The Wake

As spring break approaches, many students will head to local tanning parlors for that perfect “base tan” to get the best bronze glow possible while on vacation. Many students continue to tan and take advantage of tanning specials this time of year, even though the dangers of tanning are widely known.

“Our business increases about 50 percent [around spring break],” says Grant Vaith, owner of the Planet Beach tanning salon on Como Avenue in Dinkytown. “People start tanning for spring break in February and tan for the months afterward to maintain their tan,” he says.

Vaith says that spring break is so busy because it brings new customers to the salon as well as increases the tanning frequency of regular customers. “If you provide good customer service they will come back,” he says. “We hope that they come back, and they do.” Vaith also says that many people come to his salon as referrals from previous customers.

Planet Beach offers new customers three free tans and Vaith says that this offer is used year round, but especially around spring break time. “We’ll let customers get a base tan on us,” he says. “Most of the time people end up buying a package [after coming in for free].”

Neon Sun tanning salon in Stadium Village has special packages geared toward younger people. According to their Web site they offer 10 percent discounts on products and packages to students, specials for sorority and fraternity members that will pick your group up in a limousine, as well as specials for bar and nightclub employees.

Vaith says that most customers are not worried about the risks tanning can pose to your health because “people that worry about that would not come into our salon.” Planet Beach does a skin-type analysis for new customers to determine their exposure time, he says.

According to the American Cancer Society, skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the United States. Melanoma (the skin cancer associated with tanning beds) affects more than 59,000 people in the United States each year and kills more than 7,000. Melanoma is becoming more common in the U.S. and other countries around the world, according to World Health Organization statistics, and the popularity of tanning and tanning beds is part of the reason.

“The tanning industry has changed and made a lot of progress,” Vaith says. “Things are a lot better than 20 years ago.” Tanning salons are now paying attention to skin health with monitoring how long someone is in a bed as well as having better maintenance of the UV bulbs, he says.

But according to the American Cancer Society, “there is no evidence that tanning in a bed is any safer than tanning in the sun—in fact, some tanning beds release much stronger UV light than the sun does. And at least one study has shown that women who tan in beds are more likely to develop melanoma than those who don’t.”

Currently, the American Academy of Dermatology is pushing the World Health Organization’s recommendation for tanning bed requirements. These include not allowing minors to use tanning devices, placing a surgeon general’s warning on all tanning beds and not allowing tanning salons to advertise certain beds as “safe.”

For those worried about the risks associated with tanning, most salons offer a Mystic or similar spray-on tan that is free of UV rays, but these types of tanning packages do not provide any type of “base tan.”

Of course, the safest way to tan is not to tan at all and to wear sunscreen at all times. Most college students do not do this because “damage does not show right away so young people aren’t aware of the damage,” the AAD says.

Despite the health risks, tan skin holds onto its appeal. “Definitely people want to look good and feel good,” Vaith says. “Winter is a long time.”