Like many people, I think I look my best with a healthy tan. Yes, I know that sounds like an oxymoron, but I don’t care. I am a child of the 70s and 80s who ran around outside and swam in pools and hung out at the beach from June until August and never wore any sunscreen. Baby oil, of course, but sunscreen?! I don’t think I ever heard that word before I became a mother in the mid-1990s.
Now that I am in my fifties I am paying the price for my frivolous time in the sun during my younger years. I have sun spots from sun damage on my face and body. Do I regret my foolish sun-worshipping? Never! Luckily, my dermatologist has never found any questionable moles; hopefully it stays that way. I do use sunscreen all the time now, including a higher SPF for my face. However, I still spend as much time in the sun as possible, and my mood improves when I start turning that golden color.
This year as the long, dreary winter dragged on, all I could think about was feeling the warm sun on my face, shedding my pasty skin color for few months, and sweating while I accomplished this coveted achievement (sweating in the sun is pale skin crying as it bakes, right?). The months passed, the warm sun seemed further away, and my golden brown skin was a distant memory. In March one of my sisters suggested I try a self-tanner she had been using, Bondi Sands. Self-tanner? Really? Images of Trump flashed before my eyes. That is never a good sign. Was the risk worth it? Well, I am glad I gambled because her self-tanner was awesome! I applied it using a mitt, so it wasn’t streaky. The smell wasn’t bad either. I even put it on my face. Right away there was a glow- I was so happy that it felt like the glow came from within me.
For the past couple of months, I have used that self-tanner once or twice a week. As I slather it on, I wait expectantly for that rush of goldenness to wash over me. Ahhh.. I know it’s not a real tan and it is going to fade in a day or two; but it makes me happy, and I feel like a golden goddess- okay, maybe I went too far there. Beach babe. I feel like a beach babe.
Soon the summer will be here, and I will do my responsible sun-bathing. I will sit in the sun as much as I can while protected. When I look in the mirror, I will have that healthy glow and my parts that jiggle will not be as noticeable (that is what I tell myself anyway). There are so many worse things I could be doing to my body to get that happy feeling…
Life is too short. Apply the highest SPF sunscreen you can find, slap on a bathing suit, and sing those words so full of truth from the Beatles, “Here comes the sun, and I say, it’s all right…”
