Why am I not tanning?

[cherylsaidno]

I'm so so white
I have dark brown hair and blue eyes
I can sit in the sun for hours on holiday (currently )
Obviously I wear a sunscreen (normally spf30) and I never ever change colour
When I was younger I would go on the sunbed for 6 mins 3 x a week but I also never changed colour (or even burnt )
Why am I not even getting a slight glow?
Been in the canaries for a week now at 26/27 degrees (feels hotter ) but no colour change at all.

It's just your skin type. You don't have enough melanin in your skin to tan. You will be particularly susceptible to melanoma, so be careful and for goodness sake don't use sunbeds.

Your skin looks a quite normal pink with a hint of colour from the sun to me, not white at all. There are plenty of people with far paler skin.

Tanning is sun damage. Stay in the shade and have a spray tan if you're bothered. And decrease your skin cancer risk

You’ve got nothing to worry about there! That’s the colour I look with fake tan on!

And to the previous posters not believing that other poster getting stared at, honestly I don’t find that hard to believe. My whole life people have taken the piss about how white I am from the boys at school to neighbours laughing that they have to put their sunglasses on if I’m in the garden, to randoms in the street making really hurtful comments- once walked past a group of teenagers a few years ago one said loudly ‘if I was as white as her I’d k* myself’

Some people are shits and it seems like it’s fair game to comment to people who are really pale.

That colour would be tanned for me! I'm pale and it just is what it is
I try and concentrate on keeping my skin glowy and moisturised and not worry about the shade of it
Exfoliating and body oil always makes me feel better

You look a normal colour to me OP, I’m a blue-ish white and just embrace it. I wear factor 50 and were normal summer clothes. People are always very very rude about my skin (usually older, leathery, orange people) but I just ignore them. I have one friend who comments about it constantly and I can’t wait til we are old and her face is like a ball sack.

wear*

That’s a perfectly normal skin colour.

The constant comments are very very annoying, everyone thinks they’re hilarious with their comments too. Whenever people ask me “why are you so pale?” I now answer “because it pisses people off”. I might up my game this summer and point out something about their appearance. Them: “Wow, you’re so pale you’re almost blue” me “wow, you’ve got a mole on your face”.

One year on holiday we made friends with an Irish girl who was milk bottle white, honestly I've never seen anyone so white. She said she never burned or tanned even with no sunscreen.I can only think she was so white she reflected sunlight.

I've pointed out she was Irish because most really pale people I've met have been Irish or Irish ancestry, including my cousins.

I know, it's very annoying. It would never be appropriate to say to someone 'why are you so dark?' but it's ok to make fun of pale people all the time.

Your skin really isn't white as a sheet. I don't think you are as pale as you think you are

No help as I am bone white and love it. I'm bisexual and adore pale women though, perhaps that's helped? lol. I'm also from the rural South where hostility to pale skin is not really a thing. I've only ever received negative comments or nasty looks travelling in Northern cities or abroad, especially France and Italy. Not sure why it's such a bigger deal in North England, but that's been my experience.

You don't look pale to me anyway. You have average caucasian skin. If you want a tan then you'll have to fake it. People should be doing this anyway, it's so damaging. UV radiation is responsible for 80-90% of skin ageing. A few weeks of browner skin for premature, permanent wrinkles and collagen loss... why?

Apparently carrots boost your melanin production so eat those. Not too many though as you'll go orange!

You have beautiful skin. I hate feeling the pressure to tan and getting teased because of being pale. Embrace your porcelain beauty!

You do have a light tan.

I’m sort of similar, I do tan but it takes time. Again, as others say, I try not to sunbathe as tanning is skin/sun damage.

I’ve got a friend sort of similar colour to you but more freckled and after 2 weeks in the sun she gets hardly any colour! So she generally uses fake tan.

I’m a dark haired, blue eyed pale Irish woman. I don’t think I’ve ever had a tan on my legs. Only ever a slight tan on my face and arms when I was young and didn’t use sunscreen religiously.

I stopped trying to get a tan in my early 20s, and I can tell you now at 45, my skin is thanking me for it! Factor 50, sunglasses/hats etc all the way for me, and fake tan if I feel like it.

Our skin type doesn’t tan well and forcing the issue will just cause ageing and put you at risk of skin cancer.

Clickbait articles sometimes claim the Irish are the palest people in the world but it's not really true. Irish (and Britons) are amongst the world's palest for sure, but Fitzpatrick I skin type is found in many European countries.

Sounds like she has my skin type, literally white but I don't burn or freckle as easily as you'd think, it is bizarre lol.

That’s not white. My skin is far paler than that. When I had laser treatment they use a skin chart to decide on the settings. Mine was akin to albino on the chart

You're absolutely doing the right thing but if I wore factor 30 all holiday I don't think I'd tan much either. When I wear a lower factor or none at all I tan very well. It's highly stupid and irresponsible though. And it fades within a week of returning to this gloomy island anyway so is a pointless exercise!

Given the fact that having dark hair and blue eyes with pale skin is one of the top skin cancer risk combinations, I'd just stay in the shade if I were you!

I find my legs don't tan at all but the top half of my body really does. I just use a moisturiser with tan inbuilt, Dove do a good one.

Going back on holiday next week so fingers crossed I glow a bit more next week ha ha

@JuliasBiscuit the perfect plan, definitely doing that this year 😄