Sun Tanning - Tanning Behavior of Different Skin Colors

Tanning Behavior of Different Skin Colors

A person's natural skin color has an impact on their reaction to exposure to the sun. An individual's natural skin color can vary from a dark brown to a nearly colorless pigmentation, which may appear reddish due to the blood in the skin. Though subject to variations, ethnic Europeans generally have lighter skin, while ethnic Africans generally have darker skin. In 1975, Harvard dermatologist Thomas B. Fitzpatrick devised the Fitzpatrick scale which described the common tanning behavior of various skin types, as follows:

Type Also called Sunburning Tanning behavior von Luschan scale
I Very light or pale, "Celtic" type Often Occasionally 1–5
II Light or light-skinned European Usually Sometimes 6–10
III Light intermediate or dark-skinned European Rarely Usually 11–15
IV Dark intermediate, also "Mediterranean" or "olive skin" Rarely Often 16–21
V Dark or "brown" type No Sometimes darkens 22–28
VI Very dark or "black" type No Naturally black-brown skin 29–36

Read more about this topic:  Sun Tanning

Famous quotes containing the words behavior, skin and/or colors:

    The fact that behavior is “normal,” or consistent with childhood development, does not necessarily make it desirable or acceptable...Undesirable impulses do not have to be embraces as something good in order to be accepted as normal. Neither does children’s behavior that is unacceptable have to be condemned as “bad,” in order to bring it under control.
    Elaine Heffner (20th century)

    my soul lingers over the skin of you
    and I wonder if I’m ruining all we had,
    and had not,
    by making this break,
    this torn wedding ring,
    this wrenched life....
    Anne Sexton (1928–1974)

    Then, bringing me the joy we feel when wee see a work by our favorite painter which differs from any other that we know, or if we are led before a painting of which we have until then only seen a pencil sketch, if a musical piece heard only on the piano appears before us clothed in the colors of the orchestra, my grandfather called me the [hawthorn] hedge at Tansonville, saying, “You who are so fond of hawthorns, look at this pink thorn, isn’t it lovely?”
    Marcel Proust (1871–1922)