# Dear Prunefaces: No, I do not NEED a tan! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 20, 2005, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323 "2005-04-20T22:16:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Little\_Bird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Little\_Bird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Bird)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/61 "2005-04-21T15:14:45Z")
So, yeah, when I was a kid I tanned like crazy, running around with no sunscreen. Got a mild burn at the beginning of the summer, but oh well, it’s good for a kid, right? Then, the summer I was 16, my skin got all weird–blotchy color, like my arms were camouflage. My dad the doctor thought I had vitiligo since he had it for a little while as a teen. Next summer I stayed out of the sun—better to have a pale body than a camo one. I ended up getting a little sun at some outing or something and ended up getting hives. When the hives went away the skin flaked off and I ended up with little spots of white in my tan. Aha! That’s where my camo came from. Turns out I’m allergic to the sun. How nice. I did a nice little 180 from goddess of the summer to cave-dwelling sunscreen worshiper. Sunscreen on the face everyday since I was 19, sunscreen on the bod when I go out for extended times. Now, I won’t say I’m pale now, just a light olive. But hopefully when I’m old I’ll look young and hot. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/62 "2005-04-21T15:25:21Z")
> [@Marlitharn](#): > > You know, if she’d only applied sunscreen just once, in 1960, for 20 minutes, she wouldn’t have that problem. > > [sub]d&r[/sub] Is that a whoosh? Sunscreen needs to be applied and re-applied throughout the day. Would that they had had sunscreen of 30 in 1960! ---
**Author:** ![Dante](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dante/32/9673_2.png) [@Dante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dante)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/63 "2005-04-21T15:53:09Z")
Yep, that’s a whoosh. BTW, when people tell you “You’re so white!” you can always reply “And smooth! Don’t forget smooth.” Works for my wife. She looks about 5 years younger than she is. I’ll never understand why people will willingly bake themselves for purely aesthetic purposes when there are enough decent sunless tanners out there. ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/64 "2005-04-21T16:12:20Z")
I thought I wrote a thread about being maniacal about sunscreen and either it never made it after I hit submit or it sank to the murky bottoms of obscurity. Anyways… **Hello. My Name is Shirley Ujest. I am anal about Sunscreen.** Paula [Begoun](http://www.paulabegoun.com/learn/article.asp?PAGETYPE=ART&REFER=SUN&ID=31) explains very clearly the ins and outs of SPF anything over 30 is still 30. It ain’t better. It’s false advertising…essentially. and the importance of using sunscreen every day for the rest of your life. (Hats and long sleeved shirts are also very much recommended. ) \*\*Lubriderm \*\* now has a really good all over body moisturizer with SPF 15 in it that is about $7.99 for a vat of it. Compared to $8-12 a tube of some other stuff, I’ll take it! A facial spf 15-30 every day ( regardless if you are a Yankee or not) should be worn every day regardless of the season. Oil of Olay has a very good one that does not clog pores. The reason you do not find a facial SPF at 30 is because the chemicals involved for sunscreen become thicker/greasier/cloggier . So that is why most sunscreen for the face is at 15. And fifteen gives you about 95% blockage. 30 gives you about 97%. Not that much more, really. > [@](#): > > UVB radiation is the sun’s burning ray and has an immediate, harmful impact on skin. Damage from UVB rays takes place within the very first minute (yes, 60 seconds) of walking outside. ``` :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: ``` Keep sunscreen in your purse ( not car, because of the fluctuating temps in hot weather.) and slather your hands and arms a couple times a day. Keep a box of baby wipes in the car to take care of the greasy steeringwheel problem. Apply it to your kids every morning before school. Get them in the habit and one day, when you are dead and they are 70 and look _fabulous_ and are skin cancer free , they will thank you. ---
**Author:** ![Lynne\_kilii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lynne\_kilii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynne_kilii)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/65 "2005-04-21T17:20:31Z")
I wish I was alabaster. I’m still pale, but I’m pink, year round. I have red hair, I **never** tan, and I’ve already had one mole removed at the age of 20. Even if I were to try and tan, I’d just turn brighter shades of pink. Is anyone else not gorgeous and alabaster, or pearlescent, but pink like me? ---
**Author:** ![unclviny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e274bd/32.png) [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/66 "2005-04-21T17:33:31Z")
> [@Lynne\_kilii](#): > > I wish I was alabaster. I’m still pale, but I’m pink, year round. I have red hair, I **never** tan, and I’ve already had one mole removed at the age of 20. Even if I were to try and tan, I’d just turn brighter shades of pink. > > Is anyone else not gorgeous and alabaster, or pearlescent, but pink like me? Alabaster skin AND red hair!!!, can I buy you a drink… or a house? Unclviny ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/67 "2005-04-21T20:27:44Z")
> [@unclviny](#): > > A public service message for all the Alabaster skinned Wimmins: > > Cover yourself with an **Unclviny** as often as possible. > > Unclviny 😃 Perfect . . . ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/68 "2005-04-21T20:41:57Z")
I have a slight problem in the other direction. As mentioned somewhere else on this board, I’m naturally olive skinned. I tan very quickly and very easily. Even with high SPF sunscreen, I turn brown in the sun (I once got a tan on my forearms reaching under heat lamps all summer working at a Burger King!) So I use my sunscreen as I’m supposed to, I still turn brown. I’m 40, and I have always had decent skin with minimal breakouts and not too much dryness. Luck of the genetic draw, I guess. So if all you pale people would kindly stop warning me about how much damage I’m doing to myself because I “obviously” spend time in tanning beds, I’d appreciate it, thanks. I haven’t been near a tanning bed in over a decade - the one time I thought I’d give it a whirl, back when I was a teenager, it turned out I was allergic to the stuff they used to clean it. This is the color I am, dammit! ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/69 "2005-04-21T21:44:24Z")
I’m another freakishly pale person. I don’t wear makeup, either, so I look even more ghostly weird. It’s impossible for me to tan, and I don’t want to anyway. People who say “Ew, you are so paaaaale! Get a taaaan!” generally don’t realize that it wouldn’t work. Once, when I said in response, “I don’t tan; I burn,” the person said, “Well, red is better than white.” WTF? My brother and sister, on the other hand, tan easily. In the summer after my brother’s been at drum corps for a while, we don’t even look the same race. I’m the genetic freak of the family–I got translucent skin and curly hair, and no one else did. I’m generally pretty good about not getting sunburned; I don’t like going to the beach or anything anyway, and I always dress modestly, so I’m pretty covered. But every year at band camp I end up with at least one horrible sunburn, despite using sunscreen and reapplying it whenever I can. I’m not meant to stay in the sun for eight hours. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/70 "2005-04-21T22:03:42Z")
Personally, I don’t care whether you’re alabaster, pink, olive, brown, black, blue, or green. I’m just amazed that people can get away with flinging such stinging insults at anyone in the workplace. Criticizing people’s personal appearance just isn’t _allowed_ at work these days. Report the cretins. Personally, I’ve gone through chemotherapy and monoclonal antibody treatments once already (for a different type of cancer), and I have a back full of moles. My oncologist, dermatologist, and family doctor have all warned me firmly and repeatedly about the dangers of sunburn. I have had three moles removed already, and I have absolutely no desire to go through cancer treatments again. On a scale of 1 to 10, it sucked. I think jumping all over someone for their tan is just as bad as jumping all over someone for their _lack_ of a tan, though. I don’t preach at the heliophiles. I just sit in the shade and watch them. ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/71 "2005-04-21T22:04:22Z")
> [@Lynne\_kilii](#): > > I wish I was alabaster. I’m still pale, but I’m pink, year round. I have red hair, I **never** tan, and I’ve already had one mole removed at the age of 20. Even if I were to try and tan, I’d just turn brighter shades of pink. > > Is anyone else not gorgeous and alabaster, or pearlescent, but pink like me? You sound Irish like me and my family - we have quite a few women who are pink with red hair. I am alabaster with red, however, but about 10 minutes in the sun unprotected makes me _red_ with red hair - does that count? 😃 Our pink ladies, by the way, are quite stunning, even at 50+, they look many years younger than they are. I startled my husband last night, when he came home from work and we were relaxing on the sofa. I mentioned something about him having a nice ass, and he wrinkles his face all up and says “Aww, my ass is ghostly white.” I thought of this thread immediately, and I looked as angry as I could and blurted out the only thing that came to mind: “_Alabaster_!” He thought I’d insulted him. When he figured out I’d said “alabaster”, he thought I’d been watching that King of the Hill episode with the pimp named Alabaster. ---
**Author:** ![BiblioCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ed8c4c/32.png) [@BiblioCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BiblioCat)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/72 "2005-04-21T22:21:40Z")
> [@ErinPuff](#): > > People who say “Ew, you are so paaaaale! Get a taaaan!” generally don’t realize that it wouldn’t work. Once, when I said in response, “I don’t tan; I burn,” the person said, “Well, red is better than white.” WTF? I seem to attract the ones who insist on holding their tanned forearm next to my pale forearm and saying, “See how pale you are? Eww, you’re so white! You need a tan!” Having dark hair and dark eyes doesn’t help - everyone thinks I should be able to tan easily, since I’m “naturally dark.” 😕 Whatever… I’m also very fair-skinned, and I just burn and freckle in the sun. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/73 "2005-04-21T22:40:40Z")
> [@Anastasaeon](#): > > You sound Irish like me and my family - we have quite a few women who are pink with red hair. I am alabaster with red I am pink with reddish-brown hair (which I now have dyed strawberry blonde). I’m 1/16 Irish, maybe that’s where I get being pink from. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2005, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/74 "2005-04-21T22:53:23Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Anyone know where I can get a Scarlett O’Hara type hat that’s wider than my shoulders? I have one - it fabulous - covers my entire top half. 🙂 However, I don’t remember where I got it… ☹ I guess this post wasn’t very helpful. I’ll try to remember… ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Cymbeline](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_cymbeline/32/9244_2.png) [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/75 "2005-04-22T01:17:02Z")
Another pale-face chiming in, this too is one of my biggest pet peeves! What really disgusted me recently is when, on one of the first nice days of the spring, when it was finally warm enough for girls to be wearing tank tops and shorts, we were out to dinner and saw tons of young women (20s and 30s) just brown as can be - clearly they had been spending all winter at the tanning salon preparing for this very day, so they could feel oh-so-sexy. I thought they looked disgusting. But honestly, growing up, and throughout college, and even now, that I am in my late 20s, there is so much PRESSURE, from friends, peers, and the media, to be tan! I’ve gotten so much torment for being pale. Sometimes I just say, hey, I’m a white person… why are you surprised that my skin is white? p.s. Have any of you tried the self-tanning creams and lotions? ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/76 "2005-04-22T01:37:09Z")
> [@Incubus](#): > > Geez, since when did the sun become some kind of boogeyman? > > Folks are disgusted at those who would expose themselves to sunlight out of vanity, but they are staying out of the sun for the same reason-vanity. > > My brother and I tan extremely easily. Now, we don’t go out of our way to tan, it is just a by-product of working outside. In my family, smoking was a far greater cause of premature aging than sunlight ever was. I am out in the sun every day and people still think I’m 6 years younger than I really am. 😛 It’s not about vanity. I do not relish the thought of having a doctor digging cancerous growths out of my body. Nor do I like being sunburned. The last time I got a bad burn, I had to take cold showers for a week. ---
**Author:** ![FaerieBeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e95f7d/32.png) [@FaerieBeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FaerieBeth)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/77 "2005-04-22T01:38:42Z")
> [@nyctea scandiaca](#): > > p.s. Have any of you tried the self-tanning creams and lotions? Nope, not me. It’s just not something I’ve ever worried about. Having a “tan” is number 1,375, 563 on my list of things I need. It comes just before a hole in the head and right after a tapeworm. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/78 "2005-04-22T01:46:53Z")
I’m Dick Tracy! Take that Pruneface! I’m Prune Tracy! Take that Dick…! ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/79 "2005-04-22T02:08:08Z")
> [@nyctea scandiaca](#): > > p.s. Have any of you tried the self-tanning creams and lotions? I use Aveda’s sunless tanner on my legs. I wear skirts a lot in the summer and I like having just a little color. It’s very very subtle and even with it, my legs are lighter than most peoples’ are after a day in the sun, but I like it. It’s supposed to be one-cream-fits-all, and it seems to complement my skin tone fairly well. I get a light golden color, not orange at all. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2005, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323/80 "2005-04-22T14:30:18Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I’m Dick Tracy! Take that Pruneface! I’m Prune Tracy! Take that Dick…! Ned…noooo! That’s what I thought of when I saw the title of the thread. Maybe that should be the reply to people who complain about pale people. “I’m Dick Tracy! Take that Pruneface!” 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-prunefaces-no-i-do-not-need-a-tan/300323.md?page=5)