Home Tanning Beds

Completing your souvenir shopping before you leave for vacation seems a bit like cheating. As does finishing that much-anticipated beach read before your foot even hits the sand. Yet with so many people crawling into commercial and home tanning beds before their vacations begin, the same rules don't seem to apply to the vacation tan.

A solid foundation
Building a base tan with home tanning beds or commercial tanning beds before exposing skin to the sun's rays does indeed reduce the likelihood of sunburn, which can cause severe and irrevocable damage. However, there is a dermatological concern: tanning beds expose the skin to UV rays, which are detrimental to the skin. If dermatologists had their way, we would spend our vacations hiking through mine shafts and lounging on the beaches of underground lakes, as even minimal, sun-screen protected exposure to the sun can result in skin damage.

Spiteful sunbathing
In practice, we do no such thing. During the summer months, Americans defiantly turn up in droves to lie prostrate in worship of the blazing sun, which causes the health industry to whittle down their "Don't do it" mantra to the more permissive, "If you're going to do it, do it safely."

Perhaps the easiest way to get the sunburn protection of a base tan is by using home tanning beds. Starting around $1,500 for a traditional home tanning bed, and about half that price for tanning canopies, it's something of an investment. But consider the benefits:

• One-time fee. At $5 to $10 (or more, depending on the tanning bed) per session, the costs of commercial tanning beds can add up quickly. Especially if you have more than one person using it, a home tanning bed eventually pays for itself.
  
• Convenience. With access to home tanning beds, you can tan when it's convenient, with no waiting.
  
• Tan maintenance. Home tanning beds make it easier to sport a healthy-looking tan year-round.
  
• Hygiene. As off-putting as it may sound, commercial tanning beds can have issues when it comes to cleanliness. Would you rather have someone making $6.50 an hour sanitizing your commercial tanning bed, or clean your home tanning bed yourself?

Throw caution to the sun
Buy your souvenirs whenever you like. Go ahead and finish your vacation book before you embark. But regardless of how you prepare for your days in the sun, be sure to use sunscreen with UV protection (and plenty of it), even if you're hitting the tanning bed before you hit the beach. Application is the one rule that always applies.