"Go Tanning"? Who me??

Tanning! Whether you love it or hate it, you have to do some form of tanning before stepping on the competition stage. For me, tanning is my favorite part of contest prep! LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVES IT!

I use my mid-day as a break from work to get a 15-20 minute nap in the nearest tanning bed. I know the information out there strongly states that tanning bed are not safe. Therefore, I am not advocating them but I do appreciate that we have the freedom of choice. I believe it is a personal decision that you must come to on your own.

 I've gotten some strange looks walking into a tanning salon. Kind of like " You do know this is a tanning salon, right?"
I'm always pleasantly greeted with a "Hi! How are you? How may I help you?"
I always reply, "Fine thank you! I'm here to tan and YES. I've tanned before!"

I come ready with my little eye wear, lotion and my earphones. Show me to my "well lit coffin! I can take it from there!"

All important eyewwear!

Earphones- couldnt leave home without them!

Brozing lotion!

Why is it important to be tanned for your competition?

There are a variety of reasons, but, the most important is the lighting used on the stage. The lights used for stage illumination are very different from the light we use in our normal, every day lives. Your skin will look severely washed out under the lights if you’re not protected with a tan. It’s much easier for the judges to evaluate your body condition and muscle development when you’re being compared to the other competitors on stage.

So how do you achieve the dark, rich color?

Everyone achieves it a bit differently, but I cannot stress enough that EVERYONE must tan. EVERYONE. If you think you're not dark enough, put one more coat on! Get another set of experience eyes to evaluate your tan to make sure it's ready for the stage lights.

Even though I am naturally brown skin I still tan. I tan using a combination of beds and automatic spray tanning starting 3 weeks before competition. I "tan" in some form every 2-3 days. I exfoliate my skin everyday leading up to the last two days before my competition. Two days before the competition I either do a custom spray tan with a woman  I like to call her my "secret weapon". She's AMAZING!!! Before happening upon my 'secret weapon' I used Jan Tana. I repeat this one day before the comeptition.

It has taken me some time to come up with the right combination to achieve the perfect tan, but after a few tries I believe I've gotten a system that works well for me!

Happy "Tanning"!