In my previous entry I mentioned mass-market self-tanning and bronzing products but I also want to think about services.
1. The Spray Tan Booth.
I find this one particularly interesting. Watch the first 30 seconds of this video. Is it really that easy to spray tan? The reason why I chose Mystic tan is because appears to be the most prominent brand for this service. Strangely enough the locations for Mystic Tan are where people typically get more sun anyways. Mystic Tan has the most stores in California where the weather is warmer all year round. There are four California locations: Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield and Riverside. These are all large university locations. Is the tanning trend geared towards college students? Click here to see the map of Mystic Tan locations.
2. Tanning Beds.
Tanning beds give you high exposure to UV light from the top and the bottom. I find these to be really creepy because they remind me of coffins!
I didn’t realize how popular tanning is until I counted how many tanning salons there are around this town. I am living in a small suburban town of 18,000 people and there are six tanning salons open for business. This really surprises me because I didn’t think there would be such a high demand for tanning services. Again, I wonder if the tanning trend is geared towards college students as the college students do make up most of the town population.
Tanning is a fashion trend. The ultimate fashion authority – Vogue Magazine, proves this statement. In 1929 they said, “the 1929 girl must be tanned,” (1). This mantra has stuck ever since. Today, there are many ways to tan but because of the risks involved overexposure to UV-light including (but not limited to): wrinkles causing women to age faster and cancer tan-aholics have turned to the safer self-tanning alternative. This has created a large market for self-tanning products. The products provide a variety of ways to appear more tan. From manipulating light to using colored topical creams so a sunny complexion can be achieved anywhere, anytime. I’d like to discuss the invention of products designed around the tanning fad. The following are all mass-market products.
1. Self-Tanning Gel.
It seeps into your skin and makes the pigment darker quickly.
2. Tinted Lotion.
This is a new product. It appears to be a mix of lotion and cover up. You can move the dial to match your complexion. It just sits on the surface of your skin.
3. Estee Lauder.
This is an entire line to keep you looking sunkist all year 'round. I think it's called "Bronze Goddess". These are also topical products.
4. Bronzer.
Dark pigment powder that you apply to key areas on your face to make yourself appear more tan. It's used instead of blush. Washes off.
5. Lotion.
This product gradually makes your skin look more tan. It is used to even out your skin tone. My mother uses this on her legs all year 'round because she fears having to wear a skirt and having to reveal "pale pasty" legs.
6. The Backless Dress.
This is used to show off your tan. Perhaps this is why people try to tan evenly on the beach. Backless tops were popular when I left Beijing last summer but girls wore it with a contrasting tank top underneath.
I'd really like to find out why people buy these products and how frequently the buyers use these products. Do you like the way it works?
[1] Segrave, Kerry
2005 Suntanning in 20th Century America: McFarland & Company.
The sun is responsible for life on Earth. The process in which living matter on Earth absorbs the sun is called photosynthesis. The diagram above is an example of plant photosynthesis. Plants would not grow without it; animals and humans would be in the dark. This is why humans have worshiped the sun in ceremonies and modern housing allows us to soak in its glory in sun rooms. What are the scientific benefits to direct sun exposure?
Sun exposure has many health benefits. Scientific American 1921 said, “the rays of the sun can be used for curing many skin diseases and that the sun baths are advantageous even to those who are in perfect health has long been well known to the general public,” [1]. According to the article the sun is thought to have healing powers that help to cure a variety of ailments. This is called heliotherapy. Heliotherapy is a practice that emphasizes the healing benefits of the sun without burning. It has been shown to be effective in curing diseases specifically: tuberculosis and rickets. Both tuberculosis and rickets are results of Vitamin D and E deficiencies. “The sun acts as a bactericide, killing the Tubercular bacillus organisms that cause the disease,” [2].
The following is a comprehensive list of overall health benefits of sun exposure according to Oasis Tan an indoor tanning salon in Washington.
1. Decreases blood pressure
2. Lowers resting heart rate
3. Increases cardiac output
4. Increases energy and endurance
5. Increases muscular strength
6. Lowers blood cholesterol
7. Increases resistance to infections
8. Increases oxygen capacity of blood
9. Increases tolerance to stress
10 Increases adrenaline in tissues
11.Increases sex hormones.
12.Increases the skin's resistance to infections
13. Reduces the symptoms of PMS. [3]
Works Cited [1] Treatments of Tubercuosis: The Lung Association. [3] Kime, Zane R. 1980 Sunlight. 2nd ed: World Health Pubns. [2] Segrave, Kerry 2005 Suntanning in 20th Century America: McFarland & Company.
I’ve been doing a little reading on sun tanning in America to try to understand what American’s views on beauty were before sun tanning became popular. Perhaps, if I understand how the shift in ideals I can start to understand how it began and developed. I compare the history of American ideals of beauty to my experience in China. These are the findings of my project:
Before the 1920s suntans were considered to be a mark of the working class. Upper class women wanted to differentiate themselves by being pale. A lily white complexion was a sign of beauty. A tan would permanently ruin a woman’s beautiful complexion by making her skin coarse and unrefined [1]. Class differences also reinforced racial differences.
I can certainly relate to this view. Upper class Chinese people are typically have a fair complexion because they work in the office during the day. They also tend to be from the North. Lower class Chinese people are typically darker because they do manual labor where they have more exposure to the sun.
White races were meant for white collared jobs as black races could only obtain jobs under the white collars. An American surgeon Charles E. Woodruff explains the link between color and biology. “Men have evolved to the zone where they lived…blacks at the tropical, brown and olive-skinned races further into the less fiercely lighted zones and the blonder, whiter races at the cloudy north” [1]. From these assumptions Woodruff reinforces job niches. Blacks live in the tropical zones where they are exposed to more sunlight and can therefore work under the sun longer than whites since they are biologically more fit for it.
In China a North- South gap exists. This is similar to the North-South gap in America where the South sees the North as rich and snobby and the North see the South as poor and uneducated. Southern Chinese people are darker because they lie closer to the equator where the natural resources are richer for crops to grow. In China, a tan would bring Northern Chinese people closer to becoming Southern Chinese. This is undesirable. Southerners are seen as more biologically fit as farmers working under the sun longer than Northerners. Tanning would not go over well in the North.
Here is a list directly taken from Wikipedia to help emphasize differences between Northerners and Southerners:
The stereotypical Northerner is:
* Is taller and bigger
* Has lighter skin (some have purely white skin)
* Has small, slit-like, and/or slanty eyes with single eyelids (i.e. an epicanthal fold)
* Has a longer rugged face (possibly with considerably more facial hair than southerners)
* Speaks a northern Mandarin dialect
* Eats wheat-based food rather than rice-based food
* Is loud, loyal, boisterous, warm-hearted, open, and prone to drunkenness and "thunderbolt" displays of emotion, such as anger
The stereotypical Southerner:
* Is shorter and smaller
* Has darker skin
* Has large, almond-shaped eyes with double eyelids
* Has a smooth, round face
* Speaks a southern dialect such as Wu, Hakka, Yue (Cantonese), or Min
* Eats rice-based food rather than wheat-based food
* Is clever, calculating, wealthy, hardworking, and prone to "mincemeat" displays of emotion, such as brooding melancholy
(Note that these are very rough stereotypes, and are greatly complicated both by further stereotypes by province [or even county] and by real life.)
In America, a suntan would bring whites closer to becoming blacks and ruin the neat hierarchy of jobs and money. [1]However, sun tanning has become a trend endorsed by celebrities.
Tanning became popular in the 1920s and most people will credit Coco Chanel with this trend. They say that she started to use bronze mannequins as sun tanning was becoming fashionable. From there the trend took off…
Works Cited [1] Segrave,
Kerry 2005 Suntanning
in 20th Century America: McFarland & Company.
