Orange is a fruit — not a skin colour.
While it was once considered beautiful to rock a deep tan, a group of Marymount Academy students are doing their best to disprove the misconceptions surrounding a “healthy glow” in time for prom season.
Sophia Baldan has been hard at work researching the truths about tanning. She's come up with some awfully disturbing facts — like people who bake under bulbs are 75 per cent more at risk of developing melanoma, which is the most common and most deadly cancer for people age 15 to 29.
Knowing the worrisome facts for herself wasn't enough, though. The Grade 9 student wanted to make sure everyone in her school — especially graduating students — are aware of the dark truths of tanning.
“It's important to inform the student body about the dangers of tanning,” she said. “I hope they respond with a good reaction.”
To help spread her sun safety message, Baldan received a $300 grant from the Canadian Cancer Society. Martin Kabat, CEO of the Ontario division of the Society, presented the young student with a cheque during an April 16 student assembly.
“They are literally going to save lives,” Kabat said. “It's everything you dream about in a charity like ours.”
Through signs and displays at the school, Baldan and her sun safe sidekicks are already changing how students think. Kennedy Bardell, the Grade 12 Student Administrative Council president, said she will be staying away from sunbeds.
“It's safer that way,” said the fair-skinned redhead. “It's a stupid thing to risk getting sick for. I don't think there's any reason to have to get a tan.”
Having conversed with other graduating girls about prom preparation, Bardell said there is a general consensus that everyday skin is in.
“There's a good number of us that are on board with it, going with our natural skin,” Bardell said.
Allison Cameron, the teacher representative for tan-free prom, said she couldn't be happier to see students take a stand against unhealthy sun exposure.
“It seems like healthy is in fashion,” she said.
Having grown up in an era when dark tans were considered the epitome of beautiful, Cameron said. If fact, her own tanning efforts resulted in damaged skin, and that's why she is happy to see a shift in the perception of beauty.
“I learned my lesson too late,” she said, motioning to traces of sun damage on her nose. It was, however, just part of the time.
“It was the cool thing to do. I had a Barbie that would tan when you put her in the sun.”
Now an adult, living with the consequences of her sun-loving days, Cameron said she's glad to see young people making the choice themselves to steer toward more healthy lifestyle choices.
“It's hard,” she said. “You just have to talk about the realities of it to dispel some myths.”
The fact that students are taking on the task themselves is a definite step in the right direction, said Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas.
She has been asking parliament to listen to her pleas to ban tanning for minors for about four years.
Three times she has brought her private member's bill restricting tanning-bed use through the legislature, and three times something has happened to prevent it from passing into law.
Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews said this year, she'd have the bill looked at before prom season, when teens are most likely to use the booths.
“Matthews said 'First, second and third reading before the March Break is a little bit of a dream, but certainly before prom comes,'” Gélinas said. “Those are the two times of the year where a lot of youth use tanning beds.”
Gélinas said it's critical to restrict the use of tanning beds because the World Health Organization has classified the devices in the high cancer risk category.
The bill would ban minors from tanning, create a registry of tanning beds, mandate warning signs be put up next to tanning beds and require those working in tanning salons to receive training and advise fair-skinned clients against tanning.
Quebec, British Columbia and Nova Scotia all have legislation in place restricting the use of tanning beds, Gélinas said.
Tanning myths
The Canadian Cancer Society says there is no safe way to tan.
“Anyone exposing their skin to ultraviolet radiation from the sun or indoor tanning equipment is putting themselves at risk for skin cancer,” the society states.
And skin cancer is a major concern — it accounts for one-third of all new cancer diagnoses in Canada. Some may claim that they are healthier when they have a tan, or that the added colour adds protection from the sun, but these are simply myths, according to the CCS.
“You may think you feel or look healthier with a tan, but make no mistake — when your skin colour changes due to exposure to ultraviolet radiation, you’re damaging your skin and that can lead to premature aging and skin cancer,” according to their website. “Some tanning beds can actually expose you to five times as much ultraviolet radiation as the midday summer sun. So getting a 'base tan' is definitely not a reason to be spending time in a tanning salon.”
But it's prom — and I want to look good!
All the tanning in the world will not change a person's skin tone. It may change the colour of skin, but it won't make an olive tone less olive, nor will it make a “peaches and cream” complexion less peachy, or a porcelain complexion less porcelain.
According to Lona Dabous, owner of Hollywood Shoppe, it's that tone that dictates what colours someone will look best in — not colour.
“You can tan (skin) to golden brown, but doesn't change the underlying tone,” she said. That means When prom girls arrive in the shop, Dabous said they are encouraged to try on a variety of styles and types of dresses, in a rainbow of colours, until they find something that makes them sparkle.
“You want to wear the dress,” she said. “You don't want to dress to wear you.”
For girls who are convinced they need darker colour for prom, a safer option is sunless tanning. Christina Zufferli, business development manager at Skin Medispa, said a qualified aesthetician can help girls achieve a deeper colour by airbrushing a formulation of two safe ingredients onto the skin surface.
They interact, resulting in a non-toxic chemical reaction, to change the skin's colour.
“(It is) a topical application that reacts with your skin's own melanin production and, therefore, does not have any associated risks,” Zufferli said.
It's safer, and one treatment can have the same look as 10 sessions in a tanning booth, Zufferli said. That's why more girls are trying it.
“Due to the growing concern of the carcinogenic effects of indoor tanning lamps, our client-base in this demographic is constantly increasing,” Zufferli said.
“Beautiful skin begins with protection in the early years and education on this topic has facilitated many prom-aged girls in choosing spray tan services for special events.”
