QuestionHi Griffin! Thanks for advance for any advice you can provide.
This past Friday, my bff and I went to the beach and spent about 4 hours in the sun. The UV index was high and initially we used a tanning lotion with only 10 SPF (big mistake), then switched to 30 SPF later. I got burned pretty badly, but thanks to good aftercare, these burns are already starting to turn into a tan. I would be ok with this, except that I didn't burn evenly at all!! my back got burned in only a few spots, I have white spots on the front of my legs that didn't burn (not sure how THAT happened), and thanks to a few other factors, I have a circle-shaped burn on my belly that looks like I got burned through a giant hole in the front of a shirt. So I was not just burned, but oddly burned as well.
My question is: What is the best way to safely even out this burn and tan the rest of my skin? I plan to exfoliate as soon as my skin has healed enough to do so, but I also want to sit in the sun with a stronger SPF, once or twice a week for short periods of time (20-30 min each side) over the next couple of months to try to even out. Will any of this help?
In short, what's the best way to safely even out an uneven, blotchy sunburn-turned-tan?
Answer I'll warn you. you may not like my answer, but the safest way would be to stay out of the sun unless wearing a good sunblock with uva/uvb protection and let your burns heal and the rest of the tan would fade. I'm not a fan of tanning, when your skin turns darker and tans it is because it's protecting itself against the ultraviolet radiation the suns rays contain. UBV rays (the ones that cause the burns) is directly linked to skin cancer.
Also tanning leads to a break down of collagen and elastin in the skin causing wrinkles and brown "age" spots later on. I'm sorry if you don't like my answer.
Griffin
