Indoor Tanning: Spray Tanning vs. Tanning Bed

Everyone loves that bronze color we get during summer vacation, but many of us go to great lengths to keep the golden-glow year-round. As the trend of indoor tanning has risen within the last few years, more experts have been coming out with conflicting opinions of the harms of hitting the tanning salon. Here is a comparison of the two different forms of indoor tanning:

Spray tanning: Spray tanning (also known as Mystic tanning) is the application of a colorless chemical called dihydroxyacetone (DHA) in the form of a mist or a spray. DHA interacts with the amino acids in dead skin cells to produce a brown color change. There is no evidence that DHA is toxic and it is not absorbed through the skin. However, you need to follow directions exactly when getting a spray tan: wear the hair net, put on the nail stickers and apply the tan-resistant lotion just as the tan technician tells you! If you don’t follow the rules, you’ll come out looking streaking and splotchy. It takes a few hours for the skin to darken, and the tan usually lasts for about a week.

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Tanning bed: Tanning in indoor beds carries many of the same risks as tanning outdoors in natural sunlight. A tanning bed contains a concentrated form of UV rays that could increase the risk of skin cancer. You also run the risk of damaging your eyes if you do not wear the proper eyewear. However, the tan you get in a tanning bed generally lasts longer and looks more natural.

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There IS a Cure for Tanorexia

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It’s called STOP TANNING! When you reach the point when you are no longer the color of a human, but match the color of the tangello you’re eating you have gone too far.

I’ve seen the Tanorexia disease hit many innocent women who just can’t seem to grasp the concept of a natural looking tan, and go way over the line.

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It starts off as a couple trips to the the tanning bed here and there to keep your summer glow or to prepare for an upcoming vacation. Then before you know it you are planning your life around your salon appointments. It’s no longer a fling. It’s become a serious relationship.

There’s a bright red flag waving in the wind when you find yourself longing to hit ‘the bed’ after a week-long break. Or comparing tans with girlfriends as if it is a birth defect to be lighter than one another. This is not normal. You need help.

The worst of the worst are the poor souls who work there. They have have the highest risk of contracting this pitiful illness. With great discounts and being in an environment day after day that condones the tanorexic lifestile they don’t stand a chance.

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There has also been a recent outbreak among guys. Body-builders, metro and homosexuals seem to be the most common cases. They are jealous of the women with their nonexistent tan lines that emit an aroma of what lying on lightbulbs for hours does to your skin.

This disease is addictive and dangerous. If you think carmel colored skin is super pale, you may be a victim. If the receptionists at your tanning salon have recently became your best friends, you are in danger of becoming tanorexic and you need to take action against it.