Should I learn to love my skin?

Question

I am like SO white. Its not even funny. All of my friends are SUPER tan. Not just like normal tan, SUPER tan. Two of them make fun of me I know they are just kidding around and they only make fun of me because they are insecure but It still makes me embarrassed and hurts my feelings. Im really trying to just get it through my head....its just a skin tone and alot of people are like this...the only think I don't know anyone else like this. Should I continue experimenting with tanning lotions that turn me orange? or should I just get over it and live with it?

Answer 1

I think females are most beautiful when they are in their own skin (literally and figuratively). I suppose that is why I find sun-tanned females least attractive. It seems so fake and most often their personality is not far behind. White skin is very beautiful—look at Madonna, Kate Moss, Marilyn Monroe, Eva Evangelista and all the gorgeous Mythological Goddesses. White, black, brown, yellow, whatever…the most beautiful thing a female can wear, is confidence. Now that is radiating!

Answer 2

I understand completely. I am super-white. Maybe not natural redhead white, but close. I barely tan at all, just freckle. When I was a teenager, I tried hard to tan, but it never worked. Since tanning never worked, and there's a bit of skin cancer in the family, now I just avoid the sun like a good super-white girl and try to accept myself as I am. At least in 20 years I'll have many less wrinkles than my tan peers. However, sometimes I put some self tanner on my pasty-white legs.

Answer 3

I am really super pale, too. When I was younger, tan was in, and i can't tan. I turn red and then pale again. But now being pale is okay, too. On some level, you do have to accept your personal coloring. But at the same time, I don't think it's wrong to make the best of what you have, nor do I think it's wrong to change something you don't like. Just make sure you are not saying something stupid to yourself like "Oh, I HATE my color, I would be happy IF ONLY I could be this other color."

If you really want the glow, I would say look for someone who does party tans (the spray on kind) It's not cheap, but the way they put that stuff on, it looked btter than any other fake tan stuff I ever tried. They can mix their palette down do it is just the right amount of glow for you.

Also, try brush on powdered bronzer. Again, you will have to get this adjusted for your your skin tone, but I have been really amazed at the illusion of color that a good brush on powdered bronzer can give. My latest make up discovery is Larenim, www.larenim.com. They carry colors for all colors, pale to dark and everything in between. I am guessing they might have a good bronzer.

So I guess my answer is: accept yourself, but also give yourself permission to make changes.

Your friends' insecurity is not really your problem. There's a whole lot of political nonsense about white vs. color. But you are what you are, and they are what they are. They need to accept themselves, too.

As a really pale person like myself, I am sure you have admired the lovely color that many women around you have. In some ways we really can't know what it's like to be dark. I always wanted to look like my best friend Gina. She's Italian, and in the summer she can get really dark, but in the winter she's almost as light as I am. I always thought she had the best of both. So unfair! People of color wanting to be pale, and pale people wanting some color! It's like blonds wanting to be brunettes and vice versa.

Answer 4

My recommendation is to be happy the way you are. If you really do want to look a little more tan, consider a sunless tanning lotion or spray. I really, really do NOT recommend tanning to anyone! I live in Florida, and I've seen too many people with sun-damaged skin. I live near one of the best cancer hospitals in the country, and I've heard about patients in their 20s coming in with skin cancer. Yes, 25 year olds do die from skin cancer (melanoma). Even if you don't get cancer, you will definitely look older much faster with heightened sun exposure. Do yourself a favor--stay out of the sun!

As for whether you look good without a tan, yes you can and do look great without one. True, this tends to fly in the face of popular thought, but you'll look fantastic all the way into your 60s or older while your tan friends might look like crap in their 30s or 40s.

Answer 5

It's true. Those who tan age faster, in terms of skin, than those who don't. It may not seem like it now but your "super tan" friends are going to be very super wrinkly. Wrinkles and fine lines begin after 25. They're hastening the process and will be reaching for "anti-aging creams" before you do if you protect yourself from the sun now.

It's funny how people think it's just natural that in the 30s and 40s, women need all these "anti-aging" stuff when really, they just need to wear sunscreen in their early years.

Besides, preventing wrinkles is easier than getting rid of them. I say embrace your fair skin. You have no idea how many people in the world would die for light skin.

Answer 6

I grew up in a country where ever one is dark, and everybody loves white skin because that is what looks different. If you go there, you'll be a beauty queen just for your skin colour. Just think about it. white people can use some tricks to change their colour, but dark skin people have to live with their colour for the rest of their lives because there is nothing they can possible be do about it. Why shouldn't white people learn to live with their colour to? Just think that you are judging your colour based on a very small group of people, and that is not subjective nor helpful to you. Be happy because you have a healthy skin and everything else is only appearance. some years latter you'll laugh about being bother by this, you'll see.

Answer 7

I'm super-white as well. My best friend says I look like a ghost (she calls me Britta the Ghost) and my own mom calls me pale-face. It doesn't really bother me. Most of the time I like my fair skin. On the occasion that I do want some color though, I use Jergens self tanning lotion, in the lightest shade, of course :P and it works well for me.

Answer 8

Learn to love the skin you're in, because you will always look younger and healthier than everyone else as you age. I'm 37 and very white also and I look like I'm in my twenties because I don't have lines, wrinkles, blotchiness, or sun damage. You'll really appreciate your skin tone when you're older. If you want to give your skin a little glow, just dust a little bronzer over your forehead, nose, cheeks, and chin. Good luck!

Answer 9

Live with it. Think of the legions of the bronzed having to check in to the skin cancer clinics because they couldn't leave their skin enough alone, and had to get "that last extra bit of tan".

It's really not worth going through life looking like Miss Tango, or David Dickinson's daughter.

Answer 10

I think you should except your skin color because its who you are why try to be different to impress others or youslef its know good just ignore what people say about your skin besides your friends that say hurtful things about your skin is a wrong group of friends to hang with.You should love yourself and skin and not feel down about it. Your skin is the color it is probably because your parents probably most likely have white skin to and that's how you got it.You should not be judgmental or negative of your skin as others should not be that way to you.your no different then any one else because of your skin you can walk talk eat and what ever else just like them so don't worry girl chin up and be happy about your skin not sad about it.