Well, now that there are only 274 more days (not that I'm counting) until my trip to Hawaii, I have some important decisions to make. One of the decisions I need to make is what to do about the my snow colored skin. If I were to lay down in the snow naked, you would not see me. Seriously. Next winter, I'll take a picture and prove it. Ha! Just checking to see if you were listening.
A little side story as proof of this. One time, my husband (boyfriend at the time) were walking down a street in Las Vegas. A guy driving by actually yelled out the window, "Get a tan!" We were the only two people there and my husband is naturally darker skinned, so it was obviously meant for me. Jerk!
So, I am very pale skinned. And I burn very easily. The few times I sat in the sun when I was younger, I would burn, turn bright red, and peel. That is why I rarely attempted the whole tanning thing. So, I need to think about how to prepare myself for the sunny weather.
I have tried several ways to do this in the past to limit the amount of laughter when I walk by people. I tried tanning lotion one summer. The results were okay but it was a lot of work and it does not last very long. Some important things I learned about using this form of "tanning".
- Trying to rub lotion onto the middle and upper part of your back is not easy unless you are a contortionist.
- It is very important to put on an even layer or you will end up with streaks and patchy spots. Not pretty.
- You have to be careful about areas like your knees and elbows or you will walk around looking like you haven't taken a bath for awhile.
- You should wear gloves unless you want orange hands and fingernails for a few days.
I have also tried a tanning booth. I did this for our last trip to Hawaii. I was actually pretty pleased with the end result and it lasted longer than the three weeks we were there. And, I never got sunburned after being outside for hours on end. The down sides to this are that it was expensive and a pain in the butt to have to go to the tanning salon every other day for two months. Another more important down side is the health risk involved. I'm not comfortable with the whole increased cancer risk so this was probably a one time thing for me.
A little piece of advice for someone new to tanning this way. Bring a watch with you and pay attention to the time you are in there. On my first week of tanning, they set the wrong time for me and instead of staying in the machine for 5 minutes, I was in for about 12. When you first start tanning, every minute is important. Let's just say that if I would have gone to a doctor, I probably would have been told that I received some sort of 2nd or 3rd degree burn. I am not kidding when I say that there was a lot of pain involved and I could barely sit and sleep for a few days. It was not good. But hey, I got a free bottle of moisturizer from them. Wasn't that generous? (insert sarcasm here)
This time, I'm thinking about a spray tan. This lowers the risks of damage to the skin, cancer (I hope) and uneven coloring. Unfortunately, this does not seem to last very long either and I would probably have to go somewhere in Hawaii for another session.
Why do I care so much anyway? I don't know. I should probably be more concerned about the roll of belly fat and the cellulite on the back of my legs and work on finding a pair of shorts that will camouflage both areas. Or maybe actually start exercising instead of just thinking about it. Ugh, now I'm depressed. Where's the ice cream?
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