear it's a good opiton for those of us who want a little color but not the damage.

[NNadir]

11. I stay out in the sun until I get melanoma.

After a few months, I am covered with patchy black spots.

The mortician cleans me up, puts me in a box and I stay pretty much the same color forever. Don't knock it. It works.

[bertha katzenengel]

12. I put on SPF-15 and lay out on the beach.

It's in my genes.

[InvisibleTouch]

13. Unrepentant sun-worshipper here.

The dangers of sun exposure have been vastly overhyped, and the very real benefits have been quietly buried. Just yesterday there was an article on Yahoo about the cancer-preventative effects of Vitamin D as generated by sun exposure:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/sunshine___cancer

But it goes beyond Vitamin D. Direct sunlight also stimulates the immune system - and, for someone like myself, who luxuriates in the heat, the emotional and psychological effects are beyond measure.

Everything in moderation, of course. I don't deny that we have to be more careful today than we did in the past, due to the destruction of the ozone layer. My technique is this:

As soon as it gets tolerably warm in the late Spring, I start with 5 minutes of sun on each side (front and back), and increase my time by a minute or so every day, until I'm up to half an hour. I don't wear sunscreen or lotion, because I find that once I have even a little bit of color, I don't burn. And yes, I'm fairly light-skinned. You just have to build up to it slowly. The hardest part, for me, is forcing myself to come in from the sun when my designated time is up.

I do wear sunscreen if I'm going to be outdoors in the sun for long periods of time, and I don't already have a protective tan - but then the highest I go is SPF-8, which prevents buring but still lets me get some color.

BTW, let me recommend this book, as regards the health benefits of natural light:

Health and Light: The Effects of Natural and Artificial Light on Man and Other Living Things
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0898040981/qid=1116778647/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-2427679-1586316

It's fairly old, there are some elements that I find questionable, and I'm sure the research has been refined since then, but it's a good starting point and a whole different outlook on the anti-UV paranoia that has run rampant in the last decades.

Enjoy the sun, but do it wisely.

[Enraged_Ape]

20. I'm sure it's all just anti-UV paranoia

I guess that's why 4 out of 4 dermatologists that I know recommend to EVERY ONE of their patients to:

a) stay out of the sun
b) refrain from smoking

They're just a bunch of Chicken Littles who don't know what they're talking about.

:eyes:

I agree with you that sunlight has enormous health benefits. But one can have exposure to the sun WITHOUT tanning (or trying for tanning) in it. It's very sad that the sunlight you and I knew just a few decades ago is NOT the sunlight we have now. I have already lost one young friend (an avid tanner, who died in her early forties) to melanoma, and it is just an unthinkably horrible disease. It is in no way worth the risk.

[Huckebein the Raven]

14. I don't need to sun tan

;)

[fortyfeetunder]

15. I can't, already born pre-tanned!

But, since I do have a mixed heritage, I just use the strongest sunscreen when outdoors...45SPF or better...

[aePrime]

17. I usually get a healthy monitor tan

Being a programmer...

[auntAgonist]

19. The sun and I don't get along

I have roseacea <sp> and I burn easily. The sun makes me terribly itchy too. I was born in Scotland and my skin is very fair. That could have something to do with it.

no tan here.

[48pan]

21. Get about $18,000 and ...

buy a new Harley Davidson Electra Glide Classic. Then ride to St. Louis and back. You'll have a heck of a tan.