To consider sunbeds in the months leading up to my wedding?

[SpiderStardust]

I'm severely anaemic and with it, am very pale and shitty looking. My mum likes to call it "tired looking".

I've used self tan lotion in the past with various results but I'm getting married in May - just 4 months away and straight afterwards we're going on holiday and then a month later, another week away in the UK. I always look shit on photos, like the old victorian women that were always puffy and pale.

AIBU to consider sunbedding it from now until May? give me a bit of colour and with it, a bit of self confidence?

Anyone else use them for special occasions??

Get a really good, professional spray tan. Will look great and better for you than evil sun beds.

You might even go red and horrible from the sun beds. Surely better to get the colour you want than risk it on a sunbed.

I don't see the point in not looking like yourself for your wedding.

Are you being treated for the anaemia? Are there lifestyle changes that you can make to help you look healthier eg. regular sleep, change in diet?

I've had plenty of sunbeds but recently have been having spray tans instead (£20 a time) before night out/ holiday and it looks just as good but needs less visits to the salon.

I know someone who used sunbeds a lot. He went yellow, not tanned and not glowing. It might make you look sicker. Not only that it's dangerous.

A really good and expensive professional spray tan would be much better.

Please don't. I won't spout the dangers of sunbeds and sun exposure at you, but I've seen some friends and family have problems as a result.

Save up the £ you would have spent on sunbeds and get a professional fake tan done a few days before the wedding. I got sprayed on the Wednesday for wedding on Saturday. It looked good, wasn't streaky, wasn't too dark by then and didn't smell of biscuits.

Congrats on upcoming wedding!

Professional spray tan all the way.

I don't know about other brands but I use Moroccan Tan and do a really light 8% tan which you rinse off after 2 hours. It really is 'barely there', just takes that blue tinge off the skin.

Nouvatan is another brand that is also really good and does a really light percentage tan.

Find a pro spray tanner that uses one of those brands and give it a try.

YABU, if you are naturally pale then your skin is probably super prone to sun damage and skin cancer. Not worth the risk. Pale can be beautiful and you can work wonders with good make up and a good skincare routine eg exfoliation and moisturisation. You can buy temporary wash off fake tan stuff too which is fab for adding a bit of a glow on special days without the malignant melanoma risk...

Oh and I suggest some black and white photos as well as colour, where pale skin can look gorgeous.

If you're really pale you will need quite a number of sun beds to get you to any healthy glow - you'll have to start at 2 minutes and work your way up. It will be pointless, time consuming and expensive. (Not to mention dangerous but you already know that)

Spray tans these days look really good and very natural, I'd get one of those. Get tested first so you can see the colour it comes out.

As a tanorexic, I completely sympathise. I think almost everyone looks better with a bit of colour

Please, please don't. Take it from a scientist who once worked on a terminal melanoma trial (full of shockingly young women with months left to live.)

Just don't. Get a good spray tan if you want to look tanned or just embrace porcelain.

I don't understand this obsession with ring tanned. Pale skin is beautiful.

There are no pluses to sunbeds. You hugely increase your risk of skin cancer and you end up looking like handbag.

I've just started taking tanning tablets from Holland and Barrett for SIL wedding next month. I too am very pale and would like just a little hint of colour. I can't vouch for them as I've only started about a week ago but they had good reviews on their website and for something like £6 I thought I may as well give them a try.

I'm worried about a spray tan starting to come off half way through my honeymoon though?

If like me you are naturally pale with dark hair with the tired anemia look the I suggest visiting a salon and trying different depths of spray tan as sunbeds made me red and blotchy for a few hrs not golden brown. But do try a few tans now to decide which suits you best. Tell the salon you eant a healthy look and bring your foundation to see does it blend with the colour and your natural skin tone

My friend died from skin cancer three days before Christmas. Her funeral was today. She was 31. Sunbeds are absolutely not worth it.

Tanning tablets are only designed to work in conjunction with sun exposure/sunbeds aren't they?

If you use lots of moisturizer, sun lotion and an aftersun with a little self tanner in it while on honeymoon you should be fine*.

*Assuming you are going on a sun holiday as a honeymoon and don't want to be the colour of a handbag on your wedding day

I went on sunbeds for a month before my November wedding after seeing too many streaky or orange fake tans on others. Partially because I am super pale and partially because they helped keep my eczema at bay before the big day. However that was 8 years ago and spray tans have come on a lot since then.

A single month of short sessions 3-4 times a week is highly unlikely to give you skin cancer (in my non medical opinion) but now until May seems a long time for regular sunbeds? You're better off trying a few different salon spray tans in that time I'd have thought eg St Tropez, Fake Bake etc. They're all a wee bit different, suiting different skin tones & vastly better than doing your own.

I came back from my honeymoon (tropical) the same shade of fetching light blue white I left. I don't tan and I don't try. Pale is fine.

ive also never encountered a fake tan that doesn't smell grim. The faint odour of wet dog and digestive biscuits isn't a good thing.

Yes, I know I'm biased but melanoma has a terrible survival rate unless you catch it very quickly.

YABU. There is no excuse to go on a sunbed - do you actually want to give yourself skin cancer?

Pale skin is beautiful - that's who you are! Why would you like to look like an Oompa Loompa on your wedding day by going on a sunbed? Oh and I've seen a few pale brides who on their wedding day went for a much too dark spray tan and they look ridiculous. The photos look terrible. Embrace your natural skin colour. I don't understand why people over here are so obsessed with fake tan!

Definitely spray tan. I had st tropez done on the Thursday for my Saturday wedding it looked fab. I used a good salon (malmaison Spa) it was still only about £20. St tropez sell scrubs and moisturiser to help prolong the tan.

I think that you should be more worried by your 'severe anaemia' than worrying about looking pale.Please don't use sunbeds.I worked for 10 years on an oncology ward and have seen the damage that can be done.Anyway,congratulations on your forthcoming nuptials but please get the anaemia sorted.Best wishes. Mx.

This is coming from a previous sunbed user, I wouldn't bother - it's not worth the risk. I really wish I hadn't used sunbeds.

Have you ever had a facial? This can really bring the life back to your face?

Also, will you be using a make up artist? Will really help to have professional make up.

3-4 times a week for a month or two is, unfortunately, enough to do damage. A single episode of burning in childhood for example is associated with increased melanoma risk. Technically it takes one uv caused mutation, in one cell, to do it.
Not worth the risk.

My tan is fake bake. I like the biscuit smell which goes after a day anyway

As the fake tan fades the real tan comes out

(Again assuming sun holiday)

I had a few sunbeds before my wedding and I tried a spray tan. Alas I am so pale that the spray tan looked wierd and the sun beds did nothing for my colour.
We went on honeymoon to Skye so looking pale was fine.

Have you had success from sunbeds in the past? Otherwise I'd not bother kx