Sunbed Shock

Hope you're ok OP. How horrible for you and I hope you're getting some treatment to relieve your pain right now.

Sunbeds are getting more 'popular' again. They're everywhere and it's young people using them. They say it's good for their mental health as the rays and colour make them feel better...they'll end up heavily paying for it when they're older if they get skin cancer. I wish the government would ban the places. The fact they exist means that people think they can't be that bad for you.

No legit tanning place should allow 20 mins anyway should they? Let alone a first time. Clearly the staff haven’t been giving proper training and health and safety training.
I don’t use sunbeds myself, don’t judge others for doing it but to be honest op Why would you think 20 mins is okay? I like a tan myself, I sunbathe a lot on holiday and use fake tan, so not coming from a place of judgement just more a lack of common sense ?
anyway, I hope the soreness has calmed down a little this morning, does sound like sun stroke with I do think would warrant medical advice regardless of what your mom says.

No, I can honestly say I haven't. I genuinely thought they'd all been replaced by places where women get botox and laser treatment to reverse the damage they did to their skin from trying to get a tan years ago.

Maybe they are more common in some areas than others.

How are you feeling OP?

Its eye-opening that some people equate deliberately damaging your skin to an addictive or pleasurable, tempting treat version of something you'd be doing anyway - like eating fatty foods.

I had no idea sunbeds had this kind of pull! Are they really enjoyable?

Is it a properly licenced tanning place? I'd be worried that it isn't legit

Hope you're ok op.

I agree with this. You can literally give yourself cancer from one bout of bad sunburn. I remember reading about a cricketer who died of skin cancer and he said he knows he got it from one time when he didn’t apply cream and burned himself badly. Having a bit of a blowout with food doesn’t do nearly as much damage and nor does a bit of belly fat. It’s really really dangerous - su beds are much stronger than the actual sun which is why 20 minutes does this much damage.

I think people are just concerned about her - it’s well publicised that sun beds are dangerous. You can’t compare it to eating sweets or not doing enough exercise, both of which are harmful but are unlikely, on their own, to cause serious long term damage unless they go on for decades.

You can’t turn around sun bed damage - once it’s done, it’s done. I know so many people who are having cancers removed in their fifties because of sun damage in their teens - it’s scary. One friend nearly lost her nose and needed multiple plastic surgeries due to multiple melanomas. Thankfully she was already being treated for BCC and they were spotted in time.

I think people get quite blasé about sun burns because you generally recover quite quickly and there’s rarely any visible damage after a week or two. But each burn or sun bed use increases your risk of melanoma - and lying on one for twenty minutes and giving yourself 80% burns is a huge risk. It’s scary what OP has done and I’m personally concerned about the symptoms she’s described and the fact that she’s not sought medical treatment. Burns like this can kill you.

Also don’t listen to your mum - people sometimes get third degree burns for these things and it’s very very serious. If you’d spilled a vat of boiling water on yourself you’d not hesitate to go to a&e so please go.

^^ sunbed not subbed!

This. A mid 50’s friend is currently end of life due to cancer, the primary being a melanoma most likely from subbed use in her younger years 😞.

Don’t bother ….. these places should be outlawed!

I just checked online and there are just two tanning salons in my city (not a huge city but about 200k population). They used to be on every street corner so use of them has definitely dwindled. Maybe in some areas of the country they are still going strong, eg Liverpool or Newcastle but in many parts they seem to have died a death.

Stop listening to your mother who is not a medical person AND GO TO A+E

Why would anyone lie about seeing a sunbed shop?

I know they still exist as I’ve seen them multiple times in the past but not recently and certainly not in our local area. I’m sure they exist in larger towns or cities but they’re not something I look out for or pay any attention to, really.

I will look out for them from now on. OP I hope you are okay. I had bad burn from the actual sun once (had forgotten to apply cream to my back) and it was so so painful. I couldn’t sleep. However the cream the doctor prescribed was really effective and worked straight away so hopefully you will have a similar outcome. Never go on sunbeds again though.

I can’t believe people still use these! They should be illegal

Oh you poor thing OP. I hope you've got some medical help by now. Please stop berating yourself. You deserve sympathy and concern. Your mum sounds a bit shit tbh. You'll get over this. Then think about taking action against the dangerous outfit that allowed this to happen. Feel better. 💐

I think everyone who has posted on here deeply cares about the OP. I know it was the first thing I thought of when I woke up.
However, some of us are trying to make people realise, for the future, just how dangerous sunbeds are. It’s not that we are being sanctimonious at all, just trying to make people aware of what they are doing to themselves.
Hopefully the OP has been to A and E and received the treatment she so desperately needs.

@faerietales @Finallydoingit24unless you live very remotely I find that hard to believe. My very local area has at least 2. The Tanning Shop and Indigo Sun alone each have around 100 branches literally all over the U.K. so unless you mean literally within the very immediate area you live on a very small radius, you are bound to have these near you.

I have the same skin as yourself, I can get burnt if I am out in it for 20 mins. It was overcast on last day of our holiday one year and stupidly, stupidly, I did not put cream. I woke following morning swollen, red raw and in agony, anything that touched it the pain was intense. Had to put loose clothing on for plane ride and hold seat belts away from my body.

I went back to work the following day and the nurse I work with sent me straight to A&E, second degree burns on my stomach and my legs. They gave me Aveeno moisturizing cream. It took the swelling down, stopped the itch and relieved some of the pain (also was told paracetamol and ibrufen). It took a few weeks to go down and it did blister.

Hope you got sorted at A&E, if you didn't go get some Aveeno and I promise it will really hep.

People still use sunbeds?! I don't live in the UK anymore, but I haven't seen one in many years.

I’ve not seen any for a long time actually. I remember them being popular around the mid 00s but they seem to have gone away where I live at least. I knew they weren’t illegal though as we’d have heard about it.

It sounds horrendous, you poor thing. Hope you are ok @SansaStark90 and that you went to A+E or at the very least are going this morning.

Oh my god, do not ever go on a sunbed when you have pale skin. Just don’t. Do you actively want melanoma or something?
Go to your GP and keep hydrated.