I tan straight thru high SPF, am outdoorsy, and not very tolerant to heat so I'm not covering up when I could be wearing a tank top. So I'm rather brown right now (except for my legs, which didn't get the "let's tan!" memo my upper body did.)
I actually get a little bit of disapproval from some people around me ("eww, tan lines!" "you should be more careful about cancer") that I wish people would keep to themselves. I'm not going to lock myself inside or wear a burka, so let it go, folks.
I wear obnoxious old lady hats and sun screen. I live in a climate where it's over 105 on a regular basis, with brutal sun, so it's not that out of the norm.
There's definitely no tanning going on over here, but I'm still tan just from every day life. I'm quite fair and rosy skinned. Despite this, I've already had a skin cancer spot removed. I used to not apply sun screen because I was wary of the ingredients and just rely on limiting time and relying on hats, but now I slather it on myself and my kids if we're outside for more than 30 min
My husband burns quickly and gets more freckles. He isn't capable of getting a tan at all. I'm afraid he's set to get tons of melanomas like his dad
My daughter is like him but my son is more like me and can tan. I'm definitely not messing around with that so lots of sunscreen it is.
Location: Home of the Pirates, Steelers and Penguins
Posts: 12,396
S/C/G: 217/179/142
Height: 5'2
I think moderation is key. I have read that many people's levels of Vit D have dropped because of fear of skin cancer. We need about 15 min of daily sun exposure to produce the proper amount of Vit D needed for our bodies.
I have also read that some of the chemicals in sunscreen/sunblock are dangerous.
And last but not least, I have heard that skin cancer we're getting today is usually from a burn we received in our younger days, not the beach vacation last month. And being "able to tan" is not protection. It just gives you a false sense of security, IMO.
Don't get radical about it....use common sense. We live in different parts of the country and some places get more sun than others. You can get burned on a cloudy day if conditions are right. We have had rain 27 of the past 42 days, so no skin cancer worries this year!
Melanin serves as protection from the sun, though. I'd imagine it's costly to produce, otherwise we wouldn't only have tans when we've been exposed to sunlight. If it's costly to produce, then there has to be a purpose for it, and that purpose is sun protection. Obviously it's not enough to keep a white person sunburn-free in an area where native humans have/would have had darker skin tones, but it definitely helps.
The areas of my body that are exposed to sun a lot (upper back, upper arms, the front part of my thigh from my knee to my short line) definitely have better protection than the pale areas. I can get away with not putting any sunblock on those spots and not have them burn whereas the other areas will fry in 20 minutes. Of course, it's still good to be wary, but those tans make a huge difference!
Also, getting a tan necessarily isn't damaging. It's excessively doing it that is. Tanning for me is inevitable unless I were to wear long sleeves and pants everywhere during the summer, which, with my job, would lead to heat stroke. It's similar to microfracturing bones or microtearing muscles, it is damage, but it leads to stronger bones and muscles. Sunlight is also the best source of vitamin D and is linked with preventing certain types of cancers, including breast. The key is moderation and to seek shade as soon as something starts turning pink (and, of course, keeping oneself hydrated all the time to prevent skin from drying out with age). The only problem is it feels so good to lie out in the sun and it becomes hard to move and easy to pass out, haha
Any tiny amount of tan is damage, period. Base tans are not protective, they are merely damage that's already occurred. A couple of minutes on google can dispel that myth. https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=base+tans+don%27t+
