Almost since the inception of indoor tanning, those of us doing business in the industry have been beleaguered by negative press coverage of salon practices and misinformation about UV exposure from tanning systems – often presented with myth, conjecture and spin. IST searches for erroneous, suspect or negative media reporting that adversely impacts our industry – such reports have plagued salon operators and tanning product manufacturers for decades. Although media outlets will seldom admit a falsehood and print a retraction, the IST Watchdog offers responses that can be shared with your salon guests and potential customers, alike.
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What do the cities of Las Vegas, Detroit, St. Louis, MO, Charleston, WV and Gulfport, MS have in common? Well, they made the Top 10 list of America’s Most Sinful Cities.
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According to WalletHub, “Las Vegas isn’t the only sinful place in America. In other cities, bad things happen and stay there, too. From beer-loving Milwaukee to hedonistic New Orleans, the U.S. is filled with people behaving badly. No place is innocent. We all have demons.”
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Really? Well, read on.
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Here’s what WalletHub offered. Specifically, “… in order to identify the darkest corners of America, WalletHub’s data-crunchers compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 31 key indicators of evil deeds.” Wow, that sounds ominous! And somehow, tanning salons were included as a metric for sin. Huh?
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Yep, beauty and tanning salons were included under “vanity.” It’s interesting that gyms and fitness centers that allow folks to slim down and look better, were not included in the metrics. Hmm … so, spending money to maintain your hair and nails and enjoy moderate UV exposure for a cosmetic tan are now considered sins?
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They also looked at “most crimes under the topic of ‘anger and hate’.” Detroit had the most, Irvine, CA the least. “Jealousy,” which considered the most thefts per capita, had Salt Lake City, UT at No. 1 and again, Irvine, CA among the fewest. “Excessive vices” tabbed Madison, WI for most excessive drinking and Charleston, WV as the least. “Lust” tallied the most adult entertainment establishments and not surprisingly, Vegas was on top (Cincinnati had the fewest.) “Vanity” which as mentioned, used the number of indoor tanning salons as the reference metric and had Vegas and Scottsdale, AZ in a tie for first, and Jersey City, NJ in last place. Not sure about that one – I probably should have checked that with Pauly D!
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Well, I took my analysis a step further and did a Google search: “is it sinful to use a tanning bed?” I thought this would yield very few results. Wrong! Results ranged from “is it right for my wife to work at a tanning salon?” to “is tanning a sin?” I won’t get into just how these questions were answered by Google, but they sure did spark debate. Okay, I’ll give you one result: “if God hated tans, he would have gotten rid of the sun.” Wow! No sun, no humans, no us. My head started to spin and I began to digress.
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I’ll leave you with this: Millions of people weigh the risk/benefit of UV exposure for tanning and choose indoor facilities where sessions are controlled, delivered according to individual skin type and a timing system that minimizes the risk of overexposure and sunburn. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is no sin.
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So, spending money to maintain your hair and nails and enjoy moderate UV exposure for a cosmetic tan are now considered sins?
