April 14, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Sprays of golden sunshine

by Muoi Tran

The traditional colors of spring are easy to spot: pretty pastels and luscious greens. But more and more, deep golden browns are becoming popular shades in the spring palette -- in the form of perfect tans.

For many, like 26-year-old Amy Harvey, the change in seasons marks the beginning of the perennial quest for the ultimate tan, while trying to avoid risks such as burning and pealing.

"Honestly, a tan makes me feel better about myself, and it makes me look healthier as a person," Harvey said. "Everyone who is sun-kissed looks healthier."

This year, however, the naturally fair-skinned blonde, who works in software sales at Informatica in Redwood City, has her work cut out for her. Not only is she on the lookout for a bronzing solution for herself, she's also in search of a quick and safe tan for her 12 bridesmaids for her upcoming July wedding.

Harvey is neither red-faced nor burnt up with frustration, though. Her solution: the Mystic Tan machine, a popular brand of full-body, automated spray-on tanning booths that can get the job done in a few seconds -- from 12 to 18 seconds on the front and back to be precise.

The Mystic Tan is very much about instant gratification, said David Maselli, owner of Sole di Paradiso in the Palo Alto's Town & Country Village, where Harvey plans to treat herself and her bridesmaids to a prenuptial tan.

"Tanning beds give you a natural tan, but Mystic Tan gives you an appearance of a natural tan," Maselli said.

The only concern about the automatic spray-on tans, warned Maselli, is that people think that they are protected from the sun afterward.

"A (normal) tan is a body's defense against the sun; it's a natural process," he said. "Sometimes people who get the Mystic Tan have a false sense of security," and they don't remember to put on sunscreen and end up burning.

Today, more than 2,100 salons in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Spain and Australia, have installed the $30,000 machines. Although the price is comparable to the higher-end tanning beds, Maselli said that his Mystic Tan booths have been paying off. Each treatment costs about $30, with discounts given by some salons for package deals.

First prototyped in 1998, the Mystic Tan booth rapidly gained in popularity in 2003 since it was featured on shows such as "Friends" and "Live with Regis and Kelly." It is a shower-like stall that mists the disrobed tan-seeker with a three-part solution: a water-soluble bronzer, Aloe Vera, and DHA (dihydroxyacetone) -- an FDA-approved external tanning agent derived from beets or sugar cane.

To prepare for misting, customers apply a special "barrier" cream to hands and feet to minimize discoloration in these drier areas and don a shower cap and goggles. Once inside the stall, it's as simple as pressing a green button to activate the spraying mechanisms. The tanner then steps out of the booth and towels down any excess moisture before dressing.

That's when the magic begins. The tanning agent, DHA, begins to interact with proteins in the skin to form a golden brown color within the next four to six hours -- which will last from four to six days. Tanners are warned not to shower and to stay away from activities that might cause sweating for the first four hours after being misted to achieve best results.

The process has nothing to do with melanin, the skin's natural tanning cells, which lie deeper in the skin than the proteins involved in spray-on tanning.

About two years ago, Sharon Reyes, owner of Ingrid's Suntanning in Palo Alto, decided to install a Mystic Tan booth in her salon. Because of the rise in demand, which has peaked to about 300 Mystic Tan clients per week, she had to get another one last year around August, she said. Things go pretty smoothly, Reyes said, but once, a nervous newbie forgot to turn around and received two sprays to the front. Reyes immediately sent the client back into the booth for two sprays to the back.

Kim Glenn, a 52-year-old mother and volunteer, who first tried Mystic Tan at Reyes' salon last spring, said she and her 14- and 15-year-old daughters are hooked. Having grown up in Southern California where "suntanning was king," Glenn said she's very concerned about the damaging effects of harmful ultraviolet rays of sunbathing and traditional tanning beds. "A lot of my friends in Southern California have melanoma (a type of skin cancer)," she said.

No licensing is required to own and operate these automated spray-on tanning booths, but Margaret Clarke, owner of the Ross McArthur Salon in Menlo Park, said she feels confident that her Magic Tan machine, a competitor of Mystic Tan, is safe because workers from the dermatologist's office across the street come in for tans.

"I'm done with sunbathing and frying my skin," said Joan Bonwood, a medical assistant who works at the Menlo Dermatology Medical Group. Before she went on vacation to Mexico, she went in for the Magic Tan at Clarke's salon. "I was happy wearing my bathing suit and shorts. I didn't lie out in sun, and I swam with sunscreen on," Bonwood added.

"I think it's a safe modality," said Dr. Thomas Hoffman, a dermatologist at the Menlo Dermatology Medical Group. "I know the procedure and I would recommend that for someone to look tan over sunburnt. The agent involved is DHA and back in the '60s, the old formulas made you look yellow, but now you go into the 'car wash' and you look tan."

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