The Continuing Growth of Indoor Tanning Beds
Concern about skin care has helped fuel steady growth in the tanning industry. In 2002, an estimated 30 million Americans turned to tanning salons as a controlled alternative to outdoor tanning. As we become increasingly aware of the risks that can be associated with sunburn and overexposure, more people are turning to indoor tanning facilities to help attain their tans in a controlled environment scientifically designed to minimize the risk of sunburn.
There are many reasons why tanning beds are used. It is common for people to tan simply because it makes them feel good. Also, most tanning beds generate a large amount of heat, including infrared, which has deep penetrating action that can relieve minor muscle aches.
The tan produced by a tanning bed is not as deep as a tan produced in the sun. This is because tanning beds have higher overall levels of UV than the sun on a typical day, so the exposure times are shorter than the average session spent in the sun to achieve the same amount of tan. This can cause someone with a dark indoor tan to go outside and get a bad sunburn quickly because the deeper levels of their skin have not been exposed previously, and have no natural protection above what white skin would have. It is strongly recommended that a person does NOT tan indoor and outdoors on the same day, due to the likely chance that they will get overexposed. Because overexposure actually destroys melanin, getting a sunburn will result in LESS tanning.
Home Tanning: The Ultimate in Affordable Luxury
Why pay for tanning somewhere else, when you can tan in the convenience of your own home in a Tanning Bed. Tan at your own leisure and enjoy the comfort of not having to keep an appointment, having to wait for an available bed or worry about how long you are taking at a salon. The cost and convenience of home tanning is beyond comparison.
Truth about Tanning - Tanning Is NaturalTanning is your body’s natural protection against sunburn - it is what your body is designed to do. Many have referred to this process as “damage” to your skin, but calling a tan “damage” is a dangerous oversimplification. Here is why:
Calling a tan damage to your skin is like calling exercise damage to your muscles. Consider, when one exercises you are actually tearing tiny muscle fibers in your body. On the surface, examined at the micro-level, that could be called “damage.” But that damage on the micro-level is your body’s natural way on the macro-level of building stronger muscle tissue. So to call exercise “damaging” to muscles would be terribly deceiving. The same can be said of sun exposure: Your body is designed to repair any damage to the skin caused by ultraviolet light exposure. Developing a tan is its natural way to protect against the dangers of sunburn and further exposure.
Saying that any ultraviolet light exposure causes skin damage is a dangerous oversimplification. It would be like saying that since water causes drowning, humans should avoid all water. Yes, water causes drowning, but our bodies also need water; we would die without it. Similarly, we need ultraviolet light exposure; we would die without it.
