Thanks for the reminder about the evils of tanning.
I read somewhere years and years ago that there is no such thing as a “healthy” tan. What you have when your skin gets brown is an ultraviolate radiation injury. Turning brown is your skin’s way to protect itself from injury.
When I read that I gave up trying to tan (which I hated anyway) and quickly realized that if you don’t tan you never have tan lines. Truly I’m the same shade of white everywhere
I’ve lived in Central Florida since I was a child. I’m hoping that the burning/tanning of my youth doesn’t cause me problems later on. Now, even my makeup is spf 15
Good luck LouisB I wish you a speedy recovery from your surgeries. Please keep us posted and thanks again for the reminder.
I know I got a few sunburns when I was young, but I did my best to avoid them; did try to avoid the sun. I avoid it all the more now. I spent my teen years looking pale and pasty, and somtimes got flak for that. I remember answering that I’d heard that people who tanned a lot ended up aging sooner. I didn’t really think about the skin cancer thing. Now, the skin cancer thing seems far more important, doesn’t it?
I keep wondering about all the very tan young women who sneered at my pale skin and made remarks about how it was awful that some people go about looking so horribly pale. I wonder how many others they browbeat into courting cancer.
I only tanned or burned when I could not avoid it, and we use sunscreen on my daughter and monitor her time out in the full sun.
I remember seeing this woman at our local pool once as a child-she was in her late thirties with a dark, dark tan-on wrinkled, leather like skin. I watched in horrified fascination as she slathered on gallons of baby oil and stretched out on blanket, in the baking sun.
I think right then I decided I’d rather resemble the underside of an albino python.
(Besides, I can’t spend an hour out in the sun without a horrible headache! How can people just lay out there, cooking themselves for hours! YUCK!)
I’ve tried to tell some young ladies I’ve worked with that the tan they so desire will be something they regret later on. They wouldn’t listen.
Depending on who you ask, I look several to many years younger than my actual age. Part of this is genetic (most of my family is the same way), but perhaps it’s at least in part because we were never much for baking in the sun.
Yes, I know. It makes me very sad. And in my experience, you can’t tell them otherwise.
Years ago, there was an actor who was considered to be a hottie. (I think he probably still is.) He also looked a lot younger than his actual age (I thought so, anyway). He was also very fair, and very pale. White-pale. But he was a hottie. I figured, hey. There’s a connection there: younger than your years + pale = hottie. So why are people still clinging to this notion that you have to be tan to be a hottie? Clearly it’s not so. And add the issue of skin cancer and I am absolutely baffled why this trend for tanning continues.
I hope all goes well with the procedure on Monday. Posting the photos online to warn people is a good idea! Why not just make a free webpage of your own to host them? Then you can put the link to the page in your sig line here. http://geocities.yahoo.com/ is just one of the many places that you can get a free webpage.
To revive this thing once again, I had the forehead cancer sliced and diced this morning. As it happened, it was a piece of cake. Two cuts got all of it and sewing it shut was a snap, according to the doctor. I credit all the good wishes sent my way for the ease with which this one was excised.
The doctor’s office gave me printed copies of the photographs; I had hoped for a CD. I will have to see about scanning them and might post them, depending on how the scanning goes. If I do, I will revive this thing again to give the URL.
I am really grateful and appreciative of all the kind words and good wishes. I honestly do believe they helped.
