STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

laken1 · Hermes

Do you go to a tanning salon?

Kari · Dooney & Bourke

I hate to admit it, but I do visit the tanning salon once a year (usually in march or april)....

I usually buy 1 month of tanning, go about 3 times a week, then I stop going all together. It just helps boost my color for the year. I go the first week for about 3 minutes each time, the second week about 5 minutes each time, then the last couple of weeks I'll stay in about 7-10 minutes. (these are 20 minute beds)

I know it is bad for me, but so is the sun. and I think that the amounts i go, is not that harmful...i always expose my face for the first 1-2 minutes, then cover it up. and I wear pretty "big" undergarments to cover the more sensitive areas as well.

-- Edited by Kari at 16:30, 2006-02-06

bluediamond · Dooney & Bourke

I love to tan!!!! I do it every spring/summer and usually buy a 3 month package, going every other day or so. Every day the first month so i can build up my tan.

I love tanning and my skin looks great but i feel super guilty each time I am in there. uuggh! I know its super bad for me but i think I am just addicted to it. I have been doing this since my junior year in high school.

I havent noticed any signs of premature aging just yet, but I think I will stop immediately once I notice fine lines, which by then I am sure will be too late to reverse any damage.

Skin cancer in general doesnt worry me. I think Im in denial, always saying it wont happen to me.

I KNOW! Shame on me!!

-- Edited by soulchic at 16:31, 2006-02-06

valenciana · Dooney & Bourke

could you get a airbrush/spray tan and still qualify for the mystery shops?

i have been probably 10 times total to a tanning salon. when i was in college, i got some coupons for like 4 sessions for the price of 1. then i went last year a half dozen times or so...i was trying to build a base before going to the beach because i had been getting this sun rash, but then i got it from the tanning bed too...SO...no more tanning beds for me and i try to stay out of the sun if i can and use lots of sunscreen. i have to admit i like being tan and i like tanning, it's all warm in the bed (or in the sun), but my skin is clearly trying to tell me something!

bumblebee · Coach

i don't want to preach, so i will just say it once, it is SO BAD FOR YOU!

i went several times back when i was in high school, because i lived in orange county among the plastic barbie population, and i tried hard to live up to their standards. last year i had my first skin cancer removed at age 29. it is just not worth it. for me. you have to decide for yourself.

but just so you know, the tanning bed rays are much more concentrated than those from the actual sun, thus accelerating pleasant effects like wrinking and sunspots, not to metion cancer. ok, that's it. i couldn't help myself.

tri_sarah_tops · Marc Jacobs

Yes

Well not right now because of the pregnant thing. I usually go in the winter though, I'm backwards. It's mostly because I hate the cold and the shorter daylight hours and it really makes me feel better.
Yeah, I know it's bad for me. For awhile I was going like four or five times a week but then we went to FL and I saw all these super tan older ladies and I realized how weathered and rough they looked so I stopped going as often. I know, I know, I just really enjoy it.

lilyann · Dooney & Bourke

never have been to a tanning salon, know plenty of people who do. It is strange , but I really dont like to have heat on my skin- maybe a holdover form getting thrd degree burns over my right leg when I was younger. I loathe the sun on my face, in my eyes, I am a vampire! HeHe!! Even though I never lie out in the sun, my skintone is light- medium because of my italian descent.

CarrieS · Marc Jacobs

Just like Kari, I also go once a year, for one month. Usually about 3 times a week during that month. I know it's horrible for you, but I love being tan and I'm at work from 8-5 M-F, and don't have anywhere to lay out on the weekends (if I wanted natural sun).

I also don't like doing a spray/lotion tan because 1) I live by myself, so applying it would be impossible, 2) I know you have to touch it up and I'm too lazy for that, especially since I want to be tan ALL over.

I'll admit too that I really should not be tanning, since I had a mole removed from my arm about 5 years ago that was pre-cancerous (could've turned into melanoma if it hadn't been taken care of).

I haven't had any mole issues since though, and while this is NOT a cancer-prevention method, I do pay close attention to what I do have on my body and I monitor them very closely.

I guess I liken my tanning to being like someone who smokes: I know the risks but I choose to do it anyways.

I know that this is horrible; The desire to be tan every year always takes over me though....

*Puts on flame retardant suit*

halleybird · Hermes

OK, please skip this post if you don't want a lecture, but...

I did go...once or twice in college (peer pressure...ahh!). That was just before my dad was diagnosed with skin cancer. He has had it four times, and I had to look at him after he had a huge chunk of his forehead removed. He also had to have surgery on his terigium (sp?), which is on your inner eyelid, because he had cancer there, too. (btw, you have to be awake for that surgery *shudder*). My cousin (who is 20 or 21 now, I think) was diagnosed with malignant melanoma, too, which is horribly sad.

I think of it like smoking...it won't kill everyone, but I am not gonna take that chance. Tanning beds are actually worse for you than the sun.

Sorry if this sounds preachy, but I just wouldn't feel right if I didn't say something.

deadlyjane · BCBG

oh god hell no!! I am deathly afraid of tanning beds. I went once with my friend just to keep her company and i freaked out for her.I had to wait in the car I was so panicky. I think it has to do with that movie scream or something where the killer locks that chick in one..

Prissy · Dooney & Bourke

I go for mystic tan only. A few years back I would use the conventional tanning beds for a couple of months out of the year until I had a cancer scare and that changed everything. It's not worth it.

Aurora · Marc Jacobs

nope. I'm too fair for the tanning beds. I thought about it a few times in college because some of my sorority sisters were like you can start off in the low beds for short periods of time but then my mom developed a mole on her shoulder that was skin cancer and you couldn't tell until it was cut out how bad it was!!! (sorry if that was tmi)

Lilykind · Hermes

I too, like deadlyjane, am totally freaked out by the whole idea of tanning beds. I have this irrational fear that they will bake whomever is inside to a crisp. I tan super-easily, so I could spend 15 minutes in a bed and look like I hung out in Fiji for a month even if I wore SPF 45 religiously. I don't think tanning is worth the health risks. If they had a Mystic Tan option that would be worth doing the mystery shop for IMO.

Seashells · Dooney & Bourke

No.

I used tanned in HS for prom and what not. It feels really good in the winter to have the suns rays on you when you are in that mid-winter slump. But I feel as if its not worth it. Here's why:

I have freckly skin. I am more apt to getting burnt, moles etc. The idea of having cancer freaks me out!

I stopped doing the tanning outside thing and wore SPF 15 all summer. My skin looks so much clearer and healthier. My aunt has always worn a high SPF and her skin is beautiful! I use Jergens Natural Glow and it keeps a healthy glow on my skin all year.

NCshopper · Hermes

Tanning just isn't for me. Tanning beds are not any more safe than laying out in the sun without sunscreen. I just don't think it's worth it to risk skin cancer in order to have a tan.

Plus, we all spend, and will spend, over the course of our lives, a small fortune on beauty products and treatments that will try to help us look younger. Tanning is like flushing all that money down the tube because any results you get from a treatment or skin care product is just going to be cancelled out from tanning.

That's just my two cents.

Sandy · Kate Spade

I had a similar dilemma a while back. My cousin opened a salon and I wasn't sure if it was worth the risk to support her new business. I decided not to, and here's why: a girl who went to school two years before me was recently diagnosed with skin cancer. She was/is a tan-aholic. This is just hear-say, but she supposedly used to go to one salon for a tanning session, head up the street to another salon for another session, then the next, and so on everyday (we have lots of tanning salons around here). Her skin is all rough and leathery (of course, that's not the worst of it), and she's only 22; I don't want that to be me. So I guess it's a mix between the fact that she's proof that tanning actually does cause skin cancer and that I have an irrational fear that I'll become addicted to it, as well.

laken1 · Hermes

Thanks everyone for your thoughts & opinions - even the "preachy" ones- I'm all about giving my true opinion & getting yours, which is why I asked all of you - I knew you would tell me honestly. I have decided not to do it because I'm kind of freaked out on the whole tanning bed thing. I am "old school" & I remember when tanning beds first came out. All of your stories reminded me of the urban myth of the girl that the beds cooked her insides? Does anyone remember that?

I decided against it & I have to be honest, it's such a shallow reason. #1, it's not that much money. and ther is a mystic tan option but you have to pay over the $10 reimbursement & i don't even know what that is, but I don't want it to cost me anything. In addition to the whole skin cancer thing, I really don't want to be "fake" tan or more wrinkled or whatever. And I will be spending a little time in the sun this summer & i'll just get my tan the old fashion way - at the pool drinking daquaris covered in sunscreen & wearing a floppy hat.

Thanks!