STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

blink · Coach

RE: Tanning...is it really that bad?

halleybird · Hermes

I used to think tanning was like eating at McDonald's...something you wouldn't want to do everyday, but not bad once in awhile.

That all stopped when my dad got skin cancer. (He's had it a couple of times.) The worst was the last one; it was a patch on his forehead. In order to remove it, he had a four-inch-square section of his face peeled off (I mean ALL the skin). It was the most disgusting, painful thing I've ever seen. He couldn't eat or sleep for several days afterward because of the pain.

My 20-year-old cousin was also just diagnosed with malignant melanoma last year. She got it on the bottom of her foot, of all places. My dad has also had it on his terigium (sp??), the inner part of your eye. So it's not always where you think.

The worst part is that neither of them were ever really sun-worshippers. My dad's skin looks great -- he's almost 50 but could pass for 40 easily. But sometimes the damage isn't visible.

I don't want to sound preachy, because I used to tan, too, but I won't ever do it again. There is NO such thing as a healthy tan

blubirde · Chanel

I think it is as bad as smoking but no one wants to admit it's that bad because everyone does it.

Halleybird, one of my best friends recently had a piece of her eye removed (it's not large and you can only tell if you look closely) due to melanoma. Isn't it horrible? It just comes in the weirdest of places. You can never be too careful when it comes to the sun. It's just such an easy thing to protect yourself against, ya know? (Not always, of course, but generally speaking it's not like some other cancers where there's not rhyme or reason to them.)

erin · Chanel

i really think it is that bad. i've always had an aversion to the sun (even as a child, i would put sun-in in my hair, but put a towel over my face/body while i layed out)...and now that my vitiligo is a lot worse, the sun is a no-no for me. i think i'd much rather have my ghostliness than look like leather. (as a side note: my natural haircolor is black, and to the gals who said their hair is super dark...sometimes just adding a few light brown highlights can take the severity of black hair away)

Patricia · BCBG

Yes its really that bad.

If vanity is the thing that'll work for you rather than cancer - it causes agin - sunspots, melasma, wrinles...Ew.

manhattanmonkey · Kenneth Cole

I have never been a regular tanner, but did in the past when my mom's office had one. (She worked at a lawyer's office, but the building use to be a doctors office and it has a lap pool and a tanning bed in it still - kinda strange)

In March, I started going once a week (a couple 2 time weeks) to get a base for summer and because I'm in a wedding next month. I am noticeably darker, but I have very pale skin to begin with and blonde hair. I'll proably continue to go once a week or every other week, but I'm also going to invest in self-tanner to keep it up.

I would agree with the others, if you do it in moderation, it's ok, but it still isn't good.

DC Shopper · Dooney & Bourke

I think it's pretty bad for you, but I plan on getting a very light tan before my wedding next month - it's just more reliable than a spray tan and more natural looking, plus it won't come off on my white wedding dress. I'm going to cover my face though and apply sunscreen to it first - I don't want wrinkles! I know paleness can be beautiful but I get sick of being so white in the summer time. I really do. I feel like I look sick or something.

I'm going to go in one of those stand-up machines - you go in there for like 2-3 minutes if you're pale like me and do it a few times and you get a nice even tan. But after that, I'm going back to self-tanner in the summers, although I've never been very satisfied with the results. Fake Bake is a good one, but it is messy to apply.

lilmissdiva · Kenneth Cole

I can totally relate. I recently had a basil cell (the lowest form of skin cancer) scraped off, yes, I said scraped off my back.

I was an avid sun worshiper. If I wasn't in the booth, I was out on the deck sunning it up. In the last year my Dad has had several basil cellls removed from various parts of his body. My Mom also had a serious scare last year. My Dad told her to go with him for a skin check. She was busy and didn't want to, he said it would only take a minute.
The doctor scanned her skin and did a biopsy of a small spot on her arm. It was pre-cancerous and scheduled to have it immediately removed.
As they were prepping her to have it removed they told her that if she would have waited a couple of months- she would have needed chemo and radiation!!!!

I was lucky, too. A basil cell does not spread down to the other layers of the skin, just out and is not as disasterous. I LOVE the sun and have always felt so much better when I have that healthy glow. But from now on I will be lathering on the self-tanner. I don't mean to sound preachy either but look at someone like Andie MacDowell, how old IS she? And she still looks fabulous. And look at someone like Lindsey Lohann who already looks like she's 40. Yuck!!!

Mia · Kate Spade

This is a judgement call and I'm not going to lecture anyone who tans, just like I don't lecture my friends who smoke. But, as sure as cigarette smoke makes your lungs black and sticky, tanning damages your skin, period. A lighter tan that takes only a short time won't damage it as much as a lobster-red burn, but it's still damage - that's actually what a tan is, is your skin defending itself against UV rays - the tan itself is the defense mechanism. So you know if you've got colour, you've got damage as well.

I sympathize with all the whities. I am so pale most foundations don't make a shade light enough for my skin, I can only use MAC because it does. And I think I look 100x better with a tan.

Lilykind - the pale/dark skin thing makes me laugh. A number of my Asian friends are furtively applying lightening creams every night. While I furtively apply self-tanner. Eh. The grass is always greener.