I know it's bad for you and can cause real health problems but bloody hell, aibu to think everyone looks better with a suntan?

[Eeepsh]

Just that really!

Nope. Might look good when you are 22. But it won't when you are 50 plus.

I cover up
1, because it's how I dress.
2, I'm too lazy to be keep putting sun cream on
3, a tan doesn't suit me
4, I burn really easily

Agree with this, I wear a decent sunscreen but enjoy tanning with a book and look better tanned. We only live once and the benefits outweigh the risks for me.

I do but I fake it. I wear SPF50 on my face and 30 on my body

This.

Same as hair colour. People ask what hair dye would work best with their skin... um... your natural hair colour!.

I love lightly tanned skin in summer clothes but I get mine out of a bottle. I haven’t sunbathed since my 20s and I’m 53 now.

To OP's question, I wouldn't know. My skin is very fair and pale and just goes red in the sun, I can't tan whatever I do. Fake tan is a faff and looks terrible on me so I don't bother.

@Coatsoff42 i take Vit d year round.

I'm a SPF 50, sun hat, stay in the shade kind of person, now in my 40s. But I'm back from two weeks on holiday with the kids on the beach and my skin looks better than normal. I've not sat sunbathing but it is a bit darker than usual and looks very even and healthy (normally a bit patchy, oily, uneven). It's probably a bit of sun, loads of water, no pollution and no work stress (but that might be cancelled by the daily beer!).

I'm defo not an advocate of sun bathing but I do look a bit healthier in the summer

Maybe not everyone. Redheads often look better paler. My DH is strawberry blonde and rather pale-skinned, and quite freckly and just does not tan!

I'm a quarter Spanish (paternal grandmother is Spanish,) and my skin is darker than DH and my DC anyway. But I do tan really well in summer, and it does really suit me. It's quite slimming too (which is handy! 😬)

I disagree that everyone looks better @Eeepsh but many people do. So I did click YANBU. 😄

I embrace the pale (think sickly Victorian child) I think tanning (even fake tan) can often be aging. I’m really surprised it’s not gone out of fashion yet.

I disagree, I am 50-plus and still suit a tan very much!

Yep I'm blond, blue eyed and pale and look better in every way with a tan. I slap the sunscreen on and use fake tan when I'm feeling in need of a boost.
I have a friend who is turning into a big of a Donald Trump with her use of fake tan though so it can be a bit much at times too.

Yeah this. A nice gradual tan yeah but not a leathery bronzing, and the health benefits of sun on your skin (with good sunscreen) are hugely beneficial.

I will never understand why some people think it's OK to negatively judge pale skin, or say someone looks ill etc, any more than it's not ok to judge dark skin.

Skin is skin, it's all different so why should anyone feel they have to change theirs to look better, or feel bad for looking like their natural self?

I've burnt with factor 50 before now, so I'm just never going to have a glowing tan. I'd have been a classic Victorian lady spending summers under a parasol 150 years ago, so I resent this barrage of products being sold which is essentially designed to tell me my skin isn't OK as it is. Whitening creams aren't OK, so why is tanning somehow so widely accepted??

Whitening creams aren't OK, so why is tanning somehow so widely accepted??

You really can't see the difference between the two..?

I don’t like tanned skin. It often looks damaged & ages people.

I think this is a really unpleasant statement, many people can't tan easily and become extremely self-conscious on holidays as everyone stares and laughs at them for being pale. It's bizarre that we find this sort of bullying socially acceptable. It also encourages people to risk sun damage, or spend money on fake tans. It would absolutely not be ok to judge or insult any other skin tone, why is it ok to try and make pale people feel crappy about themselves? People are beautiful in all shades, and I think all shades should be celebrated equally. And if you look at a lot of older people who have your attitude and baked themselves brown, they very definitely do not look better than those who resisted the pressure and accepted themselves for the colour they came in.

I used to think I looked better but I've had a couple of basal cell carcinomas so keep well covered now

I would agree but I get a weird patch of freckles above my lip in the sun and it makes me look like I have a moustache

Nope, I burn easily and definitely do not look better with a tan. Also don't fancy skin cancer.
I haven't seen many tans recently that I thought looked good, I wouldn't say everyone looks better with one. Each to their own.

Do you know what it feels like with a pathologist dermatologist cutting into your skin to remove a basal cell carcinoma?* * They'll cut as little as they can and hope they get all the cancer on the first go. The wound isn't closed immediately because they are examining the bit they cut out to see if they got clear margins. In my case I had more cut out and then waiting round for that to check if there were clear margins. Only then hours later is the cut stitched closed. A small cirucular cancer leads to a long skinny scar.

This is private and expensive care - its called skin sparing surgery. I gather the NHS just cuts out a chunk for non-melanoma cancers and hopes for the best with a graft when they or may not know for weeks whether they got clear margins because it's cheap and quick. I was lucky because it wasn't melanoma or a squamous cell carcinoma. I was unlucky because as a life long sunscreen wearer and sitting in the shade person I didn't put enough sunscreen round my hairline. (I wear a hat now in the sun.)

The dermatologist told me that when he sees somebody with a tan all he sees is skin damage. He spends a large part of his day dealing with the effects of sun on skin. People die every year from skin cancer. Two thousand or so people in the UK die every year of melanoma. A tan is your skin's desperate attempt to protect itself.

I look better with a tan, but I burn easily and so I largely stay out of the direct sun or cover up. Plus I’m 47 now so don’t need to accelerate the ageing process even more as trust me you won’t look good later in life with or without a tan if you don’t protect your skin

I really don't - I am naturally very pale with dark auburn hair and hazel eyes. I look ill au natural

ive always preferred my pale natural skin, I don’t look good with a tan so always tried to cover up etc, despite that, still going through skin cancer treatment at the moment, I’d encourage others to make sure to spf up etc as, as others have said, it’s no fun having it.

Yes they definitely do op! Looking white and pasty is very unattractive.