In a world where we can purchase facial tanning serum online, not to mention tanning butter, lotions and more, why oh why do we still consider tanning the old-fashioned way? These cosmetic products have come such a long way, why do we have to put ourselves through the other process? Isn’t it just time-consuming, and even dangerous?
Dangerous, really? Well of course! Sun tanning the conventional way comes with a whole raft of risks, the biggest and most immediate of which we will share with you below:
1. Sunburn
The most immediate and painful effect of tanning is sunburn, an experience that most in Australia have been through at least once, though perhaps not always in such an extreme way as the British and Northern European tourists do when experiencing our extreme sunshine.
If you think sunburn is just a bit of reddening that with the right application of aftersun and some rest will turn to a nice golden brown over the week, you’re wrong. Severe burns can cause peeling in the skin, not to mention terrible swelling and painful blisters. It can even induce flu-like symptoms, leaving you tossing and turning in bed with a fever, chills, headache and bodily weakness.
2. Increased Risks of Cancer
No matter what kind of precautions you take and no matter how successful you are in avoiding burns and achieving that bronze god/goddess look you were going for, you have still done it at the expense of your overall skin health. To achieve even your most ideal tan colour means exposing your skin to huge amounts of UV radiation. Such exposure causes your melanin to change the hue, and such a change in hue is, medically speaking, a sign of damage to your skin.
For those who think getting tanned means they have enhanced natural protection to the sun, they’re also wrong. You might not be aware that the added melanin in your skin only provides an SPF factor of about 4, maximum. That being the case, you’re still far below the minimum recommended level, which is SPF 15.
If your tanning damage leads to melanoma or non-melanoma skin cancer, the former of which is the more dangerous, but both of which should be avoided at all costs.
3. Premature Ageing
We tend to think that looking tan helps us to look younger, and perhaps in the very short term it does, especially if you really are quite young to start with. Over time, however, sun tanning with UV exposure will lead to your skin becoming more leathery and wrinkled, possibly with dark spots appearing on the surface.
In your quest to get a more “healthy-looking” and “beautiful” skin tone, the UV radiation that you expose yourself to actually works to destroy the collagen and elastin fibres that are initially abundant in your skin, particularly in your youth. The good news is that it won’t happen after even 1 or 2 years of pursuing a summer tan. However, if tanning is your annual habit, then you should beware of the premature ageing effects.
4. Keratosis
An actinic (aka solar) keratosis is also something you certainly want to avoid. While they are not a certain sign that you have skin cancer now, they are a certain sign that you are progressing that way, and could indicate that a cancer is there and in the early stages.
5. Damage to Your Eyes
Finally, sun tanning can leave you with pain in your eyes, swollen lids, hazy vision and persistent tearing up. Your eyes are most at risk if you perhaps remove your sunglasses to avoid tan lines on your face, only to then accidentally fall asleep in the sun.
