Back in my teenage years and early ’20s having a tan was everything. Growing up in Michigan, there was nothing better than coming back to school after a long vacation week with a golden tan to show off during the winter months. It meant you went somewhere fun and sunny. It was the best souvenir you could get. I spent my summers laying out at the pool with my friends, only using a tanning oil with 8 SPF in it. In the winter, I’d get a tanning package and lay in the tanning bed a couple times a week. Winter was much more bearable when you had a nice tan. After college, in my mid-20’s, I started to worry about the effects my skin might have from all those years of tanning. I started to slow up on my sun exposure and test out spray tans. Around the time of my wedding and some of my friend’s weddings, I got a few spray tans for the big events. Unfortunately, those tans always left me looking orange and blotchy. We’ve all seen the spray tanning episode of Friends and seen what happened to Ross. That’s something I needed to avoid.
