Tanning bed something to be ashamed of?

[Sharla]

I'm a natural brunette - not a red head but with the limited amount of sunlight you get I could be an albino and you'd still be paler than me!

I can honestly - with the exception of you - I've never looked at a guy and thought - he needs to work on his tan! Actually with you it was he needs some vitamin D.

I'd think you extremely stupid going to a sun bed though Bilbo having experienced cancer yourself! Fake tans often look orange anyway too.

I really think you'd be better off getting 20 to 30 minutes of natural sunlight per day - not risking any sudden serious over exposure to UV and having a natural healthy glow that comes from exercise (for your circulation) and vitamin D.

[Kev]

I'm a natural brunette - not a red head but with the limited amount of sunlight you get I could be an albino and you'd still be paler than me!

I can honestly - with the exception of you - I've never looked at a guy and thought - he needs to work on his tan! Actually with you it was he needs some vitamin D.

I'd think you extremely stupid going to a sun bed though Bilbo having experienced cancer yourself! Fake tans often look orange anyway too.

I really think you'd be better off getting 20 to 30 minutes of natural sunlight per day - not risking any sudden serious over exposure to UV and having a natural healthy glow that comes from exercise (for your circulation) and vitamin D.

Damn girl what's with all this personal abuse this morning, you got a stone in your shoe or something?

I'm really not that pale to be honest, its just the lighting on my camera. And when I do occaisionly go in the sun I go dark brown, I'm not a naturally fair skinned person really I just don't go outside much.

But that will change soon as I prepare for my Snowdon climb.

By the way you are seriously kidding yourself if you think you are anything other than ginger.

[Sharla]

I've already given you a detailed PM explanation for the appearance of my hair colour. I won't type it all out again!

Besides if you're so convinved that I'm a red head then why should I believe you're not as pale as you look in your profile pic?!?!

[Kev]

I've already given you a detailed PM explanation for the appearance of my hair colour. I won't type it all out again!

Besides if you're so convinved that I'm a red head then why should I believe you're not as pale as you look in your profile pic?!?!

I don't care one bit if you think I'm pale or not

There's nothing wrong with being pale.....or ginger for that matter.

Often it makes a person stand out more. Helena Bonham Carter is as white as a Hollywood smile but she's as foxy as hell, and for years the only girl anyone knew out of Girl's Aloud was the ginger one.

Better to stand out I think.

Nothing wrong with being a redhead, you know you look gorgeous to me

[Sharla]

So you see my point then - worrying about having a tan enough to go to a sun bed could concievably be interpreted as worrying about something irrelevant enough to indicate some kind of inability to relax and be comfortable in who you are.

[Kev]

So you see my point then - worrying about having a tan enough to go to a sun bed could concievably be interpreted as worrying about something irrelevant enough to indicate some kind of inability to relax and be comfortable in who you are.

I don't think its good to be vain or to have a self image that's built around wholly external trivial things but I don't attach any value either or good bad in choosing go tanning or not.

I mean you could argue that you actually spend far more time trying to look good than your friends seeing as you watch what you eat, cycle, run, box, swim and do judo. I know you'll doubtless say you do it for a wholly more significant and purer reason than through wanting to look good but I won't believe you for a single second if you try and tell me you don't ever look at yourself in the mirror and see how your bum looks in a certain dress or whether you are putting on weight.

Ultimately I also think we all tend to think what traits we don't find attractive in certain people but in reality those things are not really what turn us off. For example you may meet a guy who tans and think he's amazing, the fact he uses sunbeds won't even come into it.

I hate smoking, I think it's disgusting but I've fallen for girls who smoke before. My girlfriend Nathalie I didn't even notice whether she was smoking in front of me or not, it just wasn't really on my mind.

However if a girl I'm not attracted to anyway has bad habits, I notice them a whole lot more. If I'm hooked on someone though most minor things I don't care about, dodgy eyes and feet aside

[Sharla]

You were right to anticipate my response about why I train as not being for superficial reasons. In fact the health conscious attitude I try to have goes against using a sun bed or anything carcinogenic!

It also adds things to my life and challenges me in ways you refuse to experience by locking yourself inside with the curtains drawn 24 -7. Those things diminsh the importance of other random crap like my tan.

You however, as you so nicely reminded me, put a lot more emphasis on superficial things. I actually agree with what Legion says - people who are not shallow won't care about a tan so you shouldn't waste energy and expose yourself to the risks of getting one thinking that people will like you more when it's not going to work that way.

I'd never be compatible with a vain type of guy and i know this from experience. I did once break up with a very superficially attractive triathlete because all he could talk about was his modelling career and he carried a little mirror with him everywhere.

I guess it depends on who you want to attract a superficial person or a non-superficial person.

I once dated a smoker but I'd never date another one. He wasn't a smoker when I first got together with him but took up 'social smoking'. I didn't want to get on his case about it so I ignored it. Pretty soon he was a full blown smoker though and that did repulse me. I didn't dump him for that but my experience with it has meant I'd never go back there.

Plus I see it as a health thing. I CAN see myself as potentially being with the same person for my entire life. I'd never look to marry someone in a short space of time but monogamy doesn't scare me so anything which someone does to increase their chances of suffering a preventable disease bothers me. I can't watch someone I care about do that for no good reason.

[Douglas]

So you see my point then - worrying about having a tan enough to go to a sun bed could concievably be interpreted as worrying about something irrelevant enough to indicate some kind of inability to relax and be comfortable in who you are.

I don't obsess over it, I'd just like to get a little darker is all.

[Andre]

So you see my point then - worrying about having a tan enough to go to a sun bed could concievably be interpreted as worrying about something irrelevant enough to indicate some kind of inability to relax and be comfortable in who you are.

I don't obsess over it, I'd just like to get a little darker is all.

Yeah right ,come on you made this bed..

[Dizaster]

I used a tanning bed on and off for about 2 years a while back.. It made me feel great about myself, I got a lot more looks from girls, my girlfriend at the time loved it.. I exercised a lot more because I had more self esteem etc etc.
I originally started going though was because I had excema (dunno how to spell it), and my skin used to be really weak and crappy.. It was always dry and blotchy and not great.. When I realised that it sort of went away in summer when I got more sun, and got a lot worse in winter when I was inside a lot, I decided to go to tanning sallon and LOVED it!

However, after taking a few years break, I realised that I wouldn't want to go back and put the risk on myself of one day getting skin cancer... You can go 100 years and never get diagnosed with that,,, but it only takes 1 minute for a doctor to tell you that you have an aggressive skin cancer, and then you can never go back and change it.

However, at the time I was just as aware of the risks and didn't mind.. I guess i've just found more things in my life that I want more than a tan.

AND, I smoke cigarettes so i've already got possible problems in the future from that, so I don't want to increase my odds even more...


An ALTERNATIVE though, is to get a spray on tan called "Mystic Tan"... It is THE, ONLY, spray on tan that looks 100% natural and doesn't look yellow.. I know a few people that get it, even in the middle of winter, and it looks completley natural, and you only have to go as often as tan bed anyway...
Also, they have a lot of moisturizers at the moment that have tan put in.. These also build a natural tan that won't look orange like the ones most ladies buy.. You can also experiment with buying a cream self tan, and mixing a little bit of that, with the moisturizing tan to give it a little bit more effect, but it still look very natural...

Maybe as a substitute for tanning each time, you can go half as much, but just buy a good tan moisturizer.. you'll probably get the exact same effect, but half you're UV exposure, and save a bunch of money as well...

Their was this absolutely GORRRGEEEEOUSSSS women that worked at the tanning place where I went, and she was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO adorably nice that it was half the reason I wanted to go in there every time...

It's also very theraputic going in there and just laying back for 10-15 minutes.. And you come out all tingly and feeling like you've just been at the beach,,, even if it's cold and shitty outside.. So it was difficult for me to decide to give it a pass this time around..

Another plus of it is that your body gets a little used to tanning, and you won't get that one BAD day at the start of summer where your pale skin gets tortured and red.

[Kev]

I used a tanning bed on and off for about 2 years a while back.. It made me feel great about myself, I got a lot more looks from girls, my girlfriend at the time loved it.. I exercised a lot more because I had more self esteem etc etc.
I originally started going though was because I had excema (dunno how to spell it), and my skin used to be really weak and crappy.. It was always dry and blotchy and not great.. When I realised that it sort of went away in summer when I got more sun, and got a lot worse in winter when I was inside a lot, I decided to go to tanning sallon and LOVED it!

However, after taking a few years break, I realised that I wouldn't want to go back and put the risk on myself of one day getting skin cancer... You can go 100 years and never get diagnosed with that,,, but it only takes 1 minute for a doctor to tell you that you have an aggressive skin cancer, and then you can never go back and change it.

However, at the time I was just as aware of the risks and didn't mind.. I guess i've just found more things in my life that I want more than a tan.

AND, I smoke cigarettes so i've already got possible problems in the future from that, so I don't want to increase my odds even more...


An ALTERNATIVE though, is to get a spray on tan called "Mystic Tan"... It is THE, ONLY, spray on tan that looks 100% natural and doesn't look yellow.. I know a few people that get it, even in the middle of winter, and it looks completley natural, and you only have to go as often as tan bed anyway...
Also, they have a lot of moisturizers at the moment that have tan put in.. These also build a natural tan that won't look orange like the ones most ladies buy.. You can also experiment with buying a cream self tan, and mixing a little bit of that, with the moisturizing tan to give it a little bit more effect, but it still look very natural...

Maybe as a substitute for tanning each time, you can go half as much, but just buy a good tan moisturizer.. you'll probably get the exact same effect, but half you're UV exposure, and save a bunch of money as well...

Their was this absolutely GORRRGEEEEOUSSSS women that worked at the tanning place where I went, and she was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO adorably nice that it was half the reason I wanted to go in there every time...

It's also very theraputic going in there and just laying back for 10-15 minutes.. And you come out all tingly and feeling like you've just been at the beach,,, even if it's cold and shitty outside.. So it was difficult for me to decide to give it a pass this time around..

Another plus of it is that your body gets a little used to tanning, and you won't get that one BAD day at the start of summer where your pale skin gets tortured and red.

That mystic tan sounds ideal mate, I'll have a look online for it in a bit, hope they sell it in the UK. A couple of my lady friends use tan creams and they look really good and natural to me.

I'm tempted to try one before the wedding but I've always been worried it would streak and that's put me off so far.

Unfortunately you're going to probably have another bashing from little Miss Perfect for your vanity and shallowness as will I for agreeing to give it a try.

But as she so kindly said herself I look unnaturally pale and sickly without this stuff and may frighten people so if even unshallow girls like her are going to judge against me for my ghostly looks anyway I may as well be using a fake tan