Polar bear tanning.

What's the lowest temperature at which you've tried tanning outside?
We had a cold snap recently, but the sky was totally blue, and the sun was bright and inviting,🌞
-- so I decided to lie out on my roof deck, totally nude like on any sunny day at high noon, and see what it would be like. It was 4C/39F. The very occasional light breezees felt really chilly, but as long as the air was still, the bright sun felt warm and totally comfortable. 🌞🥰
I lay out for half and hour, and was glad I'd given it a go.😄

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samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

How badly did you burn?

onewithshoes · 26-30, F

@samueltyler2
I never burn at all, because I'm always very careful of my time in the sun until I'm very well tanned.
I have a friend who deliberately lets herself burn, thinking she'll get a better tan that way, but I'd never do that.
I'm a whole lot darker than she is by midsummer anyway.

samueltyler2 · 80-89, M

@onewithshoes dermatologists will explain that even a tan means your skin is damaged. As a kid we were told to go out and get sun. Now I am having precancerous lesions removed at least once a year, and had one nasal and one squamous cell cancers.

Heartlander · 80-89, M

@samueltyler2 I am so lucky on that front. When I was a teen and worked at the town pool, it was a common belief that just letting ourselves burn at the beginning of summer was the way to thicken-up for the long summer ahead. A bit of discomfort at first, and maybe a bit of skin peel, but once over that hump a pleasant shirtless summer ahead and a body that could take it, rewarded with a leathery tan by summer's end, to repeat the next year. How many summers did I do that? 4? ... 5?

God am I lucky.

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