Just Spray A Little Sunshine
By Maria Puente, USA Today
Strip,
spray, rub and go. You can be bronzed in minutes by a machine
that sprays you, or from a more labor-intensive session with someone
who "paints" you with an airbrush. No more turning contortionist
by trying to cover hard-to-reach parts of your body with a self-tanning
lotion. No more smelling like a chemical factory from foul lotions
and sprays.
Even
better, dermatologists say, it's as safe as applying makeup. And
there's no more worrying about getting skin cancer from the sun
or from the ultraviolet rays of conventional tanning beds and
booths. Sunless tanning is just that: It stains the skin, leaving
the appearance of a tan that lasts four to six days. But you still
have to wear a sun block if you want to avoid harmful effects
of the sun.
"It's wonderful," says Samantha Youngman, 28, a writer at Us Weekly
in New York. She got her airbrush tan at Brazil Bronze in Soho;
it took about 10 minutes. "It's a good, safe way to get a bit
of color. And no streaking!"
So
maybe it is a little strange that people are paying good money
to imitate the multiracial hues of sun-kissed Brazilians and other
Latinos, but that's fashion for you. In fact, spray tanning first
came to widespread attention last year when the golden glow of
the celebrity tribe — Jennifer Lopez, Jennifer Aniston, Christina
Aguilera, to name a few — turned out to be fake.
What's
fashionable is usually lucrative. About 28 million Americans go
to a tanning facility in any given year, according to the Indoor
Tanning Association. For the past 20 years, UV tanning (in "beds"
that unnervingly resemble high-tech coffins) was the only kind
of salon tanning available, and eventually it grew to a $5 billion-a-year
industry, despite warnings from dermatologists about the dangers
of prolonged exposure to UV rays.
"UV
light causes tremendous damage to the skin, not only in terms
of aging but in being the main risk factor for all three types
of skin cancer," says Constance Nagi, chief of the dermatology
division at the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine.
"For those who think they look or feel better with tan skin, the
spray tan is very safe, though temporary."
The
UV tanning industry initially viewed spray tanning as a threat;
now it's embraced as a boost for revenue and clientele. Dallas-based
Mystic Tan, which just sold its 1,000th machine at $30,000 each,
more than doubled its sales in the past year.
Of
the estimated 25,000 tanning salons in the USA, most of them offer
sunless tanning or will be offering it soon, the Indoor Tanning
Association says. |
