By Briana Arrington

bca008@latech.edu

 

Potatoes are not the only thing the French taught us how to fry.

History shows the sun-tanning phenomenon began in the 1920s as a trend in popular French culture and made its way into American hearts, and skin, shortly after.

“My grandmother was born in the ’20s, and she has often told me how she and her friends would spend hours a day ‘worshipping the sun,’” Stephanie Ledet, a graduate student of psychology, said.

According to an article from the Journal of Aesthetic Science said two French celebrities are to blame for initializing the sun-tan craze.

According to the article, French celebrity Coco Chanel inadvertently gave the fashion world another new trend while cruising from Paris to Cannes, France, where she unintentionally obtained a sun tan.

The trend of sun tanning was then idolized by French women everywhere, and the craze increased with the popularity of French singer Josephine Baker and her caramel-colored skin.

By the 1940s, women’s magazines encouraged sun tanning with advertisements of dark makeup and tanning oils. However, dark skin was still not considered the norm. According to an article in Vogue in 1948, “White skin looks cherished and positively pretty, not merely and negatively unburnt.”

Sunscreen was developed in the 1950s, but only for cosmetic purposes; the harmful effects of tanning were still undiscovered.

Sun tanning had reached the pinnacle of its popularity in the 1970s when medical science began to recognize the dangers of the sun.

“It wasn’t until 1979 that the FDA concluded that sunscreens could help prevent skin cancer and developed the first rating system for SPFs,” Norman Price, a dermatologist, said.

In 1985, alarmed at the growing incidences of skin cancer, the American Academy of Dermatology became the first medical society to start a public education skin cancer campaign, warning the public about the dangers of overexposure to the sun.

In 1988, the AAD held a consensus conference on photo aging and photo damage. The conclusion from the conference was “there is no safe way to tan.”

However, the indoor tanning industry had already taken off and, “by the 1980s, America was baking in them,” Price said.

Sun tanning is also prevalent in Lincoln Parish.

“We are especially busy at the salon around this season,” Caty Jones, an employee of a local tanning salon and a sophomore speech communications major, said. Jones said spring is their busiest season because people want to be ready for the summer.

“It seems as though as soon as it begins getting warmer, people start working on getting a tan,” Jones said. “Everyone wants to be tan and looking good already by the first time they get into a bathing suit.”

On the darker side of sun tanning, according to a study done by WebMD, skin cancer rates are still growing today. The study predicted 9,200 Americans died from skin cancer and 7,300 from malignant melanoma in 1998.

“We do our best to regulate our customers from using the sun bed too much, laying too long, or not using their eyewear, but we can’t make sure they are always taking the safest precautions once they go in the room,” Jones said.

Although skin cancer and government-issued warnings at tanning salons are widely known, some people still never really see the light.

Jones said ultimately being tan and being safe is left up to the discretion of an individual.