How To Look After Your Tan
Of all the things you can bring back from your summer holiday, your sun-kissed brown skin is possibly the most noticeable one. A tan gives you a healthy glow that makes everyone around you take on a green with envy type of tinge. A great tan says summer and because summer usually comes lots of fun, vacations and outdoor activities, we want to hang on to the feelings … and the look, for as long as we possibly can.
Autumn follows the summer and we find ourselves retreating indoors to escape the cold. The days become shorter and as daylight fades, so do our tans. Don’t despair, you can hold on to your summer look for a little longer with these great tips on how to keep and look after your tan so you don’t have to fade faster than you’ve deflated your beach ball.
1. Slather On The Sunscreen
It may seem somewhat counterproductive to apply sunscreen to protect your tan but there is wisdom to doing this. The worst thing for a tan is sunburn. Apart from ending up in pain, sunburn usually results in your skin flaking and peeling. When the skin sloughs off, it will take your precious tan with it.
2. Take Cool Showers
A hot bath or shower at the end of the day may seem like the perfect way to relax, but hot water causes your skin to dehydrate. This dehydration means dry skin and this leads to peeling. You may not even look like your skin is peeling but it does flake piece by piece and the top tanned layer is the first to go. Stick to cold showers and follow with lots of moisturizer.
Your choice of the body wash is also important here. Choose one with moisturizing oils to stop your skin from drying out.
3. Rehydrate Your Skin
Keep that sexy summer skin by rehydrating it. After showering, give your skin some extra nourishment with a good after sun moisturizer. If you really want to lock that tan in, choose a nourishing moisturizer with essential oils that not only moisturize, but also prevent moisture from escaping your skin. Make sure you maintain your moisturizing routine every day to keep the glow from fading.
4. Enjoy More Sunlight
The more time you spend in the sun, the more tanned you become. OK, so you probably already knew that. But did you also know that all the extra time in the sun helps your body produce more melanin which gives your skin that glowing bronzed tone.
Spending more frequent vacations in sunny locations is ideal, but not always possible. If you can’t vacation as often as you’d like, just make an effort to spend time outdoors in the sun as much as you can.
5. Increase Your Beta-Carotenes
Have you ever heard tales of people taking on an orangey tinge from eating too much carrots? Carrots, along with other orange colored fruits and vegetables such as sweet potatoes, mangoes, apricots and carrots are packed with beta-carotenes which is sort of like a pigment that, when consumed, gives you a golden glow from within. Include as many of these beta-carotene rich foods and you can really keep that tan going.
6. Drink Up
It’s no secret that staying hydrated extends the life of all of your body’s cells and that includes your skin cells. While you can’t prevent skin cells from dying and flaking away, because this is a natural process, you can slow this process down by keeping your insides hydrated. A lack of water will make your skin look dry and the drier it gets, the more skin cells you’ll lose, especially the tanned ones. Don’t let the cooler weather be an excuse to cut back on the cloud juice. Apart from helping you hang on to your summer tan, you should be drinking more water for the multitude of other health benefits.
7. Fake It
No matter what measures you take to keep your tan, it will diminish as the cooler weather sets in. That doesn’t mean you need to sit back and let it happen. To keep that sun kissed look, why not apply a self-tanning lotion or spray? Yes, it is faking it, but who’s going to know? Applying a gradual tanning product after showering in the morning will subtly keep your tan going on indefinitely. Fortunate, many of these products are also great at moisturizing your skin so you get the best of both worlds.
8. Tanning Beds
If you simply don’t have the time to lather on gradual self-tanning products every day, you can spend 10 to 20 minutes a week in a tanning bed. If you find your tan is fading fast, you may also want to do this twice or three times a week. Just as with the self-tanning lotions, no one but you needs to know.
9. Exfoliate
This may seem like a bad idea to keep a tan going. Using exfoliators takes skin cells off and that means the tanned ones too. Exfoliating is great at rubbing off those dead skin cells and bringing those beautiful, healthy cells to the surface. It’s also super important to exfoliate once a week if you plan on maintaining your sun kissed tanned look with self-tanning products.
10. Wear Light Colors
Nothing can drain the color from your face faster than wearing black or other dark colors. To bring out that healthy glow you should opt for light colors or go all the way and wear white. These light colors will accentuate the bronzed look in your skin so wear these colors and give the appearance of a summer tan that is lingering.
If you really hate looking pale and pasty then get the most out of the summer. Go on vacation or just spend as much time outdoors as you can. A natural tan looks amazing and the browner you get, the easier it will be to maintain your tan long after summer has passed. Whatever you do though, tan safely and gradually. Sunburn is no laughing matter and too much exposure can lead to serious skin problems.
