Of Gingers and Tans! #shepromotes

Gingers and Tans ~

I was reading over at How Was Your Day about Greta’s trials with being a Ginger. I think “ginger” is a relatively new term, or at least it is to me. I know that when I was a kid I was always called “Red” or “Carrot Top” or some other variation of the two that was nowhere near as original or as funny as the person bestowing said name upon me seemed to think it was.

Like Greta, I am quite pale. In my teens and early twenties, tanning was all the rage, and I tried in vain to achieve that “healthy” glow. Many a wasted dollar was spent in a tanning bed, only to leave me looking like a roasted crustacean with glowing white eyes {yes, I wore the goggles}, truly the stuff of nightmares. However, I have to admit that I truly do miss the relaxing feeling I would get from the tanning bed – but I definitely don’t miss the scorched medium rare skin that I would have for days later.

Once, I even tried spray tanning. I blushed {can people see “blush” through spray tan?} as people admired my new skin tone. “Wow, you are tan!” they would say as I wondered to myself whether they thought I was really tan or really stupid looking. When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t know whether to admire my new tone or to be aghast at the sudden and rapid change. It was like a totally different person was staring back at me. And then if happened. The tan started peeling off! *gasp* I looked like some tie-dyed version of my former self! If I remember correctly it took about 2 weeks to fully come off my skin – no matter how much lemon juice was used as advised by the person who “tanned” me.

Ah, lessons learned.

Now I am content just to be the pale, freckled person that I naturally am. With all of the risks that go along with tanning {redheads have some of the highest risk of obtaining skin cancer – with the pale hair and pale eyes} I have learned that laying in a tanning bed just isn’t worth the risk to me. I think I read somewhere that only like 2% of the population are truly redheads, so that is pretty cool. For a population that claims to highly value individuality, we sometimes try awfully hard to be exact replicas. If you want to tan, how about trying a healthier alternative like one of the at home kits – and moderation! Moderation is key! You don’t want to end up looking like this…