Health & Fitness Blog

Let’s face it, a nice dark tan makes you look better and even feel better. Plus, it can also make you appear thinner and hide ugly cellulite.

Here are 10 indoor tanning steps to help you achieve a nice base tan without getting burned.

1. Be careful of any prescription medication you might be taking. Some medications that can affect the tanning process are blood pressure medications, antibiotics, and skin problem medications. These are just a few. Check with your doctor to be sure about what you are taking.

Always use a good quality indoor tanning lotion. It will help your skin to absorb the UV, which will help aid your skin in the tanning process.There are also special ingredients that stimulate melanin production, such as Tyrosine, which will give you the most out of every tanning session. Your skin tends to dry out during the tanning process and if you don’t use a good quality indoor tanning lotion, your skin will exfoliate faster, become more dry and flaky, and you will lose your tan faster.So the bottom line is to use a good quality indoor tanning lotion.It’s best to apply indoor tanning lotion immediately prior to your session or 1-2 hours prior is even better if you can. Applying it ahead of time allows your skin to absorb the lotion better so you will get the best results from your tanning session.

3. Apply an after tan moisturizer too. This will keep skin well moisturized. Apply this at least twice a day to keep skin looking great, once in the morning and once at night and of course after you tan. The key to a great tan is healthy skin and applying an after tan moisturizer will help keep skin healthy and moisturized.

4. If you are just starting to tan then you must remember to start out slowly. You can not tan over top of a burn, so you don’t want to get burnt. If you burn it is your skin telling you that it is getting too much sun, so start out slow with a low number of minutes and work your way up.

5. To build your base tan, go tanning every 24-48 hours. Depending on how well your skin is tanning you can decide if you can go once every day or every other day. If your skin is not pink after 24 hours of tanning then you are probably good to go again the next day. If your skin is pink or dry and itchy then this is a sign that you went tanning for too long and you need to take a break until your skin feels better.

6. Once you build up your base, you really don’t need to tan as often. So depending on the type of bed you are using, you should only go 2-3 times per week to keep your tan, even less in stronger beds. This is where I see many people go overboard, tanning every day when it is really not necessary. Many people enjoy the relaxation time that tanning provides, but tanning too often can and will speed up your aging process and potentially cause other skin ailments over a long period of time. Just like everything else in life, moderation is key!

7. Wear eye goggles at all times! Many people think that doing things like putting a towel over their eyes will block the UV rays but it doesn’t and after a long period of time it will cause major damage. Would you rather be blind or have lighter eyelids? I think I would choose the latter, but that is just me. For your own safety, please wear the eye goggles!

8. Since indoor tanning does not require the use of a bathing suit, use a towel to cover those ’sensitive’ areas that don’t see the sun very often if you want to tan all over. In the beginning try covering those areas for just half the session and see how that turns out. Gradually you can remove the towel earlier and earlier until you don’t need to use one anymore. The towel doesn’t block all of the UV rays so your still getting the tanning process started.

9. To avoid getting white spots in the creases and certain areas, you should move in to different positions during your tanning session. For the first half, try laying down with both arms extended above your head and legs apart. For the second half, bring your arms down next to your sides but away from your body, and re-position your legs by raising one knee slightly for a half of the remaining time, and then the other leg do the same thing.

10. Avoid wearing make up, deodorant, and perfumes during your tanning session. These can possibly have a bad reaction to the UV rays. Also, if you wear deodorant you will notice that you are not tanning as well under your arms and will have to remove it prior to tanning.

When it comes to tanning every person’s skin type is different and results will vary. Consult with your local tanning salon for a skin type analysis so you can get a good idea of where to start.

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