Tanning with pale skin

twanda

Hi all,
My hair has a natural red tint and I have the pale complexion to go with it.
I normally burn and don't tan. I was hoping to start on a sunbed but some people have told me that I should stay away from them because I am not a natural tanner to begin with..
Has anyone here got a pale/redhead complexion and used sunbeds? How did you find it? Do you have any tips?

Thanks a lot

cherryred

Don't use a sunbed! especially if you have fair skin. they've discovered its pretty much as bad as smoking when it comes to causing cancer. you've a 70% higher chance of getting cancer if you use them. I think report was out yesterday, so check papers today.

you can take beta-carotene tablets 2 weeks before you go to help prevent sunburn. Use lots of suncream and stay out of sun during midday.

Michellenman

I'd avoid sunbeds anyway.


Fake tans are the way to go. If you're pale then try the light coloured Sally Hansen. Lovely even tone, super easy to apply and a really nice colour to it.

How Strange

twanda wrote: »

Hi all,
My hair has a natural red tint and I have the pale complexion to go with it.
I normally burn and don't tan. I was hoping to start on a sunbed but some people have told me that I should stay away from them because I am not a natural tanner to begin with..
Has anyone here got a pale/redhead complexion and used sunbeds? How did you find it? Do you have any tips?
Thanks a lot

Stay away from sunbeds! They really are cancer coffins.

I'm pale and burn rather than tan. The most I can hope for is a slight glow and some freckles.

I'm assuming you're quite young but believe me the worst thing you can do to your lovely pale skin is stick it out in the sun in the hope of a tan.

Wear 30spf on your face from April - Oct, 20spf for the rest of the year.

When you're in your 30's and you've got young skin compared to the leathery, sun damaged skin of the people who got a tan every year you'll be very glad.

kizzyr

twanda wrote: »

Hi all,
My hair has a natural red tint and I have the pale complexion to go with it.
I normally burn and don't tan. I was hoping to start on a sunbed but some people have told me that I should stay away from them because I am not a natural tanner to begin with..
Has anyone here got a pale/redhead complexion and used sunbeds? How did you find it? Do you have any tips?

Thanks a lot

Sunbeds will most likely give you skin cancer, no tan is ever worth that. Also if you don't tan with natural sunlight why on earth do you think you'd tan using a sunbed?
Fake it, there are lots of good fake tans out there. I'm very pale and on the odd occasion that I do use fake tan I like the Lancome Flash Bronzer. It dries instantly, develops over an hour or two, lasts for a few days and gives your skin a really nice colour and best of all no skin cancer.

kizzyf

I did the sunbed thing briefly years ago and won't be doing it again. You won't go brown anyway. I only got a colour on my tummy. If you're going away on hols start off with very high factor i.e. 50 and gradually decrease it but never lower than 15 and you might get light tan. I get more freckles and a very light tan when I'm out in the sun for a long time. Main thing is don't burn.

How Strange

kizzyf wrote: »

If you're going away on hols start off with very high factor i.e. 50 and gradually decrease it but never lower than 15 and you might get light tan. I get more freckles and a very light tan when I'm out in the sun for a long time. Main thing is don't burn.

This is a myth. If you wear 50 you're pretty much wearing sun block but for typical pale Irish skin that doesn't tan factor 15 is far too low.

Factor 30 is fine and will ensure you won't burn. If you wear 15 you will burn.

kizzyf

How strange - I don't know how you can say what I said is a myth. I have very pale sensitive skin that burns very easily and I wear spf almost all year round. If I'm away for a long time in sunnier climes I eventually do slightly tan when I decrease my spf. For the first few days of sun exposure I need to wear SPF 50 but my skin adjusts and after around 3 weeks I use SPF 15 without burning and continue on with this.

twanda

HI all,
thanks for the replies.
So the general concensus seems to be 'stay away'. I will take this advice
Just FYI - I am 30, but I don't think that makes me any less vunerable to skin damage, does it?

Larianne

I would urge anyone to read this http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22293079-1243,00.html
if they are planning on using sunbeds.

kizzyr

twanda wrote: »

HI all,
thanks for the replies.
So the general concensus seems to be 'stay away'. I will take this advice
Just FYI - I am 30, but I don't think that makes me any less vunerable to skin damage, does it?

Nope

How Strange

twanda wrote: »

HI all, thanks for the replies.
So the general concensus seems to be 'stay away'. I will take this advice
Just FYI - I am 30, but I don't think that makes me any less vunerable to skin damage, does it?

Nope. Your skin starts to change from 30 onwards so definitely stay away from the sunbeds and out of direct sun at the hottest time of the day and always wear factor 30.

s&mbarbie

twanda wrote: »

Hi all,
My hair has a natural red tint and I have the pale complexion to go with it.
I normally burn and don't tan. I was hoping to start on a sunbed but some people have told me that I should stay away from them because I am not a natural tanner to begin with..
Has anyone here got a pale/redhead complexion and used sunbeds? How did you find it? Do you have any tips?

Thanks a lot

In a word...dont.
If you have your heart set on a tanned look, fake it.

Emme

Don't do sunbeds, they'll wreck your skin. If you value your skin at all wear at least SPF30, even in winter. For a bit of colour on your face and brush some very light bronzing on top. To be honest, you'd be better to aim for a healthy glow rather than a tan. I'm light blonde with pale skin and I don't do the tan look, I leave that to people with dark hair and olive skin.

I think that red hair and pale but healthy looking skin is nice!

idunnoutellme

I doubt you'll get any result with the type of skin you described OP - you would just go red. Get a good gradual tanner or a spray tan if you're going to a special occasion.
To be honest I think fair skin and red hair look gorgeous:
http://images.teamsugar.com/files/upl1/0/3987/04_2009/230b65562ec9a8a0_Evan-Rachel-Wood.preview.jpg
it wouldn't look as nice if the girl in the above picture was tanned

Zulu

twanda wrote: »

I normally burn and don't tan.

Madness! :eek:What makes you think lying under radiation lamps is going to change that?

You'll burn twanda. Don't listen to the voices, they are not your friends!

tinkerbell

If you burn and do not tan then a tan is not for you. You will never achieve it. Sorry but it's ridiculous if you think that a sunbed will help - your skin is too pale to cope with the sun and putting yourself into a chamber of UV rays or whatever it is and like that sunbed danger report said, you could be just exposing yourself to the likes of asbestos for all your skin knows.

I don't know why people feel the need to be brown or orange (which is what a sunbed will do to you). If you are insisting on covering up your lovely pale skin, then put on some fake tan but for god's sake, do not go on a sunbed and do not go out in the sun without wearing a high SPF.

twanda

tinkerbell wrote: »

If you burn and do not tan then a tan is not for you. You will never achieve it. Sorry but it's ridiculous if you think that a sunbed will help -

Yes I am feeling silly now for ignoring common sense, but as with everyting else, I was finding conflicting info on the net, so I needed clarification.

I will not be going near a sunbed now. Thanks everyone for the replies. Consider my original query resolved.

Zulu

twanda wrote: »

I was finding conflicting info on the net

well, that won't have been a first!

BeatNikDub

Twanda spray tan is the way to go.

There are salons that do different brands and usually have one that will suit pale complexions. Cedars in Dundrum have a really lovely one for pale skin that I got done a while ago.


In between I use St tropez mousse (doesnt streak) and find some of the new spray ones on the market quite good too as they are very very light in colouring.

Just make sure you moisturise and exfoliate loads!!

kelle

Zulu is right, any "friends" who try to encourage you to get a "natural" tan are no friends of yours. When I was in my teens and early twenties, I was constantly frustrated because no matter how much I sunbathed or went on sunbeds I always went red (and very sore) and back to white. I was encouraged by "friends" to use accerators on a sunbed, but they just made me go red faster and more freckled - then back to white again.

One friend would laugh at my white legs in sun holiday photos, and work colleagues would sneer that my hubby and I must have spent all our time in bed during holidays (he's pale too). Even the fact a nurse where I work died of skin cancer at 25 didn't change their attitudes.

When I think about how often I got sunburnt I cringe, though you couldn't buy higher than Factor 15 until the mid-nineties so a lot of the time I couldn't have avoided sunburn. I worry about what the future may hold for my skin.

I stopped trying to tan when I reached late 20s. Now I keep covered, and in the Summer I wear factor 60 when the sun is out. And I use fake tan.

I'm happy to say my friend who laughed at my white legs is the same age as me but others think she looks 50 while I look 30! (We're 39)

So, twanda, please avoid the sunbed- they're not worth it and Johnson's Sun is the way to go!

janbaby

I have pale skin with freckles and it drives me nuts that people are so obsessed with fake tan and being tanned in general :mad:. If you look at that programme, How to look 10 years younger, all the women who were addicted to sunbeds are the ones that look like wrinkly old bags in their 50's. It not worth it! I know people look healthy with a tan but I find spray tans brilliant if you really want to look brown. Also the Garnier summer glow moisturiser is amazing, I find that it doesn't streek and it gives an nice tint.

Stay away from sunbeds, the risk of cancer is not worth it. When I was in Asia everything was "Whitening" lotions and creams, they all contained bleach to whiten your skin. Some day pale skin will be in fashion over here too

irenekittyboo

twanda wrote: »

Hi all,
My hair has a natural red tint and I have the pale complexion to go with it.
I normally burn and don't tan. I was hoping to start on a sunbed but some people have told me that I should stay away from them because I am not a natural tanner to begin with..
Has anyone here got a pale/redhead complexion and used sunbeds? How did you find it? Do you have any tips?



Thanks a lot

Hello;
I'm very pale with freckles & regret using a tanning bed. I've always had freckles but after the tanning bed I got them everywhere! The only time I got a really great tan was at a wood stock 99. I was in the sun for 3 days & put on factor 50 every few hours. I came back golden brown & glowing. Now, I use a gradual tanner after the shower 3x a week & always wear sunscreen. I dont know if a tanning bed would work with sunscreen but that may be an option. Sunscreen wont stop you tanning. It only stops you from burning & getting freckles.

Twee.

Thread closed, please don't resurrect 9 year old threads. Feel free to start a new discussion if needed.