danya
March 16th, 2004, 06:44 AM
Sarah Ward is proud to say she's a cheater: She looked tan at a time when the least amount of sunlight was hitting Alaska, making it impossible to get a deep bronze naturally.
Like the rest of us, Ward lives in a land of pasty people. But she planned to vacation in Hawaii, where pasty stands out like a white beluga whale swimming in a sea of orcas.
"I didn't want to look like the halibut Alaskan that was immediately identifiable on the beach," said the Anchorage resident.
She spent her high school years baking her skin on tanning beds. But she's pushing 30, and sometime between her teens and adulthood she needed several moles removed. What Ward wanted now was color without skin damage.
Local businesses say they can offer that in a spray can. In December, Ward visited Melonie Goodhue at Polished Image, a downtown salon. Goodhue sprayed Ward's skin from head to toe with a solution of dihydroxyacetone. DHA creates a brown color several hours after application. The color comes not from the damaging ultraviolet rays of sun exposure or tanning beds but from an external chemical reaction the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deems safe.
"Tanning is actually your skin's way of telling you you're injured," said Anchorage dermatologist Dr. Margretta O'Reilly. "(Spray-on tanning) is actually a very safe alternative to that pigment-type appearance without damaging the skin."
Spray-on tanning started gaining popularity in the Lower 48 in recent years and began flourishing in Anchorage within the past few months. People here -- many of them young women -- have made appointments for spray-on tanning to add color to their special events and vacations, especially their upcoming spring-break getaways. Some tan their whole bodies, while others tan just their faces -- to avoid wearing makeup -- or their torsos to show off a strapless gown.
"This is popular with high school girls," Goodhue said. "When it was junior prom, I was just swamped."
Goodhue is not the only one offering the service. She and Roxanne Risner, who works at All About You salon, spray on the tanning solution with handheld airbrushes. Grab-A-Hex Tan, a Jewel Lake business, uses a booth that automates the application.
Michelle Maher has been offering airbrush tanning since summer at Peninsula Beauty Supply in Soldotna. She also sells the tanning solutions to people in Juneau, Fairbanks, Barrow and elsewhere.
O'Reilly said she trained in Utah, where spray-on tanning was popular, and she has been waiting for the technology to make its way north. She has never had a spray-on tan, though she has used sunless tanning creams that add color in a similar fashion. She recommends the procedure to people addicted to tanning beds that use ultraviolet rays known to cause premature aging in skin and deadly skin cancers. The American Cancer Society says more than 1 million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States.
Dr. Jayne Fortson, another Anchorage dermatologist, also said she doesn't consider spray-on tanning harmful, calling it a better option than lying under the sun.
"It's really perplexing as to why people are doing this (sunbathing) to improve their appearance when it's actually giving them wrinkling and weathering their skin," O'Reilly said.
Tanning with sprays is reversible, unlike tanning with UV rays, she said.
"The UV damage that is done to those cells -- that's something you're going to carry with you long after the color's gone," O'Reilly said.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Dermatologists say spray-on tanning is safer than sun exposure, but does it offer a natural color?
Here's the harsh reality: If too much DHA is used, you will wear an orange color instead of the beautiful bronze you were hoping for, Risner said. The result will look different on different people, she said, and some spray-on tanners don't come back for second applications.
"I've had some people say they don't think the color looks natural," Risner said.
Based on personal experience, Risner disagrees. She tans herself every week using spray-on solutions and says it makes her skin glow the way it did when she sunbathed years ago. Risner, whose father died from melanoma, said she colors only with DHA now.
Ward said her spray-on tan appeared too dark the first day but very natural afterward.
"If I had a lot of money, I'd get it done every 10 days or so," she said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved using DHA as a color additive in 1977, said Dr. Linda Katz, director of the FDA's Office of Cosmetics and Colors. Since then, it's been found in sunless tanning creams and lotions sold in local department stores and now in spray-on tanning solutions.
DHA is a colorless three-carbon sugar, Katz said. When sprayed or wiped onto skin, it interacts with amino acids in the dead, outermost skin cells. That chemical interaction creates a brown color that resembles a tan. The onset of color is not instantaneous, so salons often add a bronzer to the solution. The bronzer produces a glow right away but is washed off the next day to reveal the brown color created by DHA. As skin cells flake off, so will the color, Katz said. Tanning agencies said DHA tans can last from five to 10 days, depending on skin type and how often someone sweats, showers and uses hot tubs or saunas.
Katz said DHA is safe, and the likelihood of it seeping deeper into the skin layers is small. The American Academy of Dermatology calls sunless tanning products made from DHA "a healthy alternative to achieving a golden glow."
O'Reilly agrees they're safe. She wouldn't recommend them for pregnant women, saying she and other dermatologists take a conservative approach with women bearing children.
The FDA's safety approval, however, comes with a catch: It allows only external use of DHA. The federal agency doesn't know what affect the substance has internally, so it cautions against getting it into eyes, mouth or mucous membranes like those of the nose. To prevent that from happening, the FDA recommends that businesses offering spray-on tanning also offer protection for the face.
However, covering the eyes, nose and mouth would make it difficult to tan people's faces, Goodhue said. She said people typically hold their breath and close their eyes during application.
When people come to Risner, they receive Q-tips to swab their lips and inside their ears and nose after the spray is applied. She also hands them a cap to cover their hair; the spray won't change their hair color, she said, but might coat it with a sticky residue.
People using the spray-on Mystic Tan booth at Grab-A-Hex also receive a cap and creams to cover fingernails and palms to prevent orange-colored stains, said Natalie Bale, who works at the tanning business. The salon also offers goggles and other cover-up devices for those who want them.
PICKING YOUR TAN
There are pluses and minuses to weigh before choosing a spray-on tan from a booth or a handheld airbrush. With the booth, you have privacy to tan in the nude. You're the only one in the booth when the spray starts.
Bale said people start by watching a short video explaining how the booth works. Once they step inside, the booth sprays their front and back in less than a minute.
"It takes about 42 seconds for the average person," Bale said.
"People like instant gratification."
With the airbrush, you trade privacy for precision. Many bare all in front of the person doing the spraying. Risner said people can wear swimsuits or underwear during the process but risk staining their clothing. (Men coming to Risner, however, have no choice: No swimsuit, no spray.)
Airbrush tanning is more time-consuming than a booth is. If you stand in front of Risner's airbrush, you'll need 10 minutes to be sprayed and another 10 minutes to dry yourself with a hair dryer.
With time comes control, however. Risner said she can aim the airbrush at the exact areas that need coverage and adjust the solution and spray to control how dark the color gets.
Risner and Goodhue said they like clients to prepare beforehand. Those receiving airbrush tans should shower and exfoliate their skin hours before arriving. They also should wear loose clothing afterward because the bronzer can stain. They're told not to shower or sweat until the next day. Risner tells the story of a client who washed dishes after being airbrushed, leaving her with a tan body and white hands.
The cost for spray-on tanning varies with the salon. Goodhue charges $25 for a full-body tan. Risner tans the face only for $15, part of the body for $20 and the whole body for $30. Grab-A-Hex is offering an introductory special for two booth tans for $30, but the cost might jump to $30 for one tan, Bale said.
It's difficult to compare the cost of spray-on tanning with that of a tanning bed, local businesses say, partly because spray-on tanning yields full color in one or two visits while tanning beds must be used a number of times before a lily-white person develops a tan. Grab-A-Hex charges $6 for one tanning bed session, but individual visits become cheaper if they're purchased in a package of multiple sessions, Bale said.
Regardless of where you get your spray-on tan, you can expect little if any protection from the sun's ultraviolet rays. For that reason, dermatologists and local businesses say people who have DHA-induced color need to wear sunscreen outside.
"You definitely still need to protect your skin," Goodhue said.
"I think that you should always wear SPF, regardless of the color of your skin."
By ANN POTEMPA
Anchorage Daily News
Like the rest of us, Ward lives in a land of pasty people. But she planned to vacation in Hawaii, where pasty stands out like a white beluga whale swimming in a sea of orcas.
"I didn't want to look like the halibut Alaskan that was immediately identifiable on the beach," said the Anchorage resident.
She spent her high school years baking her skin on tanning beds. But she's pushing 30, and sometime between her teens and adulthood she needed several moles removed. What Ward wanted now was color without skin damage.
Local businesses say they can offer that in a spray can. In December, Ward visited Melonie Goodhue at Polished Image, a downtown salon. Goodhue sprayed Ward's skin from head to toe with a solution of dihydroxyacetone. DHA creates a brown color several hours after application. The color comes not from the damaging ultraviolet rays of sun exposure or tanning beds but from an external chemical reaction the U.S. Food and Drug Administration deems safe.
"Tanning is actually your skin's way of telling you you're injured," said Anchorage dermatologist Dr. Margretta O'Reilly. "(Spray-on tanning) is actually a very safe alternative to that pigment-type appearance without damaging the skin."
Spray-on tanning started gaining popularity in the Lower 48 in recent years and began flourishing in Anchorage within the past few months. People here -- many of them young women -- have made appointments for spray-on tanning to add color to their special events and vacations, especially their upcoming spring-break getaways. Some tan their whole bodies, while others tan just their faces -- to avoid wearing makeup -- or their torsos to show off a strapless gown.
"This is popular with high school girls," Goodhue said. "When it was junior prom, I was just swamped."
Goodhue is not the only one offering the service. She and Roxanne Risner, who works at All About You salon, spray on the tanning solution with handheld airbrushes. Grab-A-Hex Tan, a Jewel Lake business, uses a booth that automates the application.
Michelle Maher has been offering airbrush tanning since summer at Peninsula Beauty Supply in Soldotna. She also sells the tanning solutions to people in Juneau, Fairbanks, Barrow and elsewhere.
O'Reilly said she trained in Utah, where spray-on tanning was popular, and she has been waiting for the technology to make its way north. She has never had a spray-on tan, though she has used sunless tanning creams that add color in a similar fashion. She recommends the procedure to people addicted to tanning beds that use ultraviolet rays known to cause premature aging in skin and deadly skin cancers. The American Cancer Society says more than 1 million new cases of skin cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States.
Dr. Jayne Fortson, another Anchorage dermatologist, also said she doesn't consider spray-on tanning harmful, calling it a better option than lying under the sun.
"It's really perplexing as to why people are doing this (sunbathing) to improve their appearance when it's actually giving them wrinkling and weathering their skin," O'Reilly said.
Tanning with sprays is reversible, unlike tanning with UV rays, she said.
"The UV damage that is done to those cells -- that's something you're going to carry with you long after the color's gone," O'Reilly said.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Dermatologists say spray-on tanning is safer than sun exposure, but does it offer a natural color?
Here's the harsh reality: If too much DHA is used, you will wear an orange color instead of the beautiful bronze you were hoping for, Risner said. The result will look different on different people, she said, and some spray-on tanners don't come back for second applications.
"I've had some people say they don't think the color looks natural," Risner said.
Based on personal experience, Risner disagrees. She tans herself every week using spray-on solutions and says it makes her skin glow the way it did when she sunbathed years ago. Risner, whose father died from melanoma, said she colors only with DHA now.
Ward said her spray-on tan appeared too dark the first day but very natural afterward.
"If I had a lot of money, I'd get it done every 10 days or so," she said.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved using DHA as a color additive in 1977, said Dr. Linda Katz, director of the FDA's Office of Cosmetics and Colors. Since then, it's been found in sunless tanning creams and lotions sold in local department stores and now in spray-on tanning solutions.
DHA is a colorless three-carbon sugar, Katz said. When sprayed or wiped onto skin, it interacts with amino acids in the dead, outermost skin cells. That chemical interaction creates a brown color that resembles a tan. The onset of color is not instantaneous, so salons often add a bronzer to the solution. The bronzer produces a glow right away but is washed off the next day to reveal the brown color created by DHA. As skin cells flake off, so will the color, Katz said. Tanning agencies said DHA tans can last from five to 10 days, depending on skin type and how often someone sweats, showers and uses hot tubs or saunas.
Katz said DHA is safe, and the likelihood of it seeping deeper into the skin layers is small. The American Academy of Dermatology calls sunless tanning products made from DHA "a healthy alternative to achieving a golden glow."
O'Reilly agrees they're safe. She wouldn't recommend them for pregnant women, saying she and other dermatologists take a conservative approach with women bearing children.
The FDA's safety approval, however, comes with a catch: It allows only external use of DHA. The federal agency doesn't know what affect the substance has internally, so it cautions against getting it into eyes, mouth or mucous membranes like those of the nose. To prevent that from happening, the FDA recommends that businesses offering spray-on tanning also offer protection for the face.
However, covering the eyes, nose and mouth would make it difficult to tan people's faces, Goodhue said. She said people typically hold their breath and close their eyes during application.
When people come to Risner, they receive Q-tips to swab their lips and inside their ears and nose after the spray is applied. She also hands them a cap to cover their hair; the spray won't change their hair color, she said, but might coat it with a sticky residue.
People using the spray-on Mystic Tan booth at Grab-A-Hex also receive a cap and creams to cover fingernails and palms to prevent orange-colored stains, said Natalie Bale, who works at the tanning business. The salon also offers goggles and other cover-up devices for those who want them.
PICKING YOUR TAN
There are pluses and minuses to weigh before choosing a spray-on tan from a booth or a handheld airbrush. With the booth, you have privacy to tan in the nude. You're the only one in the booth when the spray starts.
Bale said people start by watching a short video explaining how the booth works. Once they step inside, the booth sprays their front and back in less than a minute.
"It takes about 42 seconds for the average person," Bale said.
"People like instant gratification."
With the airbrush, you trade privacy for precision. Many bare all in front of the person doing the spraying. Risner said people can wear swimsuits or underwear during the process but risk staining their clothing. (Men coming to Risner, however, have no choice: No swimsuit, no spray.)
Airbrush tanning is more time-consuming than a booth is. If you stand in front of Risner's airbrush, you'll need 10 minutes to be sprayed and another 10 minutes to dry yourself with a hair dryer.
With time comes control, however. Risner said she can aim the airbrush at the exact areas that need coverage and adjust the solution and spray to control how dark the color gets.
Risner and Goodhue said they like clients to prepare beforehand. Those receiving airbrush tans should shower and exfoliate their skin hours before arriving. They also should wear loose clothing afterward because the bronzer can stain. They're told not to shower or sweat until the next day. Risner tells the story of a client who washed dishes after being airbrushed, leaving her with a tan body and white hands.
The cost for spray-on tanning varies with the salon. Goodhue charges $25 for a full-body tan. Risner tans the face only for $15, part of the body for $20 and the whole body for $30. Grab-A-Hex is offering an introductory special for two booth tans for $30, but the cost might jump to $30 for one tan, Bale said.
It's difficult to compare the cost of spray-on tanning with that of a tanning bed, local businesses say, partly because spray-on tanning yields full color in one or two visits while tanning beds must be used a number of times before a lily-white person develops a tan. Grab-A-Hex charges $6 for one tanning bed session, but individual visits become cheaper if they're purchased in a package of multiple sessions, Bale said.
Regardless of where you get your spray-on tan, you can expect little if any protection from the sun's ultraviolet rays. For that reason, dermatologists and local businesses say people who have DHA-induced color need to wear sunscreen outside.
"You definitely still need to protect your skin," Goodhue said.
"I think that you should always wear SPF, regardless of the color of your skin."
By ANN POTEMPA
Anchorage Daily News