Two French celebrities can be credited (or blamed) with the transformation from pale to tan. In the 1920s, as fashions were freeing women from confining clothes, thanks in part to designer Coco Chanel, she inadvertently gave the fashion world another new trend: while cruising from Paris to Cannes, she obtained a suntan, probably by accident. Soon, fashionable women everywhere threw away years of tradition to be tanned.

Tanning, dermatologists have found, makes the skin give off endorphins. These opioid compounds make a person feel good. They are the reason endurance runners report "runner's high." Could there really be such a thing as tanner's high?

Various reports suggest that frequent tanning may be a type of substance. Researches says the idea came from skin cancer patients who couldn't stop tanning!

Addictive Tanning Can be Dangerous!
It is well known that tanning can be addictive. Exposure to tanning salon rays increases the damage caused by sunlight. This occurs because ultraviolet light actually thins the skin, making it less able to heal.

Unprotected exposure to utltraviolet rays also results in premature skin aging. A tan is damaged skin that is more likely to wrinkle and sag than skin that hasn't been tanned. Over time, you may notice certain undesirable changes in the way your skin looks and heals. According to some skin specialists, skin that has a dry, wrinkled, leathery appearance early in middle age is a result of UV exposure that occurred in youth.

Tanning Safely!
How do you tan safely? Self tan with a Sunless Tanning Lotion! You get great golden tan without the dangers of Sun burns or cancer!

Recent research shows, furthermore, that while DHA provides only minimal SPF protection against the sun's shorter-wave, UVB rays, higher DHA concentrations that turn the skin darker may provide extra protection against the sun's longer-wave, UVA rays, which, like UVB, are linked to premature skin aging and skin cancer.

But you can't assume you're adequately UV-protected just because your skin turns darker. At best, the DHA in self-tanning lotions offers protection equivalent to an SPF of only 2 to 4. The Skin Cancer Foundation maintains that SPFs of 15 or higher are required for adequate protection. So even if a product has a high concentration of DHA, it must also contain an SPF 15+ sunscreen if you want to be properly protected. And remember, even if the lotion contains such a sunscreen, the protection lasts only a couple of hours, not for the duration of the color change.

So the Best way is to self tan with a sunless tanning product! Find out more about Self Tanning!