How to Reverse a Tan

When your skin tans, it's due to damage received from exposure to direct sunlight. The UV rays that cause sun burns and skin cancer stimulate your skin to produce more melanin to compensate for the damage. While you can never get more pale than your natural skin color, there are ways to eliminate the additional melanin and to bring the rest of your skin back to the color it was before you tanned.

Things You'll Need

• Sunblock
• Skin lotion

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Instructions

• 1

  Always wear high SPF sunblock that covers as many varieties of UV light as possible. This helps to stop any further damage from happening to your skin, resulting in an even darker tan. Wearing broad-brimmed hats and long-sleeved shirts, covering as much skin as possible from UV exposure, is another good method to protect your skin and let it heal.

• 2

  Use skin lotion, particularly lotions designed to help repair damage caused by the sun. These creams help your skin stay moisturized and help repair the damage that lead to the additionally-produced melanin.

• 3

  Stay out of the sun. While you can't stay out of the sun all the time, you need to avoid as much exposure as possible by remaining covered and indoors whenever you can. It's especially important that you avoid bright, mid-day sun, as this is when the rays are the strongest and most likely to do damage to your skin. This gives your skin time to heal, and for the tan to fade, as it becomes less necessary to combat the sun.