Everyone loves that sun-kissed glow from a sunny holiday abroad. The darker tones in your skin make you feel more attractive and bring out a sense of pride as you flaunt your flesh in your revealing summer clothes. Every glimpse in the mirror reminds you of the good times you shared bathing in the sun, and it is one of the first things people comment on if they haven’t seen you in a while.
No one can deny the joy you receive from your newly glazed skin tone, however, the harm caused by not protecting your skin from the sun’s harmful rays is equally undeniable. Some people take the desire to tan to extremes by using indoor tanning facilities, causing more harm than good.
This article looks at the infamous sunbed and explains why you should avoid it at all costs. Your beauty goals are a marathon, not a sprint, and sunbeds might be the worst thing you can do to your skin and health.
Opulent Aesthetics provides revolutionary treatments that enhance skin quality and natural beauty. Sunbeds offer a short-term benefit at the cost of long-term damage to your skin, accelerating ageing considerably.
We recommend abandoning sunbed use, instead focusing on enhancing your natural glow by improving your skin’s overall health. Let’s find out why.
What is a sunbed?
A sunbed, also known as a Solarium, is a large device that emits artificial ultraviolet (“UV”) radiation, similar to the sun’s rays. They mainly produce UVA rays, but also some UVB rays.
You can either enter a large bed-style canopy that closes with you inside it, or a standing booth. Both contain powerful lamps that produce rays that can be as powerful as 0.3 watts per square meter or between 6 and 15 times stronger than the midday sun in the Mediterranean, depending on the settings you use.
Even the lowest settings will provide a greater exposure than being outside for a short period because the rays are focused directly toward your skin at close range. Sunbed use is normally limited to between 5 and 20 minutes for that reason.
Are sunbeds safe?
The short answer is no. While most people who use sunbeds do so without immediate or severe incident, it is common for users to experience sunburn, especially if they are inexperienced or unsupervised. Sunburn also occurrs when sunbed hosts fail to maintain their equipment properly.
More insidious than sunburn, is the cancer risk. The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers sunbeds a Group 1 carcinogen, equally as dangerous as asbestos and tobacco, making it a leading cause of cancer worldwide.
In the UK and Scotland, it is illegal to allow a person under the age of 18 to use a sunbed, which is a strong indication of the recognised risk of harm from using sunbeds.
What are the risks of using a sunbed?
The main risks posed by sunbed use are increased risks of sunburn, DNA damage, ageing, and cancer. Unsurprisingly, those who experience sunburn have a heightened risk of DNA damage, ageing, and cancer, so protection from the sun and refraining from indoor tanning is imperative.
To illustrate the cancer-inducing effects of UV rays, the US, which has a hotter climate than the UK, diagnoses an average of 9,500 people every day with skin cancer, and two people die of the disease every hour. More people are diagnosed with skin cancer in the US than all other cancers combined.
Studies show that any use of indoor tanning increases the risk of developing basal carcinoma [cancer] by age 40 by a considerable 69%, even if you just use it once. Other common types of skin cancer are squamous carcinoma and the deadliest, melanoma.
The risk of harm is much greater for those who have fairer skin, and people with fairer skin are also the most likely to use indoor tanning devices.
Sunbeds also damage your eye health and suppress your immune system, making it more difficult for your skin to protect itself from malignancies.
Sunbeds and ageing
Sun exposure is the leading cause of skin damage and ageing (photoageing). Using a sunbed, a highly concentrated form of UV exposure, accelerates this damage considerably.
That’s because the UV radiation breaks down the collagen in your skin, damages your DNA, removes moisture, and inhibits your skin’s ability to repair itself. In other words, for the short-term benefit of a “glow”, you are giving up a portion of your youthful appearance by ageing your skin, damage that often cannot be reversed.
If enhancing your beauty is the ultimate reason for wanting to tan, then we strongly recommend taking a longer-term view of your beauty by focusing on improving your skin’s quality, rather than undermining it.
Opulent Aesthetics provides high-quality treatments from its professional studio in Purley, South Croydon. All of our treatments centre around improving your natural beauty by giving your skin what it needs to regenerate, keeping it looking and feeling youthful for as long as possible.
Rather than harming your skin, give Sadie a call today, and she will enlighten you on the treatments availabile to enhance your natural glow and skin quality.
Skin-enhancing treatments
Opulent Aesthetics’ treatments include facial peels, microneedling with exosomes, polynucleotide injections, skin boosters, and anti-wrinkle injections, all of which offer an immediate benefit to your skin’s appearance and feel.
You can apply these treatments on rotation to ensure that your skin is always being restored.
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Must read: The Magical Three – The Perfect Anti-Ageing Cycle
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A brief introduction to your treatment options
Microneedling triggers your body’s natural repair process by creating miniature punctures in the outer layer of your skin, stimulating collagen and elastin production. The micro punctures also increase your skin’s ability to absorb topical products into the deeper layers of the dermis.
Opulent Aesthetics takes advantage of this by applying exosomes, which are cell messengers derived from stem cells, containing essential compounds necessary to rejuvenate your skin. They instruct your skin to produce elastin and collagen, making your skin appear younger and healthier.
Polynucleotides are tiny DNA fragments extracted from salmon milk, which act as bio-stimulators that trigger fibroblast cells into producing collagen and elastin, resulting in healthier-looking skin. These tiny DNA fragments are injected into your skin, causing a cascade of stimulating effects.
Skin boosters are injectable compounds consisting of hyaluronic and amino acids, which hydrate your skin and provide the building blocks for collagen and elastin production. They gradually enhance the quality of your skin over time, smoothing out faint lines. They provide your skin with the hydration it needs to maintain its youthful appearance.
For those who have experienced the harmful effects of sun damage, our anti-wrinkle treatments are a fantastic way to correct prominent ageing lines and wrinkles, particularly from squinting. They are administered through injections and last several months.
Final thoughts
No matter how strong the temptation to use indoor tanning, you should avoid it at all costs. You are only borrowing beauty from the future, and at a rate of interest that heavily outweighs the benefits.
Sunbeds compromise your skin by breaking down collagen and damaging your DNA, undoing all the hard work you put into making yourself look and feel beautiful. Investing in a skincare routine is pointless if you actively undermine the benefits you receive from it with sunbed use.
Moreover, your skincare rituals should not put your wider health at risk, and being a Group 1 carcinogen should be enough of a warning to keep you away from sunbeds indefinitely.
If youthful beauty is your goal, think long-term. Opulent Aesthetics delivers high-quality treatments that enhance your skin quality naturally over time, keeping you young and beautiful for as long as possible.
To find out more or book an appointment, click here. Sadie will be delighted to talk you through your options and welcome you to her cosy studio in Purley, South Croydon.
