Hooked on the Sun: The Science of Why We Tan, and How to Protect Your Skin

Why a tan feels so good

We have known for decades that the sun damages our skin, and yet tanning is more popular than ever. The answer to why we keep doing it turns out to be partly biological, and once you understand the biology, protecting your skin gets a lot easier.

For this conversation we brought together three people who spend their careers on exactly that question: Dr. Doris Day, a board-certified dermatologist in New York; Dr. Shannon Humphrey, a board-certified dermatologist in Vancouver; and Dr. Christopher Pavlou, an aesthetic physician in Vancouver.

Human nature. We all know it's bad for us, but we keep doing it. We'd rather feel good today than dodge a risk that feels far off. A tan now beats a wrinkle or a cancer scare decades from now, at least to the part of the brain making the call.

Biological addiction. Sun exposure is genuinely addictive. When UV hits the skin, your skin makes melanin to protect itself (that's the tan), and your skin cells release beta-endorphins that reach the brain and lift your mood.

When our skin is exposed to sun, our body makes beta-endorphins, these feel-good hormones. But they actually engage opioid reward systems. So these are the same reward systems that other addictive behaviors activate in our brain, and we see some of the similar patterns.

Dr. Shannon Humphrey

That reward system explains why tanning behaves like other addictions: people do it knowing it's harmful, struggle to cut back, and some feel real low mood when they can't, an effect seen more in indoor than outdoor tanners. It doesn't hit everyone equally, but the biology is real, and naming it helps.

There are aesthetic reasons too. A tan hides redness, marks, and breakouts, which is why some people swear it clears their skin. (The sun is mildly immunosuppressive, so there's a kernel of truth there, but it's not a treatment.) And culturally, a tan still reads as travel, leisure, the good life, even though, biologically, it's just proof your skin has already taken a hit.

The myths worth dropping

The base tan. Start with the big one: a base tan protects you. It has just enough truth to be dangerous. Yes, a tan gives you a sun protection factor, but only about 2 to 4, when you want 30, 50, or higher, and to earn even that, your skin has already taken the damage. The protective base tan is a myth.

Intentionality. Then there's the idea that it only counts if you meant to tan. UV doesn't care about your intentions. It passes straight through clouds, which block only about 20 percent of it, and Dr. Day says some of the worst burns she sees come from cloudy days. You can do everything right, but if you tan, the tan counts.

Social media has turned tanning into a competition. Dr. Day has watched "tan-maxing" take hold, with teenagers showing off how dark they can get.

Now there's a thing called tan-maxing, and I see so many posts of teenagers showing off how much color they can get. So I came up with the line that nothing looks more beautiful in your 50s than sun protection in your 20s. The tan-maxing craze is really a problem, and social media amplifies these trends.

Dr. Doris Day

What's happening beneath the skin

Here's the part most people never see. UV radiation is absorbed by the skin's two main cell types, keratinocytes and melanocytes, and it damages their DNA. The skin scrambles to repair that damage, throwing off inflammation and free radicals along the way, both of which age skin faster and raise cancer risk over time. The melanin it makes—the tan—is a defense against further DNA damage. In other words, the tan is the alarm, not the protection.

The damage is also cumulative, and most of it comes from incidental, everyday exposure rather than dedicated beach days. It builds long before you can see it.

We can have the equivalent of 1,000 hours of UV exposure and never have experienced a sunburn, yet those processes are still taking place. We're still getting the breakdown of collagen, still developing pigmentation. It's about striking a fine balance between enjoying the sun and minimizing the cumulative effects it has over many, many years.

Dr. Christopher Pavlou

This plays out differently across skin tones. More melanin means more natural protection, but no one is immune. For deeper skin tones, Dr. Day says the bigger worry is evenness of tone over time, especially as skin changes with age and certain medications increase light sensitivity. The good news is that sunscreens have caught up: tinted formulas with iron oxides shield against visible light, a real trigger for melasma, and there are now options that work on every skin tone without a pasty cast.

Smart treatments and protection

Summer-friendly options. A common assumption is that you have to pause everything in summer. You don't. A few things are off the table if you have a tan, like aggressive CO2 laser resurfacing, but plenty of treatments suit the season. Energy-based devices that work below the surface without disturbing the top layer, like Sofwave, Ultherapy, and Thermage for skin tightening, are summer-friendly, as are neuromodulators, fillers, and biostimulators like Sculptra and Radiesse.

There are some things you definitely don't want to do if you have a tan, like CO2 laser resurfacing. But treatments that use ultrasound or radiofrequency energy that go through the skin without affecting the outer layers are great to do in the summer. So are neuromodulators, fillers, and biostimulators. The summer is a great time to get treatments done.

Dr. Doris Day

Summer is also a smart time to start collagen work, since the results build over months. And the bigger principle, from Dr. Pavlou, is that consistency beats intensity: patients who keep up steady, year-round maintenance need far fewer corrective treatments down the line.

By maintaining collagen levels in the skin, it leads to a greater improvement in skin quality and resilience, not only across the seasons, but for the course of your lifetime. Biostimulators like Sculptra and Radiesse are great options to do in the summertime, with minimal downtime and gradual improvement. It's actually a great season to be doing collagen-stimulating treatments.

Dr. Christopher Pavlou

One caution, though it's not a hard no: treatments like IPL and certain pigment-targeting lasers call for care if you've had a lot of recent sun or an active tan. Caution isn't the same as avoidance, so talk to your provider.

The bigger point the experts kept returning to is the line between sun protection and skin protection. SPF is the foundation, but it's one layer of a wider approach: behavior (timing your outdoor hours, hats, sunglasses, protective clothing) and a routine that keeps working after you've left the sun, since oxidative stress continues into the night. That's where antioxidants come in—vitamin C, vitamin E, ferulic acid, resveratrol—alongside a healthy skin barrier, because compromised skin is more vulnerable to UV damage.

And the single most common mistake? It's not skipping reapplication, it's using too little in the first place. Most people apply a fraction of what they'd need to actually hit the SPF on the bottle. So if you do one thing, apply more, every morning. Dr. Humphrey's rule of thumb: a thin stripe along two fingers is about right for your face and neck.

On overwhelm, all three experts said the same thing in different words: consistency beats complexity. You don't need a cabinet of new launches; you need a few science-backed products used every day. The foundations barely change brand to brand—sun protection, antioxidants, barrier support, and inflammation control—so a simple three or four step routine, morning and night, does most of the work.

From burning to sun intelligence

If there's one idea to take from this conversation, it's a shift in mindset. Your skin doesn't just remember the days you spent in the sun, it remembers the days you got burned. The move is away from the passive did-I-burn checklist toward actively heading off the damage that stacks up over years. Dr. Humphrey has a name for it.

It's shifting from this all-or-nothing sun avoidance mentality towards a sun intelligence mentality. Being smart, protecting your skin, getting outside, being active, weaving in the right aesthetic treatments at the right time to keep your skin aging well and to reverse whatever damage you've accumulated over time. It's an educated, empowered approach to sun exposure, but also skin health.

Dr. Shannon Humphrey

None of this is about hiding indoors. Sunlight lifts your mood, supports sleep, and helps your body produce vitamin D. The goal was never avoidance; it's getting those benefits while limiting the harm. Go in the sun, be active, have fun, just be smart about it. And remember: if you tan, the tan counts.

Of everything that shapes how your skin ages, sun exposure is the part you control most. Steady habits, a few products you actually stick with, and well-timed treatments are what keep skin healthy over the long run, and they matter most on the neck and chest, which age faster than the face and are far harder to fix later. Protect your skin now, and it keeps looking like you for longer.

Keep going

Want the full conversation? Watch the complete Hooked on the Sun webinar with Dr. Doris Day, Dr. Shannon Humphrey, and Dr. Christopher Pavlou.

Ready to build a simpler, science-backed routine? Shop expert-curated skincare at the Vos Skin Store: United States or Canada.