• Before Visiting the Tanning Salon
• The Tanning Process
• After You Tan
• Other Common Questions
• ILLINOIS LAW  for Tanning Salons

Why Indoor Tanning Is "Smart Tanning"

Indoor tanning, for individuals who can tan, is an intelligent way to minimize the risk of contracting sunburn while maximizing the enjoyment and benefit of having a tan. Again, we call this SMART TANNING because tanners are taught by trained tanning facility personnel how their skin type reacts to sunlight and how to avoid sunburn outdoors, as well as in a salon.

Tanning in a professional facility today minimizes risk because commercial tanning salons in the United States and in most Canadian provinces are regulated by the government. In the United States, exposure times for every tanning session are established by a schedule present on every piece of equipment that takes into account the tanner's skin type and the intensity of the equipment to deliver a dosage of sunlight designed to minimize the risk of sunburn. The schedule, regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, also takes into account how long an individual has been tanning, increasing exposure times gradually to minimize the possibility of burning.

That kind of control is impossible outdoors, where variables including seasonality, time of day, weather conditions, reflective surfaces and altitude all make outdoor tanning a random act and sunburn prevention more difficult.

Q: Shower or not to shower before tanning?
A: You should shower before tanning for two reasons. Heat from the shower opens pores and enables skin to breathe and take in oxygen vital to the tanning process. Furthermore, showering washes away dirt and dead skin cells on the outer layers, which could filter ultraviolet penetration when you tan. It also allows lotions to penetrate better as dry skin does not tan as well as moist.

Q: Is Eyewear Required?
EYEWEAR is required at the time you check in. If you don’t have it, you may purchase disposable eyewear or you may buy reusable goggles and present them at any tanning salon. By law you may only tan once at any tanning salon within a 24 hour period.

Q: What if I don't know my skin type?
If you don’t know your skin type for exposure levels, we do have a simple test that takes about a minute. Please ask us for it or print out this simple test online.

Examples of Human Skin Types

Q: Why does skin have an odor while tanning?
A: A chemical reaction occurs when your body is exposed to ultraviolet light through either indoor or outdoor tanning. According to dermatologists this is normal and a shower will remove the odor.

Q: Is it possible to contract a disease from tanning units?
A: No, as long as the units are properly disinfected and well maintained.

Q: Are there any dangers in tanning nude?
A: The potential danger lies in the areas of the body such as armpits, backs of legs and buttocks. They can suffer erythema (sunburn) from the same light intensity that will merely tan the rest of your body. Let your clients gradually expose their sensitive areas through short sessions for the first two or three times they tan nude.

Q: What is the itching that occurs on the body after exposure?
A: Itching is usually dry skin or a photosensitive reaction caused by a combination of heat from the lamps, a lack of sufficient melanin in the skin being tanned, and ultraviolet light.

Q: Does ultraviolet light cause cancer?
A: There are no long term studies linking malignant melanoma and ultraviolet light, but some evidence suggest UVB may play a role in skin cancer. Educate your clients about increased risks of skin cancer in people who have experienced blistering sunburns as children. Explain how indoor tanning equipment uses a higher concentration of UVA, the tanning ray, and a lower concentration of UVB, the burning ray, than the sun provides outside. This combination may decrease the risks for skin damage. However, experts recommend that you discourage people who have been treated for skin cancers from tanning without medical approval.

Q: Can you wear contacts while tanning?
A: It is strongly recommended that people who wear contacts lenses remove them before tanning. Although eyewear will protect the eyes and lenses from ultraviolet damage, the heat may dry out the lens and irritate the eye.

Q: Can you tan while pregnant?
A: Ultraviolet radiation from tanning equipment does not affect the tissues below the surface of the skin. Pregnant women should be discouraged from tanning because medical professionals do not know how pregnancy is affected by heat created by electrical components. Women in advanced pregnancy could experience difficulty using tanning equipment. A common way to keep pregnant clients from tanning, is to keep their tanning packages valid until after the baby is born.

Q: Why is indoor tanning more responsible than outdoor tanning?
A: Indoor tanning, for individuals who can develop a tan, is a smart way to minimize the risk of contracting sunburn while maximizing the enjoyment and benefit of having a tan. In a professional indoor tanning facility, trained personnel teach tanners how their particular skin type reacts to sunlight and how to avoid sunburn—both outdoors as well as in the salon.

Tanning in a professional facility today minimizes the risk of overexposure to UV light because tanning devices in the United States are regulated by the FDA. In the United States, exposure times for tanning sessions are derived from a schedule displayed on every piece of tanning equipment. By taking into account the tanner’s skin type and the intensity of the equipment, this schedule helps to deliver a dosage of UV light that is designed to minimize the risk of sunburn. Regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, the schedule also takes into account how long an individual has been tanning, increasing exposure times gradually to minimize the possibility of burning. This kind of control is impossible outdoors, where variables including seasonality, time of day, weather conditions, reflective surfaces and altitude all make sunburn prevention more difficult.

Q: Is tanning natural?
A: Yes. Tanning is your body’s natural protection against sunburn; it’s what your body is designed to do. Anti-tanning lobbyists falsely refer to this process as “damage” to your skin, but calling a tan “damage” is a dangerous oversimplification.

In fact, it’s much like calling exercise “damage to your muscles.” When you exercise, you are actually tearing tiny muscle fibers in your body. At first glance, when examined at the micro-level, this tearing could be called “damage.” But this damage on the micro-level is your body’s natural way of building stronger muscle tissue on the macro-level. So to call exercise “damaging” to muscles would be misleading. The same can be said of sun exposure: your body is designed to repair any damage to the skin caused by ultraviolet light exposure. Developing a tan is your body’s natural way of protecting against the dangers of sunburn and further exposure.

It is the professional indoor tanning industry’s position that sunburn prevention is a more effective message than total abstinence, which ultimately encourages abuse. We believe ours is a responsible, honest approach to the issue.

Q: How does your skin tan?
A: Whether you tan outdoors under the sun or indoors in a professional tanning facility, the tanning process is the same. This natural process takes place when your skin is exposed to ultraviolet light. Here is an overview.

Light is composed of energy waves that travel from the sun to the Earth. Each energy wave can be identified by its length in nanometers, (nm), which is one-billionth of a meter. Light can be broken into three general categories: infrared, visible and invisible. Ultraviolet light is in the invisible light spectrum.

There are three kinds of ultraviolet light: UVA, UVB and UVC. Two of those categories, UVA and UVB, are used in indoor tanning equipment.

Tanning equipment is designed to replicate UVA and UVB produced by the sun, but tanning lamps emit the light in carefully controlled and government-regulated combinations. As a result, the user has control over their exposure. That’s why people face greater risk of overexposure tanning outdoors than they do by using tanning equipment indoors.

Tanning itself takes place in the skin’s outermost layer, the epidermis. There are three major types of skin cells in your epidermis: basal cells, keratinocytes and melanocytes. All play different roles in the tanning process.

Everyone has roughly the same number of melanocytes in their bodies—about 5 million. Your heredity determines how much pigment your melanocytes can produce. Melanocytes release extra melanosomes whenever ultraviolet light waves touch them. This produces a tan in your skin.

The tanning process is your skin’s natural way of protecting itself from sunburn and overexposure. Calling a tan “damage to the skin” isn’t telling the whole story. Your skin is designed to tan to protect itself.

Q: What is a base tan?
A: A tan is the body’s natural protection against sunburn. Your skin is designed to tan as a natural body function.

Each year, millions of Americans visit professional indoor tanning facilities in the spring, prior to sun-filled vacations or outdoor summertime activities, to establish what tanners know as a “base tan.” Doing so enables vacationers to gradually increase their exposure to ultraviolet light without burning.

Q: How is “moderate tanning” defined?
A: Moderation means avoiding sunburn at all costs. How to accomplish this goal will mean something different to each person. That’s one way the indoor tanning industry can help. Salon professionals attempt to educate each tanner on how to best avoid sunburn for their individual skin type.

Q: Is moderate exposure to the sun or ultraviolet (UV) light good for your health?
A: Absolutely. There is a growing body of well-conducted, validated scientific research demonstrating that the production of the activated form of vitamin D is one of the most effective ways the body controls abnormal cell growth. Moderate exposure to sunlight is the only way for the body to manufacture the vitamin D necessary for producing activated vitamin D.

Q: How much vitamin D do you need?
A: A 1997 report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine recommends 200 IU/day of vitamin D for women aged 50 years or younger, 400 IU/day for those aged 51-70 and 600 IU/day for those older than 70 (1) years. However, leading experts believe these recommendations are inadequate for protecting the public’s health. According to these experts, the country faces an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency. New science strongly supports changing the current recommendation to 1000 IU/day for adults.

Q: What is the best way to help the body produce the activated form of vitamin D?
A: Moderate exposure to sunlight is the only way to help the body manufacture the vitamin D it needs. While eating salmon or mackerel and drinking fortified milk or juices is a step in the right direction, it is practically impossible to consume enough of these products each day to obtain the required amount of vitamin D through diet alone. For example, one would have to consume ten glasses of fortified juices or milk every day of the year to meet nutritional requirements without the benefit of sunlight.