It’s around Memorial Day Weekend every year that we all rejoice in the return of our fashionable whites. What goes best with a crisp white sundress? A glowing tan! Many of us still turn to sunbeds to get bronzed, but at what cost?

Stephanie’s tanning background: I went to college in New Jersey—The Garden State, and the home of the Jersey Shore. I definitely felt the pressure and desire to be tan. Pale was not an option. Over my four years of college, I don’t want to think about the couple thousands of dollars I must have spent at tanning salons. It was only when my dermatologist said I had to have a mole removed on my right shoulder that I questioned my tanning addiction. That was about two years ago. I knew about skin cancer, I just didn’t think it could happen to me. I had so many questions:

What Is Melanoma?
Melaoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer. Your melanocyte cells produce melanin, or your skin pigment. When your skin is exposed to ultraviolet, UV radiation (aka the sun and tanning bulbs) melanin is produced to protect your skin, i.e turning your skin darker. Over exposure to UV rays causes temporary, but skin damaging sunburn.

How serious is it?
Although melanoma accounts for only about five percent of all skin cancer cases, it causes 77 percent of all skin cancer-related deaths (according to the American Cancer Society). It accounts for five percent of all cancers in men and four percent of all cancers in women. The lifetime risk of developing melanoma has risen and continues to rise.

How to reduce your risk?

Best Advice: Don’t wait. Have a professional check out anything specious asap. Better safe than sorry.

After my mole was removed, it was tested and came back negative! Thank goodness. Since my cancer scare, I have quit UV tanning and embraced the airbrush tan with open arms. I don’t know why more people don’t do it. It’s practically instant gratification every time. You can control how tan you want to be and if you spray tan once every 2-3 weeks, it’s cheaper then tanning in a sunbed. I go spray tanning now throughout the year, usually in the winter I’ll go for a “Light” shade and wait longer between applications. In the spring, I opt for a brozned, “Medium” and right around MDW I up the bronze and go for a “Dark” beach ready shade and re-up usually every 10-14 days.  Save money and your tan by mositurizing after showers with a “build-a-tan” product.

Plus, if you spray tan instead of fake-and-bake, you’ll reduce your risk of cancer. If you’re not going to quit tanning for melanoma’s sake, remember this: tanning robs your skin of moisture and elasticity, leaving you with premature fine lines and age spots. You may look tan now, but you’ll look older, faster. Is tanning still worth the risk? You be the judge. 

House Bill 173 in Ohio hopes to discourage teens from tanning salons by requiring that they have a doctor’s prescription. As you can imagine, there has been a lot of opposition to this.

“At 17 an Ohio teen can serve and die for his or her country by joining the military. At 16 an Ohio teen is entrusted with the ability to operate a motor vehicle entirely unsupervised by a doctor or parent. 16- and 17-year-olds in the state can even get married as long as a parent consents.”–Indoor Tanning Association

Is this going to far? If a teenager has parental consent to go tanning (that’s the current state of things in Ohio), why isn’t that enough?

Photo by Zsuzsanna Kilián

The economy has people exploring a wide variety of DIY projects, from revamping old wardrobes to at-home beauty treatments. While I’m all for creativity, I’m curious more than anything about this recipe I found for self-tanning, here’s a snippet:

Ingredients:
1 cup water
3 black tea bags
2 tablespoons whole cloves
2 cups brown henna or another color that looks good for your skin tone.

If anyone gives this a shot please let us know!

Straight to DVD’er Lindsay Lohan is really into numbers lately. Her legging line 6126 came out last fall at Henri Bendel in New York, and her new self-tanning line Sevin Nyne launches today at Sephora (I’m frowning as I have to phonetically spell out 7 and 9). LaLohan’s inspiration for the line? Her favorite numbers are 7 and 9. Seems catchy enough, except that last year they were and sicks, won, and too. Aside from her questionable number-favoring behavior, I think the bigger concern is her own ability to apply self-tanner, no?

How will you welcome the warm weather? And you better not say spring cleaning! Keeping Up with the Huxtables posted a list of their top 10 ways to “keep up” and enhance your look for the spring.

Among her ideas I know which ones I’ll definitely get to (“10. Take me time so that you are relaxed. Stress causes break outs on your skin, wrinkles, and bags under your eyes from lack of sleep. You do not want stress to effect how beautiful you are!”) and, due to my geographical relocation, probably won’t be keeping up with (“8. Tanned. Add a little color to your life, leaving you glowing for the world to see.”)

But my favorite of course is “4. Spa treatment. Taking a spa day is always relaxing for the mind, body, and soul.” I couldn’t agree more. When your body feels refreshed, everything else will follow!

And what do you know? Starting THIS MONDAY, March 16th, our list of participating Spa Week locations will be up on the site and ready to take appointments. Happy Springing!