<p>Self-tanner, as far as we know, is safe. Orange tone comes from overuse, or from simultaneous use of UV tanning and self tanner.</p>
<p>I don’t self-tan, but I might if I had a big event coming up, like a wedding.</p>
<p>there are fake tans that don’t look orange- you just have to pick a good one, and don’t try and change color too much. ( I use the lotion that has a little tiny bit in it- Alba Botanica doesn’t look orange- of course if I did, that would just match my hair 
)</p>
<p>Many of D’s friends are African-American. Hispanic, or Asian, and when she was younger she has colored her blond hair brown to be more like them, but she hasn’t attempted to radically change her skin color.</p>
<p>She does tan- when she works as a counselor at a resident summer camp- you can see her teva tan ( from sandals), but she wears sun screen and she doesn’t get very dark.
( but her dad gets dark- I don’t think it is the scandinavian, must be the southern Italian)</p>
<p>From my side of the family she gets the Celtic- glow in the dark white- & while I do wear sunscreen ( even though after my child hood of getting burnt, I worry it is like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped), I admit I was pretty thrilled about getting a tan on my lower back last year ( after a summer of bending over working in the garden) :o</p>
<p>Lukester, I am so sorry that your brother died so young. In sharing your story, you are surely helping others make better decisions.</p>
<p>I have very fair skin, and sunburned easily as a child. I admit that I used to use tanning beds sometimes when I was in my early 20’s. But that was 30 years ago. For a very long time now, I always try to avoid the sun, wear hats, and/or wear sunscreen. Hey, my skin is supposedly my best feature, so I want to preserve it as long as I can. I see people my age whose skin does pretty much look like a leather handbag, and I’m very glad I don’t look like that. Even apart from the health risks. Which I knew about even 30 years ago, but ignored.</p>
<p>Fortunately, my son has no interest whatsoever in tanning. He’s a little darker than I am, and doesn’t burn as easily. I always try to remind him to use sunscreen.</p>
<p>Donna</p>
<p>Lukester, thanks for sharing your brother’s story. I’m so sorry for your loss. I hope it will be a wake-up call for people.</p>
<p>Hunt, I think you’re on to something, lol!</p>
<p>Hmm. I’m sitting here with a bandage on my face from plastic surgery done this week to remove yet another basal cell carcinoma. If it’s this vs. melanoma, I’ll “take” this version of skin cancer any day. (“No, it’s not the cancer you die from, it’s just the flesh-eating variety of cancer”). </p>
<p>All those killer sunburns I used to get, and the hours I spent “trying” to get tanned in the summer. I’ve lost count (I think this may be about #5 or 6 on my face, and I’ve had 3 or 4 taken off my legs), but at least I’ve been able to keep my daughters convinced to wear spf 3,000…</p>
<p>Just got the pathology back from two moles recently removed. One was dysplastic, but neither were melanomas. Another sigh of relief. Three more months till my next visit. My derm said that last year he removed 38 melanomas, a new record for him. The previous year he removed 24 melanomas.</p>
<p>Where I live, tanning salons are not allowed by law to work on under a certain age (18, 16?). They have spray on, which is more convenient than self application, but same concept. I let me D go to that.</p>
<p>Sorry about your brother, Luke. It is commendable that you are diligently following up with your doctor. I was just thinking this morning about the basal cell ca. and other non melanoma skin cancers that you can get, as mentioned above. The other thing you will notice is that in areas of the body not generally exposed to sun, the skin may appear more youthful looking than those that are. Compare hands and face to say abdomen (without over exposure that is. The type of skin that you have will bear on the general risk of damage and cancer as mentioned above as well.</p>
<p>[ABCDs</a> of Melanoma Detection](<a href=“http://www.aad.org/public/exams/abcde.html]ABCDs”>What to look for: ABCDEs of melanoma)</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.aad.org/public/exams/self.html;[/url]”>http://www.aad.org/public/exams/self.html;</a></p>
<p>If you have not had a professional exam, you should have one.</p>
<p>I checked the second link, and if it does not work, go to [The</a> American Academy of Dermatology](<a href=“http://www.aad.org%5DThe”>http://www.aad.org), public and look at the drop down menus.</p>
<p>Lukester, I am very sorry for your loss…</p>
<p>A similar story as Lukester’s has impacted our family also. We lost my husband’s beautiful sister to malignant melanoma 3 years ago. She had gotten it when she was 18, it was very thin and small, and it was removed unceremoniously. She was given a good prognosis. At 27, she got pregnant and 3 months later found a lump under her arm, which was a metastasis of the original miniscule primary melanoma. She passed away when my nephew was 18 months old. She also had a 6 year old son. </p>
<p>She was not fair skinned - no one in my husband’s family is. She tanned outdoors, but not excessively, and did occasionally use a tanning bed. Another one of my husband’s sisters also has melanoma, but so far, no metastasis. (heavy tanner, both outdoors and indoors) So, there is likely a genetic component, but families also share sun habits, so it is hard to know.</p>
<p>We are all permanently changed by this. My kids have great sun habits, and are constantly stunned by ‘tanorexic’ friends. Strangely, my husband’s sisters let their kids fake bake. I don’t understand that and won’t allow it while I have control of the rules and funds for leisure activity.</p>
<p>I’ve never been a fan of tons of regulations, but I honestly think tanning beds are worse than cigarettes and need to be off limits to kids. Cigarettes will give you chronic health problems, and eventually may give you lung cancer. Melanoma, once metastacized, is lethal. Kids have no common sense where tanning is concerned. They are misinformed by peers and adults. It’s one thing if an adult decides concsiously to use a tanning bed, it’s another entirely if a child uses one.</p>
<p>Lukester - so sorry to hear about your brother. I think I’m going to read your post to our kids. Every summer I hear myself giving them the same lectures about how dangerous the sun can be. </p>
<p>In describing yourself, you could easily be describing S2. We all burn, but he and D2 are the fairest, and burn most easily. The rest of us are pretty much resigned to being sensible, but I know it bugs him. Not only does he hate be pestered about wearing rashguards and hats all summer, but many of his classmates are hispanic and italian, and he thinks he stands out like a sore thumb. He really doesn’t, but is a teenager and self-conscious. </p>
<p>I don’t even really trust sunscreen completely. I just try to keep them out of the midday sun as much as possible. The worst burn he ever got in his entire life was at about age 8, at an afternoon ‘nature camp.’ The counselors had them walk along a local sand spit at low tide, and for god knows what reason, told the boys they had to take their shirts off (afraid they’d get a bit of water on their play clothes??). He was coated in sunscreen everywhere BUT under his clothes. By the next day his entire back was completely blistered and the color of raspberries. The counselor couldn’t have cared less. What’s even more frustrating is that the camp was run by the Cold Spring Harbor Labs – one of the world’s leading cancer research centers. You’d think their staff would have known better.</p>
<p>I am sorry to hear about your brother, Lukester. Thank you for sharing his story. </p>
<p>I have never allowed D to tan at the tanning salon, some of her friends do. She knows how I feel about it. She & I both use the self-tanners sometimes.</p>
<p>The spray-on tans and bronzers are the safest bet for people that want to be tan without getting the UV exposure. Used with the right formula and frequency, and you can get tan without getting orange.</p>
<p>Wow - you too, pumpkin. So sorry. It’s so important for kids to realize that it’s not just “old people” who are affected. The teen years are a real challenge, because you’re dealing not only with feelings of self-consciousness, but also invincibility…</p>
<p>As a teenager, I do understand why my friends want to be tan. At least where I live, it’s generally considered an attractive thing-no one goes for the vampire look. Like right now, we’re on February break, and all those who are going to Florida and such will be the most envied when we get back to school next week. I agree with many of you though-I don’t understand how the desire to look dark can overpower the knowledge of how dangerous it is. I know I never would do anything with the intention of becoming more tan, but that may just be because of the horror story my mom told me of finding her little sister asleep under a sun lamp, and the subsequent weeks of her wetting the bed and missing school due to massive blisters all over her body making her unable to move. </p>
<p>As far as my family goes, I have never met someone who tans darker than my father. He always wears sunscreen but turns very, very dark. I’m somewhat similar, I’m pretty careful about my sunscreen use but turn pretty dark anyways. Neither of us ever burn. My mother and brother burn intensely though and are mega pale otherwise. I think my parents would let us tan if we wanted to, but neither of us have any desire to harm ourselves like that.</p>
<p>lspf72 - I don’t trust sunscreen either. I think people don’t use it correctly, in the right quantity, or often enough. I’ve watched adults put it on dripping wet kids. I also think you need to try to stay out of midday sun.</p>
<p>You need to reapply it frequently, use a lot of it, and use some of the newer types (parsol is an ingredient I now look for…there are some other new types as well, but I can’t recall the names in February!) The rash guard/surf shirts with high spf are great also. </p>
<p>I’ve also had trouble with summer babysitters and camp staff not ‘getting it’.</p>
<p>I do love the new aerosol spray on sunscreen, especially once you are out and sandy and leery of rubbing in the messiness, you can just spray everywhere. It is more expensive but I think it encourages reapplication through the day as it is so easy.</p>
<p>Two of my kids are very dark and one is very fair; the little one was with two of my good friends for a day at the lake/park (lots of trees & tables & not full summer) but they are parents of tan kids, too and did not reapply sunscreen through the day, she came home so fried, they felt horrible and so did I :(</p>
<p>I go to a relatively expensive private school, so there is definitely no shortage of tanorexic girls here. Though my friends and I protested, my roommate has gone a couple times to tanning salons, and one time we accompanied her. I was absolutely appalled by what I saw. There was a TV screen that was extolling the vitamin D that one gets from salon tanning, and there were all of these donation tags for the cause of researching into using vitamin D to prevent breast cancer. Not only was I disgusted by the salon’s attempt to promote tanning as healthy, but by the money wasted going to yet more research into vitamins, after I had just read an article in the Times about how despite how much vitamins have been touted to boost health, actual research has failed to provide empirical evidence for significant health benefits in the long run. I’m all for breast cancer research, but not when a tanning chain is using it as a stunt to try and convince people that the product that they’re selling won’t kill you. If a cigarette ad tried to promote them as healthy there would be public outcry.</p>
<p>People are just vain to the point of self-destruction, I guess. I know a woman who survived cancer that required her to have a hysterectomy. She would still insist on going tanning, and would make light and joke that she was willing to risk dying to look good. Shortly thereafter, she had to have several cancerous skin lesions removed, and while it didn’t kill her, I don’t think she goes tanning anymore.</p>
<p>There is a definite genetic link to melanoma. If someone in your immediate family has had a melanoma, it is imperative that everyone else in the family get regular checkups as well. Both my kids (18 and 20) have already had dysplatic nevi removed at early ages. They both have been drilled from an early age about sun protection. But, you know the old adage, “You can’t pick your parents.”</p>
<p>About 15 minutes of natural sunlight will give the vast majority of people all the vitamin D they need.</p>