I was looking through a magazine the other day, and the fact that so many people in it seemed very, very tan.  Where I am, it's winter and truly winter except for the absence of snow.  It is cold, gray, and wet.  Even when it is not cold, gray, and wet, I can't tan.  I have never in my life actually had a suntan.  The gals I work with all head to the tanning bed during this time of year, as it is the South, and one is made to feel hardly a woman unless you are naturally or unnaturally darker skinned.  I don't think too that the "maxim" here of "everyone looks better with a little sun" is true, anyway.  Yet there are these women I work with who, despite the conspicuous lack of sunshine right now in our area, are tan.  The rest of us are as ghostly pale as I am.  :) 

Knowing what we do about the sun, the harmful rays, and skin cancer, and the fact that none of us want to prematurely age, why would we think we should have tans anyway?  This is far easier than anything else we can do to take care of ourselves to avoid the scenario.  Stay out of the sun in the peak hours, and wear sunscreen that you reapply during the day and clothes that cover you up enough not to burn sensitive areas of the body.  I think pale can be beautiful, too.  If you are not in the South, you probably don't see the cultural pressure to be tan or darker.  I have a friend in her early thirties who has had to have a couple moles removed from her back.  She always laid out and also had work outdoors to do with programs like Outward Bound where she was in the sun a lot.  The sun of her twenties didn't show up on her in her twenties.  It showed up in her thirties.  She's changed her ways a little, but the removal of the couple of moles left an unattractive scar on her back that I think she had decided to try to cover up with a tattoo somehow because she didn't like it at all.  The scar was better than having risky moles, though. 

The South still holds onto the tanning for beauty image.  I don't understand this, though, considering how dangerous it can be for your skin and body.  And despite what they say, I think the sun is more dangerous in terms of rays and damage tot he skin than it used to be.  My mother avoided the sun in the 70s and 80s big time, when tanning was even more encouraged than today, I think.  She looks easily ten years younger and is in her early fifties.  She is continuing good skin care, too, and I think she even uses UV protective shampoo.  She used to slather my sister and me in sunscreen before we went outside at all, no matter what the season was.  Here, if you wear sunscreen, it's only at the beach or on a hot summery day.  I wear it every single day I'm outside, period, with every part of my body that has any exposure at all.  My sister does this, too.  And I check moles and freckles.  I have had a few bad burns.  In college once, I had sun poisoning that affected both my legs, and I had to have a steroid shot and take medicine to help avoid infection. It hurt so badly.  Even since then, I've avoided the sun further when I had already been careful before that.  

When I was shopping for my wedding dress, and later when I shopped for body lotion and skin care products (to stave off a few pimples that were springing up close to my wedding day), the clerks made remarks about my being pale and that I should plan to tan in preparation for my wedding so I would look my best.  That hurt my feelings, as I couldn't physically tan well anyway and don't want to take a chance on skin cancer or premature aging, considering a family history of very pale skin (German, Irish, English, and some Native American ancestry), the fact that members of my extended family either have had skin cancer or have had spots before that were suspicious, and the fact that quite frankly I think I look better pale than I would with a tan.  

The choices you make today concerning the sun does have an impact, if not immediately, years later.  I think my avoidance of the sun will pay off, as it did for my mom.  I hope so.  

I was looking through a magazine the other day, and the fact that so many people in it seemed very, very tan.  Where I am, it's winter and truly winter except for the absence of snow.  It is cold, gray, and wet.  Even when it is not cold, gray, and wet, I can't tan.  I have never in my life actually had a suntan.  The gals I work with all head to the tanning bed during this time of year, as it is the South, and one is made to feel hardly a woman unless you are naturally or unnaturally darker skinned.  I don't think too that the "maxim" here of "everyone looks better with a little sun" is true, anyway.  Yet there are these women I work with who, despite the conspicuous lack of sunshine right now in our area, are tan.  The rest of us are as ghostly pale as I am.  :) 

Knowing what we do about the sun, the harmful rays, and skin cancer, and the fact that none of us want to prematurely age, why would we think we should have tans anyway?  This is far easier than anything else we can do to take care of ourselves to avoid the scenario.  Stay out of the sun in the peak hours, and wear sunscreen that you reapply during the day and clothes that cover you up enough not to burn sensitive areas of the body.  I think pale can be beautiful, too.  If you are not in the South, you probably don't see the cultural pressure to be tan or darker.  I have a friend in her early thirties who has had to have a couple moles removed from her back.  She always laid out and also had work outdoors to do with programs like Outward Bound where she was in the sun a lot.  The sun of her twenties didn't show up on her in her twenties.  It showed up in her thirties.  She's changed her ways a little, but the removal of the couple of moles left an unattractive scar on her back that I think she had decided to try to cover up with a tattoo somehow because she didn't like it at all.  The scar was better than having risky moles, though. 

The South still holds onto the tanning for beauty image.  I don't understand this, though, considering how dangerous it can be for your skin and body.  And despite what they say, I think the sun is more dangerous in terms of rays and damage tot he skin than it used to be.  My mother avoided the sun in the 70s and 80s big time, when tanning was even more encouraged than today, I think.  She looks easily ten years younger and is in her early fifties.  She is continuing good skin care, too, and I think she even uses UV protective shampoo.  She used to slather my sister and me in sunscreen before we went outside at all, no matter what the season was.  Here, if you wear sunscreen, it's only at the beach or on a hot summery day.  I wear it every single day I'm outside, period, with every part of my body that has any exposure at all.  My sister does this, too.  And I check moles and freckles.  I have had a few bad burns.  In college once, I had sun poisoning that affected both my legs, and I had to have a steroid shot and take medicine to help avoid infection. It hurt so badly.  Even since then, I've avoided the sun further when I had already been careful before that.  

When I was shopping for my wedding dress, and later when I shopped for body lotion and skin care products (to stave off a few pimples that were springing up close to my wedding day), the clerks made remarks about my being pale and that I should plan to tan in preparation for my wedding so I would look my best.  That hurt my feelings, as I couldn't physically tan well anyway and don't want to take a chance on skin cancer or premature aging, considering a family history of very pale skin (German, Irish, English, and some Native American ancestry), the fact that members of my extended family either have had skin cancer or have had spots before that were suspicious, and the fact that quite frankly I think I look better pale than I would with a tan.  

The choices you make today concerning the sun does have an impact, if not immediately, years later.  I think my avoidance of the sun will pay off, as it did for my mom.  I hope so.