Written by Kristin Larmore, Relate Intern

The summer rays are less and less frequent, and it’s school time once more.

You walk down the hall, and some of the once “pale” girls you saw in May now have a very bronze hue about them. You might glance down at your arms, your legs, and wish you were “darker.” Darn, there just wasn’t enough hours in the day to get the sun you “needed” to look your best for the first day of school!

Or, you’re one of those really tan people. Was it because you spent every summer day outside, obsessing over getting that golden look? Was it because you were a lifeguard? Did you go to the tanning bed? Or is it simply because you’re of an ethnicity that tends to have darker skin?

It’s common knowledge, or at least it should be: the darker your natural skin tone, the less susceptible you are to the rays of the sun. Not to say you’re not susceptible, you’re just at less risk for sun damage than someone who is, say, Caucasian.

So why do some of us obsess over our skin tone? Some say it makes them feel thinner; it takes weight off. Some say they feel more beautiful, and the darker tint masks blemishes and imperfections. Some say the warmth of the sun makes them feel good. But the fact of the matter is, no matter what our natural skin tone is, we should accept it and love it because that’s the color we’re meant to be.

Dr. Sparks, a dermatologist in Boone, NC, spends a lot of time trying to educate teen girls and college women about the dangers of sun exposure.

“When I go back to my grandmother’s generation- my grandmother, believe it or not, was born in 1880, 15 years after the Civil War ended. In that day and age, what was considered beautiful was white skin. Women wore hats, they carried parasols. They wore gloves because if a woman ended up with sun spots on the back of her hands, it indicated a lower class,” Sparks said. 

This is not at all a racial comment on the part of Dr. Sparks; she simply wants girls to understand how cultural norms have changed. Being outside all the time isn’t good for anyone, but yet this ideal of “tan” equated to health is still around. 

“Somewhere in the 40s and 50s, people began to associate the idea of having a tan with being healthy, and also a step from healthy to being beautiful,” she said.

 Brigitte Bardot, a French model and actress in the 50s with long blond hair and very dark skin, might have helped spark this new ideal of beauty, Sparks thinks. She mentioned a poster created of her with a photo on one side in her 20s and the other in her 40s. Here’s one resembling something like what Sparks was talking about. Of course, some wrinkles come with natural aging, but we might have a  different conception of what we’ll look like middle-aged than people used to have decades ago.

 ”In a few years, tan looks old, tan looks leathery, tan looks all wrinkly. And yes, tan also causes skin cancer.”

Other symptoms include darker and lighter spots, thinning of the skin and broken blood vessels, to name a few.

“We need to culturally reset our idea about what’s beautiful. I think it’s great  that we have beauty role models now of other ethnicities; we have African American Cover Girls and Latina Cover Girls [and an Indian Loreal girl],” Sparks said. ”But I think for people who are Caucasian, they should be white. They shouldn’t try to be Latina or Italian or Middle Eastern or Black. There’s beauty in all different colors, but the problem comes in people who are of Northern European descent trying to have this appearance of their skin. In time, they don’t tan. In time, they’re just spotty.”

Dr. Sparks said you only really need 10-15 minutes of sun exposure a day for your Vitamin D dose, but there are plenty of Vitamin D food sources, too. It doesn’t all have to come from the sun. None of us need to obsess or lean too far one way; enjoy your sun, but be careful! Wear your sunscreen (instead of the bronzers that attract sun instead of shielding its damaging effects,) and love the skin you’re in instead of trying to change it.

If you just really love a darker skin tone, try something like Coppertone Gradual Tan Continuous Spray.

For more on health topics, visit our beauty section.

(photo from stupidcelebrities.net)