Rodney

Saw a news feature on tanning a couple of years ago, and its effects. Most interesting part: they quizzed a bunch of movie and TV actors, and most of them used artificial tanners and stayed out of the sun as much as possible, to preserve their skin. The segment even went on location to some kind of beach shoot in which the "tanned" actresses spent all the time when they weren't shooting under umbrellas. So, the wise pros don't tan. People should be aware of that. They _do_ try a variety of different tanners until they find the one that works best for their skin tone, and that's a little work. But it's worth it for a healthy "tan" that doesn't age the skin.

I live in a big surfing town; we have a lot of young surfing pros and wanna-bees in the 16-30 range, and about every couple of years some well known local surfer -- usually a blonde guy with naturally fair skin -- dies young of skin cancer. As a reaction, some of the local parents are real anti-tanning Nazis, especially if their kids are fair. I can't say I blame them.