Winter is quickly approaching and our nice summer tans are starting to fade away. We look at ourselves in the mirror and are frightened by the pale reflection staring back at us. That glowing, bronzed look that we all love so much has turned into a white, ghostly glow that will scare little children. We turn to the only outlet available to us during the cold, sunless winter season to make our skin glow in a good way again: tanning beds.
Like many other desparate sun seekers, I turn to the tanning beds and sign up for numerous months at a time to ensure that I will have a long lasting tan throughout the winter season. I buy new tanning products, such as lotion and eye ware and eventually get back in the routine of tanning every other day, or 3-5 times a week if I can fit it in my schedule. After a couple weeks in the beds, my skin is usually tanner than it gets from being outdoors in the summer -- so I am happy, satisfied, and most importantly, tan.
Unfortunately, I didn't know (like most people) how much harm I was potentially causing my body every time I turned on the tanning bed to start my session. I knew there was a relationship between skin cancer and tanning beds, but I thought that it would never happen to me. "I have olive skin. My risk of getting skin cancer is less!" Wrong, wrong, wrong. We are all at risk once we expose our body to the UVA and UVB rays in tanning beds.
I started hearing more and more negativity towards tanning beds and decided to conduct a little research before setting foot in another tanning bed, and I was mortified at what I found. From tanning that one winter season I damaged lots and lots of skin cells and allowed for premature wrinkling, brown spots, and other skin issues all because I wanted tan skin. That is all I had to read to stop the bad habit I had formed. I refused to spend money on something that was essentially destroying my skin.
I have now gone five years without using a tanning bed and my skin could not be healthier! Spray tans are my best friend and give me the bronzed look I want without the harmful UV rays. I know you are probably thinking back to that one bad spray tan you got and how awful spray tans are because they can leave streaks on the body and it smells, BUT if you go to the right salon your spray tan will turn out beautifully and the smell goes away after an hour or so. I think I would prefer a bad spray tan over skin cancer any day. Make safe decisions when it comes to your skin this winter.
