To wonder why sunbeds are fashionable again??

[LocoCocoa]

I remember them being popular in the early 00’s used them a few times myself as a young teen but then we all realised they were awful, most salons closed. Now people are using them again and it’s all over social media, mostly with young adults, except now they squirt tanning drops up their noses and put drop under their tongue before they go on, I don’t even know what’s in those things, darker the better seems to be the aim 😐

Are they really fashionable? I have 20-something DDs, one of whom is very fashion and style aware, and they wouldn’t use a tanning bed. They wear factor 50 all the time and try to stay as pale as possible.

I think they have always been fashionable among certain groups of people tbh. I have no desire to use one but I suppose each to their own, as long as they are aware of the risks.

I suppose you decide your own risks in life. Everyone does.

I love a tan. And that's what driving sun bed users . They only really know the half of it though.

I thought you are very clever. They are simple enough analogies to understand.

No one would risk eating something contaminated with animal waste, and most reasonable people wouldn't increase their risk of pain and death, so there is cognitive dissonance at play in your sunbed choices.

Having a good job has not stopped millions of people from doing things that send them to prison or kill themselves. So, your having a good job is not immunity from making unreasoned decisions.

@ThatFraggle - why are we talking about animal waste, going to prison, etc? It's just daft and has no relevance to sunbeds and other things people do.

People smoke a cigarette for a variety of reasons for example, to socialise, to de-stress, the addictive nature of nicotine. But they do it because it gives them pleasure, It is a hit of dopamine.

People like things that give them pleasure, even if they know further down the line that it might cause them issues.

Eating dog poo will immediately make someone violently ill, no pleasure in that. Your comparisons are really stupid and make no sense.

This is simply unkind.

My DH is pale and is super careful with sun cream and covering up.

Even so, it's easy for a tiny bit to get rubbed off and the skin to then burn. Be it a sandal strap, or the neck of a t-shirt slipping sideways, or even a finger sized patch of the back of the neck getting missed.

It doesn't make the person useless, keeping very pale skin safe is tricky.

My 20 year old calls tanning salons ‘cancer rooms’. I can’t get my head round young people still wanting to go to them.

Yes, I think it can be easy to miss a bit, forget to reapply etc. But it doesn’t then make tanning beds the solution.

They are a godsend to me after years of suffering with psoriasis. Nothing the doctor gave me worked. About 4 / 5 sessions of 10 minutes over a space of a week, twice a year when it flares just completely clears it up. Don’t know why and know it doesn’t work for everyone but the reward outweighs the risk for me.

If I had to use it more than that I’d rethink. But I’m glad the option is still there.

I think the problem with sunbeds and many other high risk activities is that it takes years for the damage to show, and when it does it is often too late to undo the damage. when you are young, fit and healthy you think it will never happen to you.

My biggest regret is using sunbeds when I was young. The damage is already done and I'm frightened of the risk of melanoma.

Until I was 38 I didn't know anyone with it.

The last 3 years I have seen 5 people diagnosed with melanoma. All around my age. All directly linked to sunbed use when they were young.

My face is already crozzled (love that word!) and smoke-creased. I'm already old

As many seem unable to grasp, people do make informed choices that others wouldn't necessarily choose for themselves, and choices can be for a time only. I chose to be super-fit and suntanned through a period of my life when I could make the most of those things. Feeding into those choices, I have severe clinical depression which was much improved by both the UV and the exercise. I lived in the tropics for a while, and had hardly any depression.

I do regret the day I took up smoking (I remember it in detail). I decided I'd stop at 30, but ended up heavily addicted - at 17, I didn't understand what addiction really is and, of course, knew loads of people who'd stopped smoking. I assumed I'd be able to. I was wrong, but what I regret is mostly the money it costs. I was recently diagnosed with COPD; I was expecting to be told it was cancer. I consider myself lucky.

I shan't live to 90. So what? I've had a bloody interesting life so far, full of things I did do rather than didn't. It shows on my somewhat messy face. So what?

This isn't an 'apology' or any kind of excuse; I'm not looking for advice and I owe nothing to anyone here. I'm bothering to type this out because I have some time to kill - and, you never know, somebody might someday read it and think "Yeah, I don't need to waste emotional energy being angry at strangers for making different life choices to mine." Life would be really bloody boring if everyone were the same.

I work in a hospital.. 2 things put me off sunbeds & overall too much sun..

firstly once I had to listen while a 37 year old woman was told she probably had days left to live as she was dying from melanoma caused by the mole on her back.. she had presented at a&e with lungs full of fluid, thinking she had pneumonia but it turned out to be secondary cancer plus the melanoma had caused end stage kidney failure! I will never forget that.
So I never use sunbeds and im really careful with my skin in the sun.

Secondly.. I help lots of people from I suppose 30s upwards to have washes post surgery.. it's really very noticeable once you get to 30s the difference between skin that's been exposed to much sun / sunbeds exposure and skin that hasn't.
One of my sisters old friends late 30s had used sunbeds for 10 years, was wrinkled & covered in worrying moles that she kept needing to get checked.

I shan't live to 90. So what? I've had a bloody interesting life so far, full of things I did do rather than didn't. It shows on my somewhat messy face. So what?

Except that the quality of your later life will be hellish. The idea of dying young might not be frightening to you, but spending your last few years of struggling to breathe and the resultant blue light dashes to hospital are worth considering.

My mum had COPD as a result of being a heavy smoker and was blue lighted to hospital many times in the three years before she died. She couldn't climb a flight of stairs without sounding like she had run several marathons. She coughed and wheezed all the time, had to use a nebuliser every day and coughed up loads of thick gunge. She died from chronic obstruction of the lungs. COPD is a horrible way to die.

Sorry to hear about your mum @RampantIvy one of my friends just lost her dad to COPD and one of my uncles has it.. he's 70 and devastated as his breathing is too bad for him to be able to fly abroad ever again which he really enjoyed. When he has an exacerbation he can't even climb the stairs to the toilet let alone spend time in his garden or with his grandchildren. It's destroying his retirement.

My 17 year old niece is obsessed with them and is so, so dark. I guess she can just botox once she starts to look like an old leather handbag. Awful things.

COPD is a horrible way to die. That's true, @RampantIvy, and I'm sorry about your Mum. I'm not sure what I'll do when I get to that stage; I will probably have a clearer idea when it's closer.

There are very few not-horrible ways to die, tbh. It's rare to just keel over or conk out in your sleep. I've always liked that thing about "crashing into my grave sideways, a fag in one hand, tequila in the other, laughing my socks off" ... and have always known, of course, we don't get that kind of agency! (Maybe I could pull it off if we swap laughing for wheezing ... ??)

Veering way off-topic into philosophy: Quality of life's an interesting thing, I'm discovering as I get older. What looks like really poor quality to a younger person, often is rich & enjoyable to the person in question. I'm seeing that in my parents and, increasingly, myself. I'm sure it's largely to do with attitude as well as cognition.

Anyway, I only came here to say there's no sense in getting cross about the fact that other people make other choices for themselves! That still stands.

Where I live they have never been out of fashion. I don't use them, but I think deep down even if people won't admit it, it is human nature for most of us to prefer a tan. I think when very pale we can look unwell. Even well educated, middle class non smoker friends still like to compare natural tans. In the same way we eat cake, we like to indulge in things we know have no health benefits.

I used them for a a brief time in my late teens, I went with a uni friend and decided I might as well try one while waiting, and I felt amazing afterwards, it was that euphoric feeling not the tan that kept me going back. I think they give you a huge boost of endorphins, so I can understand why they are addictive. I know people with acne who find they clear up their skin too, and I often wonder if an occasional one in winter would reduce vitamin D deficiency.

People romanticise death after a life well-lived.

In practice, cancer deaths can be damn unpleasant. With good end of life care, some suffering can be alleviated. I don’t want to go into details or scare anyone, but seeing my relative die of malignant melanoma which had metastasised to his liver and bones was not nice at all.

Using a sunbed is so avoidable. They are known to cause cancer. They are not addictive physically like nicotine is. That’s why so many of us feel frustrated at the cavalier usage. Especially those of us who have seen people die, and/or work in the NHS.

Human being are idiots. Pale people risking cancer to get dark skin, and darker people using bleach to get paler skin. Society is shit.

I use them to keep my psoriasis at bay

You put it on before you get dressed you reapply a few hours later even the once a day ones....moving any straps out of the way. You use high factor cream just like you do with children. It's much safer to avoid skin cancer with sun cream than to damage the skin permanently increasing your risk of skin cancer in order to reduce burning.

@Derailing - what about the people with psoriasis though? Or should they just be left in agony?

I really don’t agree. I think a tan doesn’t look nice at all. In fact, they look positively horrid.

The risk benefit equation is very different where sunbeds are being used therapeutically under medical guidance.