How Does the Skin Tan in the Sun?
For Caucasian men and women, tanning begins almost as soon as there
is any contact with the sun’s rays. As many of us are aware, sunlight in
fact consists of various types of light, called wavelengths. The
wavelength responsible for inducing the tan is ultraviolet (UV) light.
When UV light penetrates the skin, it begins to damage the cells by
causing the breakdown of DNA. To protect itself against this destructive
action, skin cells called melanocytes release a pigment, called melanin.
Melanin causes the skin to darken in color and helps block out UV rays.
The darker the color the more protected one is from the negative actions
of UV light.
Two types of UV light hit the body: UVA and UVB, each resulting in a
different type of tanning. UVA causes oxidation of melanin in the body.
Melanin darkens producing the tan. This effect is very rapid, and is
visible within the hour the skin is exposed to UV light. UVB light,
however, incites the melanocytes to produce more melanin. This results
in delayed tanning, and becomes visible some 72 hours after exposure.
Delayed tanning typically lasts longer.
Different people have differing capacities of melanin production.
Some people do not produce melanin at all. Such people have very
sensitive skin and should avoid direct contact with UV rays (by using
sun creams, for example). Others (such as non-Caucasians, people of
African origin…etc.) produce high amounts of melanin on a continuous
basis, even with minimal exposure to UV.
History of Tanning
The suntan was not always so popular in the past. In fact, ancient
history reminds us that having dark skin was a sign of poverty. Ancient
Romans totally abhorred dark skin. They would use all sorts of
stratagems to whiten their skin, including lead paints and arsenic
powder (which produced many cases of poisoning). This style continued
for several hundred years. At the time of Elisabeth I, women splashed
themselves with huge amounts of powder. During the Victorian age, men
and women never stepped outside without copious amounts of
protection—hats, veils, and umbrellas.
In the 1920s, there was an abrupt change in mentality. Style icon
Coco Chanel returned from his holidays with a suntan. The craze swept
through the French society, and soon suntans became very popular. Going
to tropical countries for vacations became fashionable for the upper
classes. The poorer classes who could not afford such vacations were now
the ones to be pale! In the 1950s, suntans became a symbol of having
money. Having a suntan in winter meant being able to afford holidays
when the rest of the common people could not.
The culture of the suntan is however mostly seen in the West. For
many peoples in the tropics, a dark complexion remains unfashionable. In
India, for example, women prefer the monsoon season as it gives them the
clear, pale complexion that their Bollywood idols sport. Fair-skin is a
sign of beauty in many parts of Asia |
