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What causes the tanned look?
Melanin is the chemical responsible for skin darkening or tanning. Your skin releases melanin under the surface layers of your skin to help absorb UV radiation. The more exposure you to have UV rays from the sun or a tanning bed, the more melanin your body releases, and the darker your skin gets.
What is the science behind tanning?
Tanning is the body’s natural shield against uv rays. Exposure to ultraviolet rays causes certain skin cells to produce the pigment melanin, which darkens through oxidation. Enough beach bumming and those cells will migrate closer to the skin’s surface and produce more melanin, further darkening the skin into a suntan.
Why does skin tan in the sun?
Melanin protects skin from the sun’s ultraviolet rays. These can burn the skin and reduce its elasticity, leading to premature aging. People tan because sunlight causes the skin to produce more melanin and darken. The tan fades when new cells move to the surface and the tanned cells are sloughed off.
How do you get rid of a suntan?
People can try the following methods to help remove or fade a tan from the sun or a sunbed:
- Exfoliation. Gently exfoliating the skin will help remove pigmented dead skin cells from the outer layer of skin.
- Skin lightening products.
- Take a shower or bath.
- Baking soda.
- A gentle nail buffer.
- Self-tanner removers.
What exactly is a tan?
A tan occurs when sunlight or artificial ultraviolet (UV) rays hit the skin, causing a pigment called melanin to form. Melanin is responsible for the brown glow we associate with tans, but it’s also the skin’s way of protecting itself against UV damage caused by the sun.
Why is a tan bad?
There is no safe amount of tanning. Tanning isn’t bad for you just because it comes with the risk of burning, which can cause skin cancer. Tanning is bad for you because your body doesn’t even begin to tan until dangerous ultraviolet (UV) rays have pierced your skin and started to mess with your DNA.
Does tanning really age your skin?
Source: AAD survey. Tanning — indoors or with the sun — makes your skin age more quickly. Wrinkles, age spots, and loss of skin firmness tend to appear years earlier in people who tan. Anyone who tans can also develop leathery skin, which people who never tan don’t get.
How do you fix discolored sunburn?
Treating Sun Damage Sun spots can be eliminated through a number of treatments, including skin-bleaching creams, many of which include such ingredients as Retin-A and hydroquinone. Laser treatments can also target areas of skin discoloration.
Does a tan go away?
Without intervention, a suntan usually starts to fade within a few weeks, and tan lines become less prominent until eventually they are not noticeable. This is because the body sheds dead skin cells and replaces them with new ones. A tan from tanning products also fades over time as the skin renews itself.