Lydia said:
I take vitamin D supplements. It's healthier for my skin than tanning. Everyone who tans, ages their skin a lot. It's not worth it. There's no need to spend time in the sun and age your skin, when you can get a good quality supplement.
They showed an example of a spanish woman who had a lot of suntan from about age 50 that looked like she was about 70 years old, probably.
It is true that a lot of tan ages the skin. However, I am not referring to or have been talking about the people that have a tan because they run 1 hour outside in the full sun every day or longer than that.
Actually.. spending an entire day outside in the sun is overkill. And the people that do tan from it and not get a sunburn do get a lot darker in their skin. Especially if repeated. And blonde hair with such a tan on the skin like a spaniard just looks really really weird.
Last year I did build up quite a color on my arms due to being outside for about 3.5-4 hours a week in pretty much the full sun, with some shade here and there though.. And because I spend a handful of entire days outside in the full sun.. even though I did use sunblock on at least 2 of those days..
And that color was too much for me. I didn't like it.
I took a picture of the difference in color between my arm and leg that day and I may still have it somewhere.
Also, I was sitting in the bus the otherday and it was like a lightbulb turned itself on and I realized pretty much what you said. To be proud of your skin color. To not tan just 'because'.
There are people, white people, here that do have a bit of color. They run outside. They want to be healthy so they exercise. Outside. Most likely without sunblock.
Look what I mean is, not to get brown, but not be white as a sheet of paper either (though it's more beautiful esthetically in some cases)...
I used to cycle to school. 20 min there and 20 min back just wearing a T-shirt. (Morning and evening). Over time that build up and I ended up having some tan, that was clearly visible (though I really did not consider myself to look like a mixed race or whatever, especially due to my still very pale face), but the inside of my arm (wrist side) was not colored. If you are a true white person, you wouldn't really have a lot of color on the inside of your arms to begin with, even in the sun. Though different kinds of exercises give different exposure.
Right now I think I could have done with a little less color on my arms too (Its seriously not even that dark). But it is what it is.
I really love the sun and being outside when it is warm and sunny (Does not need to be entire days). And Im not going to let the 'I want to look so white as a sheet of paper because it is beautiful' or 'because I am proud to be white so I must look like a sheet of paper or a glass of milk' stop me from what I enjoy doing.
So yes that'd mean that I don't look white like a sheet of paper. Fine. You can still tell Im a white person though.
So if I say be reasonable, I meant the above paragraph.