Tanning on Sunbed

sabelu

Hi my local health club has an offer on giving me a deal on 72mins on a sunbed apparently for 12 mins at a time. How tanned will this get me in that time and how succesful is it? What lotions/equipment will i need?

mercman1969

As an owner of a beauty salon that has qty x 3 vertical tanning units, I can help you on this

It will all depend on the strength of the sunbed you will be using along with the tubes being used

Be careful, some shops claim to be using 225 or 200watt sunbeds but are in fact only using 160watt beds with 225/200 watt tubes!!!

Naturally, these will only operate at 160watts!

If you come back to me with the details of the beds to be used I can give you some more info

There are other factors to consider such as skin type and the like


Regards

Pete

Savvy_Sue

mercman1969 wrote: »

There are other factors to consider such as skin type and the like

I'd have thought that was the first thing to consider! If you put me under a sun bed for 12 minutes I'd come out lobster colour and peeling ...

So, what happens to your skin in the sun? And have you realised that people who've spent most of their lives exposed to sun tend to look older than the pale and interesting among us?

Ted_Hutchinson

If you read the information provided in This Thread you will find out how best to prepare your skin for tanning. Pomegranate juice is another useful antioxidant , anti-inflammatory, photochemopreventive agent that I failed to mention in that post.
If you could split the first few sessions to six minutes each this would give your skin time to become accustomed to the UVA/UVB light.

Boosting your Vitamin d either, with high strength Cholecalciferol vitamin D3 now or 15-20minutes midday sun sessions outside in the sunshine, wearing as little as possible will also boost your vitamin d status. The higher your vitamin d status the more your skin will be protected and the quicker it will go into tanning mode.
Boosting your omega 3 (fish oil or flaxseed oil) or sardines (any oily fish or flaxseeds will also protect your skin from the damaging effects and make it less likely you will burn. The omega 3 is needed by the skin cells to keep them properly hydrated and is a part of the vitamin d sysnthesis process.
Those who stick to healthy eating regimes will lessen the dangers of excessive exposure, remember for every individual who dies from the effects of excessive sun exposure, over 250 die from want of sufficient Vitamin d3. So those pale and interesting sun avoiders have 250 times the chance of a shorter life span those healthy individuals who enjoy regular limitedSafe sun exposure
Interesting to see this showing the tea & lycopene (tomoato puree) also protects against prostate cancer so it's benefit is not just the improvement in your natural sunscreen but also a simultanous reduction in your cancer risk.

Savvy_Sue

I knew you'd be along before long Ted! And yes, I know there's a balance to be struck with my exposure to sunlight, but when you've burned as quickly and as often as I have, you do tend to be wary. I will be interested to see whether my improved VitD status makes any difference this summer - if we get one!

sabelu

Is it true that if you go on to a sunbed for about three to four sessions before going on holiday to the sun you will keep your tan longer and not peel?

[Deleted User]

Suncream has no affect on tanning and it also doesnt protect you from skin cancer. It does however allow you to go in the sun for longer. So if you have suncream it will ensure that it takes longer before you burn. Getting badly burnt is bad and increases risk of cancer. 12mins is probably too long for any european skin type that isnt adjusted to the sun, so id get some weak suncream. After you have been out in the sun some basic moisturising grease will stop your skin getting too dry.

Ignore all lotions that say they contain vitamins and other bizarre things, they may well be in there but they will do nothing. You cannot absorb anything externally, your body needs to process and combine things with enzymes and different chemicals for things to have effect and this is done internally from your food sources and is a very slow process.

Ted_Hutchinson

sabelu wrote: »

Is it true that if you go on to a sunbed for about three to four sessions before going on holiday to the sun you will keep your tan longer and not peel?

Really it depends on how high the UVB<>UVA ratio is in the tubes in the particular sunbed you are using.
There are tubes available for suntan beds that produce lots of UVB (that is needed for Vitamin D synthesis) as well as UVA. So the more UVB the more Vitamin D your skin will make and the more it will raise your Vitamin D status and the higher your Vitamin D status the quicker you will tan and the longer you will keep your tan.
My tan from sunbathing in the garden last year lasted because I kept taking High Strength Vitamin D3 capsules right through the Winter and although it was paler it was still noticable. As soon as we had some spring sunshine I tanned and look really quite brown now, though not all over as it's still chilly here near Skegness.BIO-TECH Pharmacal Inc. sell 250 @ 5000iu = £13.75 and taking 5/6 of these each week for the next 8 weeks should raise your vitamin D status so that as soon as you get into the sun your body will think it's time your needed some protection from the sun as you've plenty of Vitamin D for the time being. If your a sun lover then you won't need any more vitamin d (unless you get pregnant in which case start taking them again at that rate) until the end of September when it starts getting too cold to be naked in the sun.

I've set out in more detail all the ways you can prepare your skin for sunbathing in this post 5 I love Green Tea both hot and cold so that's no problem for me, (others may prefer it with a tot of whisky in it) Ideally we should all be taking a 2g omega 3 fish oil daily or the equivalent in flaxseed oil. Cod liver oil would be an alternative. Most of the other other ideas are basically just healthy eating and making absolutely certain you get your 5 a day. Certainly I didn't have any problem with burning at all last year and July really was quite hot and I lapped it up. So do try as many of those ideas as you can.
As far as the preparing of your skin using sunbeds is concerned in this research UV hardening therapy: they used 3 times weekly, with increasing doses to a maximum of 10 minutes per session throughout the Winter but these were people with very sensitive skins. I would look at what is the best deal your nearest suntan palour offers and that fits in easily with your lifestyle. but 2/3 short sessions a week for as many weeks before as possible will certainly help. Do ask if they use UVB producing tubes and electronic ballasts (you can hear them hum if they don't) the old style ballasts are environmentally unfriendly (use more power) and give off radiation which can lead to cancers. More about that in this
ercola video don't worry about Mercola's comments on overdosing with Vitamin D. If you look at his tan you can see he spends 3months in the Winter in MAWI (lat 20) and the rest of the year in what he calls the North Lat 42N (about level with Rome) So for him to use supplements including Vit D as well as living all the year in high UVB natural sunlight, is somewhat over doing it. We live above lat 50 and most of the Winter we get no UVB capable of warming the skin sufficiently to generate Vit d so 9 out of 10 of us are insufficient in winter and 6 out of 10 throughout the year.

Ted_Hutchinson

Yant1 wrote: »

Getting badly burnt is bad and increases risk of cancer.

Absolutely true never burn and try not even to get pink. You make your vit d in a quarter of the time it takes to start going pink, so it's best to have several short exposures, these generate the vitd, the vit d is part of your skins photoprotective mechanism, so if you don't swim/towel it off it will be there for your next 10 minute session.

12mins is probably too long for any european skin type that isnt adjusted to the sun,

a lot depends on where you are getting your sun from. The nearer the equator the stronger it is and the more careful you have to be. If you go cautiously and have prepared your skin and watch what is happening and get your partner to tell you if you start reddening then you can gradually increase your exposures.

You cannot absorb anything externally.

Sorry this just isn't true. Because the chemicals that are put in most sunscreens are detectable in the urine an hour or so after application you should only use stuff on your skin that isn't absorbed at all or is fit to eat. The article halfway down this page spells it out in Detail Dr Cannell The Vitamin d council newsletter

topical application of EPA containing oils, green tea, pomegranate juice preparations using Vitamin c, e, beta carotene have all been shown to have some photoprotective effect, just search pubmed and you can find several that have been shown to increase the skins photoprotection.

[Deleted User]

Ok so some chemicals get absorbed into your water then filtered out by the organs into urine, I didnt really think it happened much with suncream but i did hear about a doctor that put their arm in lsd and there brain never functioned again.

So are there any products that have stuff in that goes into your cells and helps them regenerate and tan from an external source? The adverts say that the most expensive products can do this but I have been told other things no? Im just saying dont fall for gimicks really.

Savvy_Sue

Ted_Hutchinson wrote: »

Absolutely true never burn and try not even to get pink. You make your vit d in a quarter of the time it takes to start going pink, so it's best to have several short exposures, these generate the vitd, the vit d is part of your skins photoprotective mechanism, so if you don't swim/towel it off it will be there for your next 10 minute session.

a lot depends on where you are getting your sun from. The nearer the equator the stronger it is and the more careful you have to be. If you go cautiously and have prepared your skin and watch what is happening and get your partner to tell you if you start reddening then you can gradually increase your exposures.

Even in the UK, I have burned in 10 minutes ... so you can understand why I'm a bit wary of the sun!