Pale Skin - Is it really that bad?

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Replies

  • ironanimal
    ironanimal Posts: 5,922 Member
    I prefer pale skin. And tanning excessively will eventually lead you to resembling a leather handbag. It just seems to age people prematurely. If only I could convince my girlfriend to skip intentional tanning at every hint of sunshine....
  • nilesbollinger
    nilesbollinger Posts: 80 Member
    Pale redheads are one of my fantasies! I am hoping my wife will bring one home for us to share one day :)
  • BaDaSsBrUnEtTe
    BaDaSsBrUnEtTe Posts: 518 Member
    i'm pale and proud of it! those people who think tans are so great can come talk to me when they look like a wrinkly old leather handbag in a few years and we'll see who looks better.
    couldnt agree more, i embrace my paleness!
  • myukniewicz
    myukniewicz Posts: 906 Member
    I make pale skin look good hahaha!

    I am 75% Polish... so I defiantly do NOT tan and I am okay with that ❤
  • Apazman
    Apazman Posts: 494 Member
    Love Love Love that pale skin, and its more healthy funny enough, a sun tan is reaction the epidermis has when attacked by UV rays. it also makes the skin brittle over time, and when you are in your mid 30s to 40s you get leather/spotty neck.

    For all those porcelin dolls out there, please add me. :)
  • miamimanni
    miamimanni Posts: 23
    well Scandinavia I think it's just a matter of wanting to look different. The people who are telling you to get a tan are probably people that you see all the time, or even some of the time. I'm hispanic myself, my skin is already brownish. Some people say I should get a tan. It's the same exact reason someone my suggest a new hair style.

    Not so much the look per say, it's the difference that they want to see
  • wiltl
    wiltl Posts: 188 Member
    Also pale, with dark hair. I used to be able to get tan w/o burning when I was younger. I have a pretty healthy PNW tan going on (aka, pasty white) and am quite happy with it. Sometimes I think of getting some sun, but then I see women who are younger than me who are tanned with dry skin, crows feet and wrinkly cleavage. Thats what seems to bother me most, is I don't want to help my girls wrinkle up any sooner than they need to.
  • Louise1247
    Louise1247 Posts: 670 Member
    Pale skin is natural and gorgeous! :)

    Just as dark natural skin is, and medium skin... :D
  • magistra12
    magistra12 Posts: 22
    I tan very easily but I think I look better pale (which I am all fall/winter). Last summer I worked at a day camp and got really dark. My mother in law kept saying how great my tan was while I thought it looked awful.

    I worry about my mother in law because she tans and lays outside with little to no sunscreen on. She's a natural redhead with freckles. I'm glad that she gets screened every year, but it is certainly aging her. She was very upset when someone mistook her for one of her friend's mothers at a concert recently, but it really comes down to her being careless with her skin (and being too thin for her face).

    Embrace the pale!
  • kittyhasclaws
    kittyhasclaws Posts: 446 Member
    @kittyhasclaws...See that is what my dad thought too. He is naturally dark and never burned so never thought of wearing sunscreen. My pale German Irish mother always wears sunscreen! Lots of sunscreen!! Dad was diagnosed with Stage 4 melanoma 5 years ago and given 6 months to live. Thank God he is a fighter and is still alive today. He is now a HUGE advocate of sunscreen and of Anti-tanning! I get more concerned about my darker skinned son out in the sun because you can not tell when he has been out too long. My lighter children get a little pink if they have not put on their sunscreen. Keep working on your hubby...your children need their daddy around for a long long time (try that one on him..maybe guilt will work! :wink: )

    I've been slowly getting him to at least wear 15SPF if he's going to be out for a while. And MAN, did I nag the crap out of him when he didn't and he got burned! I think I may have annoyed him into wearing it just so it'd shut me up! I'm very fearful. My dad has had three cancerous skin lesions removed, my mom has had at least two. I can't even say how many in the extended family. So, I will continue to force it on my kids and bug the crap out of my husband about it and how he needs to be a good role model.
  • Enkibean
    Enkibean Posts: 56
    My wife is pale to the point of looking translucent at times, and I love it. In fact, I love when she dies her hair black, because it accents how pale she is. It's a matter of taste, like preferring blondes or brunettes, and YMMV.
  • JenG_2011
    JenG_2011 Posts: 79 Member
    Skin Cancer sucks.. especially melanoma... please be careful in the sun and with tanning. Pale is beautiful. Love the skin you're in!
  • iheartmarshall
    iheartmarshall Posts: 39 Member
    i'm pale and proud of it! those people who think tans are so great can come talk to me when they look like a wrinkly old leather handbag in a few years and we'll see who looks better.

    Exactly! I'm extremely pale with freckles all over my arms and chest. When I do "lay out" in the sun, I even get them on my legs. I love being pale though and I take good care of my skin so that I'll still (hopefully) look good when I'm older!
  • kittyhasclaws
    kittyhasclaws Posts: 446 Member
    I think pale skin is unique. My dad is 50% Dutch and my mom is 50% German... I am VERY pale and do not tan. I burn.. or char might be a better word. I have dark brown hair and lots of people tell me I should tan. I now say.. I'm European and we don't tan. That shuts people up, because they are like.. oh what's that :huh: ? Reallllly! :noway: UGGH! So I just leave it at that. I was once told I'm so pasty white I might glow in the dark... well glow on... because I actually like being pale... :drinker:

    LOL, we do glow in the dark. Glow on!

    But, seriously I think all skin colors are beautiful, and I would hope that most people feel that same way. Variety is the spice of life!

    Speaking of glowing in the dark... If you are pale enough, and thin skinned enough, you can see tons of veins in your body pulsing if you look through night vision. It's pretty creepy.
  • KatieJane83
    KatieJane83 Posts: 2,002 Member
    I just tell people I don't want to die from melanoma by the age of 35 like my uncle, or have a chunk taken out of my nose like my grandma.

    Or, just tell people you're going way way old school, when pale skin was a sign of affluence since it showed that you didn't have to be outside doing manual labor!

    And honestly, intentionally tanning for anyone is not the best, even the naturally dark can still succumb to skin cancer.
  • xLexa
    xLexa Posts: 482 Member
    Walking freckle here, born in Northern Ireland and lived in Florida for the past 5 years now and still use factor 50 lol Dark hair, dark eyes and yup you guessed it pale as they come hehe when I get the legs out I stop traffic, I think it is the sun reflecting off my legs blinding the drivers lmao But hey I would rather that than burn or end up with skin cancer. I do not tan well nor do I try. I did try in my early teen years and it didn't work. Some of us are just destined to be ..pale... :)
  • Dragonnade
    Dragonnade Posts: 218 Member
    A mate of mine suggested I use fake tan once. A really subtle one in a moisturiser. I may have just laughed and gone "No". When asked why I merely pointed at my hair and found the photo of me wearing the Dutch football kit. Orange and Orange is just a violent mix that does not work. Everything in moderation.

    She also suggested I put highlights in my hair. Ginger luv; most textured of all the hair colours. Also, I've not had a haircut in nearly 3 years, so how on earth would I keep up with a highlighting regime?

    The only downside is that I like to spend far too long watching the cricket. Outdoors. In direct sunlight. Broadbrimmed hats and suncream a-plenty but it's still a tiresome regime (entirely worthwhile and necessary, but tiresome nonetheless).

    I do think the 'you should tan' contingent are projecting their own insecurities, usually with being pale. I'm embracing it. English Rose all the way. I'm ginger so I'm never going to be able to be a shrinking violet, so why would I attempt to conform with /your/ version of beauty when my own is genetically predisposed to be radically different?!
  • PhotogNerd
    PhotogNerd Posts: 420 Member
    I fall on the pale end of the spectrum and I'm perfectly okay with it.

    Well I hate sunburns but other than that being pale is my normality. :)
  • deniseearheart
    deniseearheart Posts: 919 Member
    I am fare skin but I fake tan... I love having that sexy tan look for my guy
  • shannonmaria
    shannonmaria Posts: 44 Member
    I think that being your natural skin tone is just fine! I have blond hair and fair skin. I've already had Melanoma and I plan on staying out of the sun for my health. I've tried self tanning lotions in the past like Jergens Natural Glow and I just don't care for the streaks they leave.
  • WhiteCoc0
    WhiteCoc0 Posts: 160 Member
    1 in 5 white people get skin cancer!!!

    Being healthy and white is alright with me!!! I have a brown man, and thats enough colour for me!
  • mommared53
    mommared53 Posts: 9,543 Member
    I'm also a natural redhead (although at almost 59 years old, it's naturally gray so I'm a bottle light auburn :smile: ). I love being pale because I feel it makes me unique. I'm always joking with my son that I need to stand in the shade because I might get a tan. :laugh: I do tend to tan some but if I'm out in the sun too long I'll burn pretty easily too. Just remember that when you tan from the sun or tanning booths, you're actually damaging your skin. Your are so much healthier being pale that you are being tanned. Embrace your paleness sister redhead! :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou: :flowerforyou:
  • placeboaddiction
    placeboaddiction Posts: 451 Member
    Oh me love me's some fair skin. Definitely dig pale people.

    I'm olive, then olive tan when in sun. The benefit of being jap/scottish. :)
  • saxmaniac
    saxmaniac Posts: 1,133 Member
    I hear you. My middle son has red hair and pale skin and just doesn't tan at all. He will burn, and then go right back to pale. But, my daughter tans like crazy, even when we put the same sunblock on both of them.
  • paleirishmother
    paleirishmother Posts: 242
    red heads are suppose to be pale...right? I hope so because my skin is super pale!
    ---yes I have red hair, under this brown hair
  • dellrio
    dellrio Posts: 131 Member

    Anyway, where do people of MFP fall on the spectrum? Do you think being pale truly is bad, or just different?

    I like pale skinned girls - I am not a fan of the overly tan.
  • Josette89
    Josette89 Posts: 244
    I think light skin is really nice. I'm of Mexican descent, so you'd think that I'd be a bit darker, but my mom has that Spanish blood in her so she is really light as well. I don't mind it. Although I live in AZ so I can't avoid getting a tan :) I have a lovely tan gold color right now and my bf says I'm glowing :) hehe. He, on the other hand has lost his sexy tan color from being inside too much. I don't mind though. Either is nice. Don't listen to those people who aren't happy with themselves so they try to change everything they can. If you are happy with yourself, then just be you. :)
  • MrsFolk
    MrsFolk Posts: 205
    I'd rather be pale than have skin cancer. Just sayin.
  • htimpaired
    htimpaired Posts: 1,404 Member
    I'm not a redhead, I'm brunette, but I am pale. I haven't been able to tan since I was 16. I went on meds for acne and it must have done something because before that I could tan really well. Now, I mostly burn and if I do tan, it's gone the next day. I tried self tanners, too much hassle. And I'm not about to fake 'n bake, so pale it is!
  • dunnweb
    dunnweb Posts: 49
    I prefer pale skin over tan skin. To me people associate tan skin with being "hot" and "sexy" but a soft pale skin is more beautiful to me.

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