The run-up to the summer months is probably my favourite time of the year. The season is in full swing, the order books and phone lines are busy, salons are buzzing and as we all know, when the sun shines, everyone just feels that little bit better about themselves and life in general!
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The positive benefits that sunshine brings to our lives must surely be one reason why our industry is overwhelmingly full of happy people – year-round sunshine and working in an environment that makes people look and feel better – that has to be a double-up on positivity in the workplace!
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So, it’s perhaps no surprise that this is also the time when those who prefer to walk on the dark side – the tanning naysayers – choose to focus their efforts on trying to keep people out of the sun and away from tanning beds. Much of the anti-tanning lobby is a cult. Afflicted by a suffocating groupthink, intolerant of critics, it hounds dissenters and threatens to excommunicate forward-thinking medics who have seen the light. This cultish behaviour always reminds me of a line from Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984: “The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
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In the UK and in many other European countries, education about responsible tanning is at the core of all good salon operator protocols and as such, they and their staff obviously know a thing or two about responsible tanning in the sunshine, as well! It has always been a bizarre concept to me that people don’t recognise or won’t accept that whether tanning on a tanning bed or in the sun, a photon of energy is the same. The key and overriding advantage of a tanning bed is that it delivers a controlled dose of sunshine in tandem with the advice of a trained, professional operator to eliminate risk of burning. After all, we are in the business of tanning, not burning, aren’t we! And the same simply cannot be said for the sun!
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Surely, it is simply ignorance on the part of the tanning naysayers who campaign against tanning bed use, but packs a suitcase come summer and flies off for a sun-drenched holiday!
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So, surely, it is simply ignorance on the part of the doubter, the walker on the dark side, the tanning naysayer who campaigns against tanning bed use but packs up the suitcase come the summer months and flies off to sun-drenched locations for a holiday where the intensity of the sun and the amount of time spent in it would far exceed a responsible indoor tanning programme in a professionally run salon. If it’s not ignorance, then what else can it be?
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Of course, there could be potential for a problem if that level of ignorance should gather any momentum with the general public. The thing is that as hard as naysayers might try, there are so many mixed messages about tanning to confuse and frustrate people, that they simply end up turning to those they can trust for reliable information and then, make up their own minds. And when it comes to indoor tanning, the public can rely on the advice of professional, trained operators who triage customers – and that is why with the ongoing professionalism of our industry, business is good and tanners are happy.
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As professional operators, we of course have a duty to look after our salon guests. By doing so with consistent protocols for responsible tanning, having trained staff and well-maintained equipment and salons, we are investing in their future, as well as the future of our businesses and our industry.
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So, what are the tanning naysayers investing in … or maybe the question should be, who is investing in them?
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