‘Sun tanning can damage your DNA’: The truth behind a summer TikTok trend
The once ubiquitous beauty routine is back in a new medium. But experts say the same old risks are still there.
Lifestyle
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Sun exposure in the first 15 years of life is a critical factor in determining someone’s skin cancer risk, with teenagers seeking suntans being urged to remember that skin damage caused in their younger years can “follow them for the rest of their life”.
A longstanding trend of sun tanning is having a resurgence, with young people boasting about their suntans and sharing tips on how to make the most of damaging UV conditions on social media.
Multiple videos posted to Tik Tok show young girls, with some appearing to be in their early teens, laying in the sun without sunscreen or sun protection and celebrating on days when the UV rating is high.
Data from the Cancer Council revealed one in five young Australians aged 15-24 years, have tried to get a suntan in the last year with this same age group being found less likely to use adequate sun protection when outdoors during peak UV times compared to 45-54 year olds.
Young women have also been found more likely to seek out a suntan than men.
Cancer Council SA Prevention Coordinator, Diem Tran said the sun tanning trends are “something to certainly avoid” as participants fail to realise how damage caused at a young age can have long-term impacts on their health.
“Any type of exposure that might lead to a change in your skin’s natural colour, we know, is a sign of skin damage, and in fact, DNA damage,” Ms Tran said.
“(Melanoma) is the most common cancer in young people aged 15 to 39 and so it’s quite dismissive of our community to believe that it won’t affect us in our in our youth, or that it’s not something to be concerned about, because skin cancer is a very big issue in Australia.”
Ms Tran also urged South Australians to remember to “slip, slop, seek and slide” on any day that the UV index is three or above.
Fourteen-year-old Mya Nicolitsi headed down Glenelg on Friday to tan, as she has since she was twelve-years-old.
“I try to go every week or two to three times a week, especially now it is summer,” Ms Nicolitsi said.
Despite not being on social media, Ms Nicolitsi said she was aware of certain trends encouraging tanning from her friends and said she likes tanning because “it makes everything look better”.
“Everyone wants tan skin,” Ms Nicolitsi said.
“I do check the UV (before tanning) and I do look for it to be high because I know I am not going to go (tan) if it’s low … but (I know) it’s bad for your skin.
“I do worry about it even though it seems like I don’t … I am aware of the effects and take precautions (like wearing) sunscreen.”
Ms Nicolitsi was not the only one taking advantage of the UV index of 11 on Friday with the beach packed with fellow teenagers looking to catch some sun.
For Adelaide twins, Jacqui and Victoria Hondrou, tanning has been a part of their lives since they were fifteen years old.
But with their fair skin tones, sun tanning was never an option, leading them to seek alternatives like self-tanning.
“It’s just a part of our sort of beauty routine that we do, like, just getting your nails done,” Victoria said.
Now with their own self-tanning brand, Outer Ego by Hondroutwins and a significant following on Tik Tok, the pair are encouraging other young women to opt for a safer alternative to laying in the sun.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of Tik Toks of young girls sort of (wanting) the tan lines, and loving that the UV is over a certain number, so they can get the tan lines from the sun so we come up with creative ways of how to have an alternative to get them, but not using the dangerous sun,” Victoria said.
“There is definitely a better way of doing it, and you can achieve that using self tan, and it takes quicker than you can get it from the sun.”
“Fake it till you make it,” Jacqui added.
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