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!

Yes...now I'm older I no longer actively try to tan like in my twenties. But in the summer months I naturally just end up getting slightly darker from walking around and being outside. I am very careful now though and wear SPF whereas in my younger years I was quite irresponsible. In hindsight I wish I had been more careful...my grandmother had skin cancer.

Burns victim or an orange. Yeah cos there’s no in between is there?? 🙄

No. Skin cancer? No thanks. I’m on holiday at the moment and have loaded up on spf 50 every 2 hours - the kids know to do this as well - and if that isnt enough. People here with burnt skin and it looks bloody awful and painful - I’m sure there is a nice in between - not that I’ve seen on this holiday mind you!

I tan extremely quickly without sunbathing and go a good colour. I feel so much better with it and hate my pasty skin tone in winter. I do use sun cream and rarely sit in the sun except on holiday but am outside a lot so always get a colour.

I don’t agree for everyone, but I definitely do look younger, healthier and slimmer when my face is tanned which is why I use tanning mist twice a week on my face. It makes a big difference to how I look and feel. You don’t need to go in the sun to achieve the effect though!

Some people tan easily and look great with a tan, but get strangely competitive about it, forever making little remarks such as "everyone looks better with a tan", holding their brown arm up to your white one, and so on. People with long legs or clear skin or long shiny hair aren't always trying to work it into the conversation the way good tanners do. It's a mystery, and a bit of a pain in the neck.

When I’m on holiday walking around in the sun and being outside is not enough to tan me. I’ve been on Mediterranean cruises and come back the same colour as I left. I went on a couple of sun lounger holidays in my 20s, The first one I’d go a bit pink during the day but it would fade overnight. Second time I used a tan accelerator and got a very slight tan, best I’ve ever had. Used it again the following year and it didn’t work. I’m now in my early 60s and done with tanning natural or otherwise. I like my skin just fine as it is.

And it was always a bit of a mystery to me colleagues coming back from their holiday looking like lobsters and people saying “oooh, don’t you look well?”

I agree. No one needs to sunbathe.

You just need to expose large-ish areas of skin (legs and arms for example) for about 20-30 minutes depending on your skin colour.
Unfortunately this in itself has been demonised. The advice to put sunscreen on half an hour before going out is bad advice. You should do it half an hour after.

Is it funny how people boast about how they tan.... See it too about how much people can drink. As if it's an accomplishment not just a random fluke of how much melanin you were born with

pale skin is beautiful

Looking at my own right arm just now - let me try and describe it 😂

It's an intriguing mottled effect, the base shade of very light grey being threaded with veins of pale blue and overlaid by a dappled pattern in pink, lilac and beige. Towards the hand the pink becomes dominant, deepening to purple in places, enlivened by those veins of blue.

I wouldn't buy a dress in this insipid colourway, why would I want to wear it on my skin?!

Still the case in large parts of the world.

In Vietnam I had lots of teenage girls asking to have a photo with me and my friends. It really confused us until a guide explained its because they wanted to show they were lighter then a white person as we had tanned and they like visitors.

I went on holiday to Cyprus as a child and got horrifically burnt....huge blisters on my shoulder and back. Nowadays I think there are much better sunscreens and suncreams around as well as UV suits and vests. There is no excuse now for children to be burnt

This made me laugh. I actually think pale skin can look lovely and certainly better than red raw ! However what I find is for a lot of us pale folks is our skin is not particularly even toned... various blemishes, tiny thread veins , slightly mottled. For me, a tan kind of evens it out..

I don't think it sounds like that all. Just someone who enjoys the sun and likes being brown and is celebrating that.

My family are from the Middle East and I feel brown is my natural colour. Never burn and I like the time I spend in the sun and the way I look. yes, it is probably not as healthy as keeping out of the sun,, but the same can be said for eating sugar.

Indeed. The Nicole Kidman and Winona Ryders of this world are outliers - no one would mind having their skin. The slightly mottled, reddish corned beefy pale skin which so many Irish people have is far more the norm for us. And aesthetically it simply isn't particularly attractive or desirable. That doesn't mean one should do anything about it necessarily or that there is anything wrong with it but let's not pretend it's beautiful.

You can still be deficient though. How many people go to work and are inside all day and then come home?
I've had to take 4000IU daily after a high dose course to drag my levels from 9 to 66
My office doesn't have windows and I'm inside all day except for maybe 10 mins on my lunch but I was deficient even over lockdown

I find I look more like corned beef with a tan. I like freckles on my face but look healthier/glowing when I'm pale and pasty with more even skin tone. My undertones are more yellow toned than blue or red though.

I definitely look better with a tan (very dark hair/eyes/body hair). I go pale and tired looking in winter but can get a very good natural tan. Not everyone does though- pale skin is very beautiful.

@bryceQ I don't boast about it! I have some Greek ancestry and while I tan, I am also incredibly hairy/have very dark body hair/facial hair. It's just all genetics isn't it? Not better or worse 🤷🏻‍♀️

My legs are a blotchy and blemished pinky/whitey/bluey/yellow because they don't get much sunlight. My arms are light brown with their blemishes less obvious, tanned just from me going about my normal life at the latitude my recent ancestors evolved in. Both are my natural skin tone, just under different conditions. I prefer my arms.

Obviously my more distant ancestors were very dark skinned, but when they headed north the ones who lost their melanin survived better than the ones who didn't.

If I waited half an hour before putting lotion on I would be burnt and in pain later.

I'm very pale and usually this doesn't bother me but when I'm abroad on a sun holiday I've had strangers passing comment on how white I am. I don't really tan and can't use fake tan due to my psoriasis. It's hard to be comfortable in my own skin at these times when people think it's fine to make comments on my body!

Yep- same. 30 mins in strong sun and I'd be burnt and come out in a sun rash. My skin simply doesnt like the sun and I've accepted it now.

You can take a vit D tablet - its no big deal and spending time in the sun isnt the ONLY way to get vitamin D FGS

I agree that 30 minutes without protection may well be a recipe for disaster depending on latitude, time of day/year and skin type.

But a vitamin D pill is not a complete substitute for the health benefits of moderate sunlight. Pills can fend off rickets and other consequences of severe vitamin D deficiency but they won't reproduce the more wide ranging benefits for heart health and cancer prevention, there have been loads of trials. Food sources may be a better source, but you can't get nitric oxide in a pill.

It's a balancing act and there's no risk-free answer.