Sun tanning

[Contra Mundum]

I'm going to the beach in a week or two. Can't wait to sun. I hate being pale. I don't want to be dark, but don't want to be ultra white either.

[Corvus]

I'm going to the beach in a week or two. Can't wait to sun. I hate being pale. I don't want to be dark, but don't want to be ultra white either.

That`s the right approach IMO

[arcticwolf]

Nothing wrong with being pale. Pale is attractive.

[ETKearne]

I have always enjoyed moderate sun exposure. Despite my being 80% decended from the British Isles, my skin type is much darker than the norm. My unexposed skin is beige (#14 on the Von Luschan Scale) and it tans easily without burning. I have only had sunburn a few times in my life.

And since I have nearly black hair, I don't like the "washed-out" look that can occur in February after last year's tan has faded, so I get out in the sun in March and try to spend 20 minutes every other day or so until October or November (one can get strong UV radiation here most of the year- even the winter- I am at 39 North Latitude).

I hate the heat, however. So this generally prevents me from developing "too dark" of a tan since in the dead of summer (like right now, when in the past week it hit 100 deg F four times...) since I don't go out in the heat. So I am not concerned with skin cancer mainly since I have only burned a few times in my life and I don't have moles/freckles.

However, I am sure that I will develop wrinkles by my 40s. My father (who is darker than me) has the typical "sun-kissed" Mediterranean look seen in peasants from the Mediterranean. My mother (who is reasonably pale) avoids the sun so she doesn't have many wrinkles or age-spots.

I will have to try to post a picture, however, of what I looked like around early May of this year. I spent the months of March and April in Mississippi to help my aging grandparents (who moved there to retire) who are in their mid-80s. I was so bored the whole trip that I just "roasted" out in the sun the whole time (the latitude is 29 North) and developed a nearly 'comical' tan. I could have fooled the average American into thinking I was from the South of Spain or Portugal.

[morski]

Is Med. French an euphemism for Negro?

[Sally]

What I fail to understand is why it's acceptable to tell a naturally fair skinned person incapable of tanning that she's too pale, but telling a naturally darker hued person that she's too dark would be unthinkable.

[Corvus]

What I fail to understand is why it's acceptable to tell a naturally fair skinned person incapable of tanning that she's too pale, but telling a naturally darker hued person that she's too dark would be unthinkable.

Trust me, it happens often enough. At the moment I occassionally hear this because I work partially outside and my face is overtanned

[Didriksson]

Yes, during summertime I don't mind to have a tan, and this is my current funny tan:


You can compare how pale I was before! My upper part of body for some weird reason tans better. And I don't know why, but during wintertime I get extremely pale, I look a bit sick, but when the Sun comes I tan really easily and I get really dark.

[StonyArabia]

I am already tanned by nature, so don't need to. I get lots of compliments for it. One girl even said she envies my tan and handsome dark skin.

[ETKearne]

Is Med. French an euphemism for Negro?

Sometimes I wonder....haha. The ancestor of mine from there (some town on the border of France and Spain on the Mediterranean), was extremely dark looking in every way. She could have easily been mistaken for a North African or Arab.