To dislike my tan

[ijustdo]

I tan very easily, always have. I have used sunscreen and hats etc but the sun does seem to find me.

I go a horrible leathery sort of colour with a yellow tinge and of course it’s uneven. I can’t wait for it to fade. I just caught a glimpse of myself and I look really old and haggard (well, even more so than normal!)

Do you have olive skin? I do but am really pale during winter, so in summer my tan looks yellowy green and I just look dirty?!

That’s exactly what I feel like @aliasfrog , as if I need a good wash and I don’t!

Do you use sun block, factor 50? P20 is fabulous for not tanning. My children never tanned when wearing this.

I'm the same. I have a dog and an allotment so am outside a lot...and despite a hat and suncream I'm rapidly turning into a leather handbag :( I don't posess any loose floaty clothes that are also suitable for digging, so shorts and a t shirt it is and I have ridiculous truckers tan lines on my arms (and legs) I am also covered in freckles which increase every summer and refuse to fade!

What age are you? You might be entering your leather handbag era? Might be time to quit tanning? My skin is the opposite (pale, freckles, burns easily) but used to look lovely with a bit of light colour when I was younger (I never really tan-tanned). Now it just picks up freckles, red patches, bad looks a blotchy, sweaty mess rather than a nice glow. It’s a message from my skin to stop the sun!

I’m not sure how you end up tanned if you don’t want to?

I make it my mission to avoid the sun at all costs. Only sit in the shade, SPF 50 all year round, wear hats. I manage to not tan at all.

I have what politely be called olive skin - I call it a weird yellow colour - and tan in a blink when exposed to the sun. I prefer that to the yellow.

I wear lots of light colours, mainly white and I think it looks great. It lifts the sallow look.

Pale olive skin here too that tans a dirty yellow tone 😅 My Mum used to scrub me raw when I was wee thinking it was actually dirt. It's more the dodgy tan lines that bother me as they stay for years!

SPF 50 and try to sit in shade but I also have a dog and an allotment so can't always avoid the sun. I mostly wear long sleeves now, I dont mind my legs tanning as much as my upper body but my knees do look like I've been kneeling in the dirt.

I manage to avoid my face tanning, I assume it's a combination of applying enough SPF and more frequently than my body or my clothes are rubbing the body stuff off?

Some people catch the sun even in short bursts. My partner hates being hot and avoids it but even a short walk to his mums he can catch colour on his neck etc ( with sun cream)

I go outside; that’s all it takes. It’s hard not to as I have small children. I was helping at a sports day event the other week and it was very hot and I got ridiculously tanned despite sunscreen and sunglasses and a huge straw hat! It’s always been like this. I don’t set out to tan as such.

Loving the idea of a leather handbag era as mentioned by PP. We need to be positive about it..You don't look dirty, you look like you, ie amazing, and in the eye of the beholder under different light levels and not through a camera, you will almost certainly look just fine. Don't let that inner voice criticise you! 💪

I use a UV parasol, to avoid sun damage, but honestly I bet you look lovely.

If you really do not want any sun, you can get upf clothes which block everything, even if just popping out to the bins. I've bought hats and a cardigan (with thumb-holes to keep hands covered) from Solbari. Otherwise, I think it's not leaving the house without spf50, and reapplying it every couple of hours, everywhere. I use Ultrasun so I don't have to bother with the reapplication, but Calypso also do a 1-a day range in 50 at a better price point.

My skin never tans no matter how long I spend in the sun. I’ve been on med cruises and never tanned. I used to get sick of tanned colleagues saying to me on a Monday after a hot weekend “didn’t you go out over the weekend?” I am fair skinned but not pale.

Im like you OP. Factor 50 and I'm still really tanned but with patches of pigmentation and melasma.
I tan in the uk on a winters day if the sun comes out so those asking how you tan when you don't want to...for some skin types it really is that easy.

I remember a school friend from the primary days, who had sort of olivey skin (barely), but tanned excessively.
She'd come back from a week away somewhere, and be BLACK. I'd never seen anyone, before or since, tan so extreme. But it wasn't really an attractive tan iykwim, it was like, "Did you go to... the sun...?" She had an older brother who was exactly the same.

I burn instantly if I go out in the sun so don’t go out in the sun. It never really happens accidentally to me.

I would have thought that if you don't want to tan, you just do exactly what everybody who is practically blue has to do all late winter, when snowy, Spring, Autumn summer to avoid burning to a crisp - use decent sunblock without fail, cover up and wear sunglasses when you do have to go outside.

You do need some Vitamin D from the sun though.

I hated going on holiday as a child for this reason! Everyone would make such a fuss when I came back and I hated it!

Did you grow up in Northamptonshire by any chance...?

Some people don't have the luxury of sitting inside all day and have things to do that involves being outside to get there!

Believe me you can tan when you don't mean to! I hate the heat, avoid the sun, sit in shade and I look like an Indian!

Would it be worth getting your colours ‘done’ so you know what colours look great on you when you have a tan? I did it 10 years ago and it’s saved me a fortune in buying clothes in colours that make me look a bit flat!

Omg speak more kindly about yourselves people!

No, it was actually a mining town quite badly affected by the closures in the 80s. A lot of poverty and unemployment. So going abroad was quite unusual and my parents went a lot because they were both teachers. At least three times a year I’d go back to school to everyone going on about the colour of my skin!