Nasal sprays, injections and sunbeds – for many people, the yearning for a tan now outweighs the risks. But why?
Hannah Clark got her first spray tan for her school prom and has never looked back. “I’m not proud of it, but I have used sunbeds,” says the 29-year-old graphic designer from Plymouth. Her goal is “that glow you get when coming back from holiday. You know, when you walk around and people say: ‘Oh, you look really healthy.’ It’s that feeling I’m chasing.”
Clark is far from alone. On TikTok and Instagram, posts with the hashtag “sunbed” number more than 500,000. Last year, a survey from skin cancer charity Melanoma Focus found that 28% of UK adults use sunbeds, but this rose to 43% among those aged 18 to 25. This new generation of younger tanning obsessives will go to extreme lengths to darken their skin. Some track the UV index – the level of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation – and deliberately sit in the sun at the most dangerous times of day. Others use unregulated nasal tanning sprays and injections, which rely on a chemical to darken the skin.
