Did You Ever Use A Tanning Bed, or Lie Out In The Sun for Hours to Get A Suntan?

SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
Location
USA
I never used a tanning bed, but when I was young I used to lie out in the sun for hours wanting to get a tan for the summer. I wised up and haven't done it for many years now, I know that there was some sun wrinkle damage due to all that exposure.

I knew someone at work who actually had a tanning bed in their home, always had a tan. Do you use those tanning spas or lie in the sun for hours in order to tan?? :sunshine:
 

Never used a tanning bed, but spent a lot of time in the sun as a kid & a teenager.

Grew up on the East coast of Florida just a couple of miles inland from Cocoa Beach.

Was an avid surfer in high school. Also spent a bit of time lying on the beach in my early 20's, then after moving inland to Orlando in my mid 20's, I used to go out running or walking in the daytime with shorts & no shirt on. And of course, whenever I could find a pool, I'd spend some time in it & lounging next to it.

Got way more exposure to the sun than I should have. And worse yet, I'm blonde with blue eyes. One of the most susceptible groups for skin cancer.

For the past 20+ years or so though, I have avoided going out in the sun as much as possible.
 
Yeah, I think a little bit of sun is healthy for everybody, but too much can be deadly in some cases. Lots of over-the-road truck drivers will get skin cancer on their left arms, left ears or left side of their faces.
 

I used a tanning bed one time before we went on a cruise just to get my skin conditioned. I did get a slight tan, but quickly lost interest in it.
 
SeaBreeze said:
Yeah, I think a little bit of sun is healthy for everybody, but too much can be deadly in some cases. Lots of over-the-road truck drivers will get skin cancer on their left arms, left ears or left side of their faces.
Click to expand...

A few minutes of sun a day helps your body's natural vitamin D production, which in turn, helps fight cancer.

So apparently, a little sun helps ward off cancer while too much helps cause it.

Life is complicated.
 
I have never used a tanning bed and do not plan to ever.
When I was younger I was out in the sun a lot playing with my children and I have wrinkles that
I think are mostly from sun damage, although some may be inherited. :)
I love being in the sun as it does make one feel in good spirits but I stay out of the sun now as
much as possible.
I always wear a broad brimmed hat when gardening or out for a walk. An early morning walk is good
before the sun gets too strong.
 
I think everything in moderation, I like lounging about in the sun but only for 30 min or so a day ( in the uk that is about ten times a year lol)..............wrinkles can never be put down to sun damage, because how do they prove that then?
 
We don't lay out in the sun. When we know that we're going to be in the sun for a length of time, we put on Coppertone Sport 30spf (arms, legs, face, forehead and neck). When on our boat, we have that Coppertone on, PLUS I always wear a short-sleeve shirt and wife wears a summer blouse. Neither of us have ever used a Tanning Bed.

A lady my wife graduated high school with, in her mid 60's, has Lupus and was told it was due to the amount of sun she got on their boat and laying on the beach for years.

We have two neighbors that never use sun screen when in the apt complex pool. One of them lays on a rubber mat and floats around for at least an hour. She is in her mid 50s. The other, stands up in a corner of the pool and drinks beer and smokes a cigar once in awhile. He is 51. We've left to do some shopping and when we got back, they were still in the pool!
 
Never went to a tanning bed, but did lay out some as a teen to get a tan. Not as much as many though. I have played a lot of golf over the years so I have had sun damage. I go to a dermatologist once a year. I've had a couple of basal cell cancers and one squamous cell. I use plenty of sun screen now, but didn't when I was young.
 
Whenever I spent time in Florida or California I ended up first burned (too many nationalities in me) and then, after days of painful peeling and recovery, tan.

I LIKE how I look when I'm tan, even though I had a cousin on my mother's side that lived her entire life in the Florida sun and looked like a 17th-century bookbinding.

When I left those states and returned to New York I'd eventually get back to my usual level of skin tone - one that makes Casper the Friendly Ghost look like a Sicilian.

Tried tanning beds once, when I was managing a gym - I felt like a piece of old bacon in a George Foreman Grill. Never tried it again.
 
I have never used a tanning bed. From the age of 20 to 35 I spent all my daylight time on a lake, an ocean, or a river. Of course my boys and I wore swimsuits. Sometimes I would put shorts on over my suit, and the boys would wear T-shirts to keep from burning. I've never had a sunburn. I am half Indian and half German, so I have always been on the darker side. I thought my dark complexion and hair made me impervious to the sun.
In 1977, (age 25), I ended up in the hospital, after two weeks on a sailboat, for sun poisoning. The doctor said way to much sun combined with my compromised immune system had caused the problem. The doctor said nothing about changing any of my activities. I thought it was a one time fluke, so continued my on with my old habits.
It took me a long time to connect my frequent bouts of sickness with the sun, which grew worse and worse over time. For the last 8 years I now have had to isolate myself in our home from May to October, with heavy drapes drawn. I try to do anything that takes me outside in the evening hours, or in the early morning hours. The rest of the year, I wear lots of sun screen, long sleeve shirts, and floppy straw hats whenever I go outside.
Now I bug people about understanding just what the sun can do to them.
So far I've had no skin cancer.:wave:
 
Jeez Ina...it must be hard when you're used to being outdoorsy to adapt to being indoors or wrapped up head to toe during the summer months, but needs must and so long as you've avoided getting sick that's what matters! :cool:
 
Yes Holly, I loved being outdoors. My husband has always been the reclusive type that was either watching TV in the evenings, or working on computer programs. When online web access became available that became his passion.
So if our children were going to acquire a love of the outdoors, it had to come from me. Plus outdoor activities were cheap, and I thought healthy. I miss that life style more than I can express. :tapfoot:
 
I was a bad example of what not to do when I was a teenager! .. laid out in the sun for hours on end, all summer long when I was in high school. It never occurred to me that it could be a problem back then.
I'm dark/oily skinned and never got skin cancer or even burnt much. I lived up near Lake Erie at the time, and on hot sunny days it got to 80 maybe.
These days, down on the Gulf Coast, I'm much more aware of the heat (sun) issues ..:D ... I still go outside everyday, and stay out to do things that I want and need to do, but never lay out in the sun just to lay in the sun. No way.

Never used a tanning bed ever. Have yelled at my daughters for using them! ..:)
 
Guess I`m the only real bad one here. I used tanning beds for many years. I`m guessing that for the past 30 years at least,I would go every year before Memorial Day and get a good base tan so that when I went to the lake or out on the boat,I wouldn`t end up burning. I am blonde but have dark brown eyes. Having a cabin at the lake as a kid,I had sunburns pretty much weekly-especially on my nose. We didn`t know from sunscreen-heck,did they even make it back then? We used something called "Sea and Ski" but I think that was only to make you tan. I haven`t gone to the tanning beds for the past two years but I know the damage has already been done. No skin cancers so far but I`m always watching for it.
 
My mom's next door neighbor spent years working outside doing some kind of marine welding. Then, several more years doing equipment maintenance for a large, local agricultural & cattle ranching company, which also involved mostly outdoor work. He's been undergoing periodic skin cancer removal for several years, & just recently, had much of his nose removed & replaced with skin grafts.

He said the worst part was when he had to work around the water, which reflected the sun back onto his face like a mirror.
 

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