I’m naturally pretty pale and don’t get much sunlight, I feel like I look like shit unless I get just a little bit of tan. What most people would consider just a healthy looking “baseline”. It also puts me in a better mood although that may be entirely psychological.

When I was younger I used to intentionally tan for short durations, but now I realize that’s harmful so I just embrace the cave gollum look

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viking123 11 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I am white as paper, probably one of the palest people and I live in Asia and often get comment that I have the dream skin. While back at home my parents were teasing me about being a ghost and doctors asking am I sick. Interesting how it changes on cultural basis

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brap 8 hours ago | parent [-]

I think it’s more than just cultural. Yes, it’s definitely a factor, and there are cultures and there were times where paper white was considered beautiful.

But I think on some level we naturally associate severe paleness with being sick or non-social.

I say this as the original commenter

	▲	viking123 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Not sure really I am not an expert on this, where I live now and look at some of the wealthy people, they are extremely white like on purpose. Some of the leading politicians too. In fact, it's a bit difficult to find a very dark skinned celebrity or a powerful politician here, there are some but not many at all. To me personally, I like naturally tan skin (like Asian natural skin) > natural white skin > artificial tanned skin > heavy tanning. Tanned white people just do not look good to me. If you asked someone else where I live now, I bet answer would be different To me, something like RFK Junior skin looks disgusting. I always wince when I see a picture of him, like you could make that into leather bag.

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prmoustache 11 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Why don't you just spend time outside a little bit?

	▲	retrac 9 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Exposing large amounts of skin to the sun has other health risks when it is freezing outside. :) Vitamin D deficiency is very common in Canada particularly during winter. The government recommends that everyone intentionally seek out vitamin D rich foods, or to take a supplement.

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scotty79 8 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Just eat/drink a lot of carrots instead.

	▲	notKilgoreTrout 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Orange is the new tan?

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api 12 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The mood is probably part light and part vitamin D. The latter can be supplemented. The former can be reproduced with a full spectrum bright lamp or brief sun exposure in the morning.

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yunwal 12 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I mean sort of but you should probably just get some sun if you can. There’s such a thing as too much tanning, sure, but getting no sun is not healthy either.

	▲	nemomarx 11 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Be sure you're taking care of your skin doing it, though. Get the good European sunscreens and so on, you don't want to age yourself prematurely.

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hexbin010 11 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I've tried all kinds of Vitamin D/bright bulbs/staring at the sun over the years and they do nothing for my mood