This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at C of C chapter.
Most of us know that life just seems to go better when you’re tan. You feel better, you have more confidence, and you even look skinnier, and feeling this way shouldn’t just be saved for the three months of summer we have when we’re able to go to the pool or beach every day. Which is why a lot of college women have taken to the tanning beds. Yes tanning beds are associated with skin cancer, but if you have to choose between possibly having skin cancer later in life and having bronzed skin, the choice is obvious. Well, bronzed skin and herpes that is.
Dermatologist Dawn Marie Davies told Yahoo News that she’s seen “acquired bacterial infections, warts, and herpes infections from tanning beds.” Because the heat from the tanning beds is not enough to kill the virus, it actually provides a breeding ground for skin infections causing bacteria, faecal bacteria, the herpes virus, and the wart-causing virus. Now, unless you want to explain to your boyfriend why the genital warts you gave him was all in the name of looking your best, here are the top five self-tanners. You know, just in case.