Tanning??

ggxx100

It's definitely a culture thing...whenever I visit family in South Korea, all the ladies are always trying to stay pale. However, surprisingly pop korean culture has turned more to tanning. I saw a tanning shop for the first time in Seoul and there were definitely tanner women lately. Then again, this comes with the westernization and the more emphasis on sex appeal rather than cuteness in pop korean culture.

I'm inevitably darker because of my lifestyle. I don't think I could go a day without the beach. Not one for tanning beds, but I definitely feel more comfortable tan. Though, my race does become questionable when I become too dark...It's already questionable since I'm mixed, but even more so with my skin :laugh:

One negative is my hair gets bleached...I'd prefer my natural brown over a bunch of weird looking blonde highlights, so that's the only qualm I have about tanning

KimberlyDCZ

LOL. I'm part Irish and part Native so my skin really doesn't know what the *kitten* to do when the sun hits it. It burns then turns into an awesome tan.

Totally ME TOO!!!

ETA: My sister, on the other hand, has more of the Native genes so she can be out an hour and a get gorgeous glow, she seldom burns. I'm so jealous!

BigDaddyRonnie

On me, tan fat looks better than white fat. :drinker:

peopletalk

i live in a colder part of canada, with extreme weather. 6 full months of -10 to -30. 2 maaaybe 3 months of +20-30 weather which is heaven for us! everyones outside in the summer, so yes, tanning here is extremely popular.
even in the winter, tanning salons thrive. it's called SAD (seasonal appressive disorder or something) where a lack of vitamin D creates depression.

oX_Vanessa_Xo

i live in a colder part of canada, with extreme weather. 6 full months of -10 to -30. 2 maaaybe 3 months of +20-30 weather which is heaven for us! everyones outside in the summer, so yes, tanning here is extremely popular.
even in the winter, tanning salons thrive. it's called SAD (seasonal appressive disorder or something) where a lack of vitamin D creates depression.

Damn, where u at?

marcia724

I totally hear ya. I think everyone looks beautiful in their natural color! I think white people that tan to be dark look terrible... Plus you'll get cancer and wrinkles!! I say love what you have...

drvvork

Culture....doesn't everyone want what they don't have?

This...

Astacia74

Just my two cents worth but I think this whole thread is missing the most important factor of tanning...SKIN CANCER! I think that no matter what your "skin tone" sunscreen is a must because no matter how beautiful your skin looks with that golden hue it won't be near as pretty with chunks missing out of it from biopsy's and "site removals"...... trust me I also think that part of the reason that the "fair skin look is coming back in style" is that maybe people are finally opening their eyes to the risks of baking in the sun. I am red-headed and fair skinned with freckles and I have always envied my "golden skinned" friends and paid the price of trying to achieve that "golden glow".

^^^This^^^ I am also fair skinned and, used to work to get that tan look. Now, I have had several biopsies on "suspect" moles/marks and have vitiligo caused by sun damage. I, now, do not go out without sunscreen and have recently purchased the cutest parasol that I can't wait to use.

badjuju775

I look and feel better with a tan and it also helps tighten up loose skin.

MightyDomo

I am photosensitive so tanning is a rough task for me but it does improve the way I look IMO. I am beyond white, most foundations I am the lightest color you can get as long as it matches my skins 'tone'. When I tan my features are highlighted and I appear healthier but it takes so much work to be able to tan let alone tan at all. I have to work my way up to an hour or more in the sun slowly or my skin reacts and sometimes it can be so bad that the rash begins to split and bleed. It was horrifying the first time it happened.

So for me I like it because ti does make me healthy but can barely acheive it and can live without it

melindasuefritz

tanned skin i s hot but im not gonna risk skin cancer for it
im getting afraid to even go in the sun

nicoletta0607

My skin is a blotchy red, white, see-through,...just red toned blotchy is a good explanation. I DO NOT tan, I burn, and then it goes away. I attempt to tan/spray tan because it makes my skin look better. It makes my skin tone even, and healthier looking without all the red blotches. I think tanning is a preference, and what you think works best for you. Having worked in the Tanning industry for over six years there's other benefits to tanning as well, that brings in customers. Mothers like the warmth and relaxation and quietness, others want to get dark so they don't burn during the summer months, some think "it's the cool thing to do", some do it for health reasons, its all personal preference/outlook.

brower47

I don't tan or let the sun touch me as much as possible. I develop melasma (mask of pregnancy) whenever I let the sun get to unprotected skin (especially on my face).

I get a VERY dark freckled upper lip and a big blotch right between the eyes, in effect, giving me a unibrow and mustache that DOES NOT cover up with any concealer I've ever discovered. It's a bummer but my wardrobe is now long sleeved shirt and hat heavy, not to mention the fact that sunscreen is a major part of my normal purchases.

iLoveMyPitbull1225

I have dark hair, I look better with tan skin. I love glowing bronze skin in the summatimee

MightyDomo

i live in a colder part of canada, with extreme weather. 6 full months of -10 to -30. 2 maaaybe 3 months of +20-30 weather which is heaven for us! everyones outside in the summer, so yes, tanning here is extremely popular.
even in the winter, tanning salons thrive. it's called SAD (seasonal appressive disorder or something) where a lack of vitamin D creates depression.

Damn, where u at?

We have this problem where we live too but we are not very far north really... I think 7 hours from the border to Montana...

I had to take 14,000 IUD of Vitamin D during the winter (in part because of my photosensitivity) and then during the summer I am instructed to take 4,000 - 7,000 IUD of Vitamin D. It's crazy how different it is up here and there really is extremely depressive when you go to work in the morning in the dark (and it's 7:45 am when I get to work) and then leave in the dark (about 4:15pm). You basically get no light at all and then go sit inside because it's so darn cold, it can get to -40*C with windchill often during the winter in my city. Hate it so much!

zyxst

It's easier for me to let my skin brown than remind myself to slather on sunscreen every time I go outside.

Gmtribble90

LOL. I'm part Irish and part Native so my skin really doesn't know what the *kitten* to do when the sun hits it. It burns then turns into an awesome tan.

I'm part Irish and part British, so I'm pretty screwed on being pale lol. My skin does the same as yours (burns then turns), but I am pretty much the Irish chick in this pic.

brower47

LOL. I'm part Irish and part Native so my skin really doesn't know what the *kitten* to do when the sun hits it. It burns then turns into an awesome tan.

I'm part Irish and part British, so I'm pretty screwed on being pale lol. My skin does the same as yours (burns then turns), but I am pretty much the Irish chick in this pic.

Aren't the Irish, technically British since Ireland is part of the British Isles? I'm American so please forgive my ignorance.

k8eekins

I live in California and I always wondered why most of the young men and women here favor tanned skin so much to the point that they will deliberately lay in the sun for hours. I come from Hong Kong, and in most asian cultures, it is favorable to have pearly white skin. I tan very easily, so when I was younger and I got darker from tennis practice, my family will tell me that I looked "ugly" and asked me why sunscreen never helped me.

Then I have my non-asian girlfriends who tell me all the time how they wanted my skin because it is hard for them to get color, whereas I can be out in the sun for 10 minutes (without sunscreen) and become a shade darker.

I have always wondered this and it seems that no one takes me seriously when I ask this question, hence I can never get a straight answer. Maybe I live under a rock or something, but I wish someone would just tell me already! If you go tanning, why do you do it? What is the appeal with tanned skin?

My friends who tan share that they do, to look healthier, for that warm glow, reflective of the season.

When we hail from cultures which generally frown upon "colouring" (more melanin) as a sign of a lesser person, of peasant stock, we need to accept that how we continue to accommodate our prejudices however it was first introduced, some of which were applied to protect dalliances outside the fold by the noble classmen and above, are gradually being assaulted by some, as many get more educated and are better exposed than their ancestors' who were easily fooled. The popularity of the mixed amongst the baseline catapulted this trend ~ lighter, whiter, fairer ~ better, finer, ideal, beauty.

Those of European descent (biologically/directly) here in California, who favour tanning, do so for aesthetic purposes, as do the percentages of Exotic Cultures and some of the mainline ("white") ethnicities of the world, who veer towards brightening/whitening their skin for the purpose of achieving what they interpret is the ideal look of a beauty.

* The English Rose * * Alabaster * * Pearlescent Skin * * Light White * * The Irish Beauty *

I too am susceptible to darkening as dark as I am as a Native Oceania-Pacific Islander (with foreign admixtures), with a complexion type which ranges from honey golden beige to the lightest ~ porcelain, much like the womenfolk from my mother's side, as a former serious and later leisure/extreme sports enthusiast, so I understand how trying it gets when communities like yours and mine choose to be selective with who they'd spotlight as being too dark vs the comparison who'll be "upped" to thwart your physical activity/obsession like an ill-bred girl. We're supposed to avoid the sun. Too much sun = a lesser person = a peasant; someone who engages in manual labour ~ blue collar family. The negative labels ~ stemming from a cultural discrimination as a reference point of former hierarchical transference, which has since seeped into modern interpretations within cultural subsets, to elevate or to devalue a family, a clan or a group. A devolution or a culture evolved?

Hierarchy today has been aligned to education and economical bracket where the modern blue-bloods have been absorbed by cultures as acceptable forms of labour to be associated with being of the accepted class, whereas if tradition was to be perceived in its true sense ~ any of the mentioned would be classified as working class. So if levels of acceptance were made for working classmen then why not for skin tone? Why weren't exceptions made for skin tone?

We are each allowed our inferences. With each generation there is change and there will be reinterpretations of the primary to the ideal. The onus is on our generation to reinterpret and reapply the primary culture to accept all shades.

Edited: Typo

MorgueBabe

I'm Italian with olive skin. I easily tan.
I refuse to lay out or lay in a tanning bed. Every SINGLE day I wear sun block on any exposed area of skin. I do not like being tan, and skin caner is sooo preventible. It will also wreck your tattoos.

I like my pale skin.

I am from NJ - you know G.T.L is a way of life and just don't.