Why Tanning Is Trending Again—and What Experts Really Think
It's 1983, and a disembodied voice is crooning: 'In St. Tropez, almost all they wear is the deep, dark color of Bain de Soleil,' while Brooke Shields wraps a record cover in tinfoil to reflect the sun's rays. All of this was before we were well-versed in the connection between UV exposure and skin cancer, including melanoma. In 2025, we know better than to tan, right?
Wrong. In recent years, tanning lost some of its luster. But like red meat and low-rise jeans, tanning is back (or maybe it never really left). To many, it is a guilty pleasure. It's a cheeky cigarette after two stiff martinis. It's a shatteringly crisp McDonald's French fry. It's a 2 A.M. text message that you know you shouldn't send. 'I'm basically a solar panel, don't tell the others,' one beauty editor said. 'I'm very naughty and tan all the time—but not my face,' one celebrity makeup artist admitted.
Many people still think they look better tan (one commonality between some pre-wedding brides and many WWE wrestlers? A spray tan appointment). A survey by the Orlando Health Cancer Institute found that nearly a third of adults still think that having a tan makes you look healthier. The Skin Cancer Foundation reported that between 2015 and 2025, the number of new invasive melanoma cases diagnosed increased by 42 percent. 'We see more young women with melanoma because of this tanning trend,' says Mona Gohara, MD, a dermatologist in Connecticut.
Media personality Trisha Paytas once espoused the viewpoint best: 'I'd rather look good dead and tanned, than pale and alive.' Kim Kardashian seemed to throw in her own endorsement after posting a video of herself in a tanning bed that she keeps in her office. (Both Kardashian and Paytas have since qualified their views on tanning.) Win Gruber, who owns Upper East Side Tan, a tanning studio in New York, has seen his empire grow from one salon in 2023 to three locations, including one in Miami, with plans to add two more. 'Google Analytics [show] that the biggest spike for tanning in the last 10 years was coming out of the pandemic when people were stuck in their homes and wanted to get out into the sun,' Gruber says. For Gen Z, tanning may be a way to rebel. 'It's a shift against the [previous] generation, which was super anti-tanning,' he adds.
The return to tanning is also part of a larger antiestablishment cultural shift. For some, distrust in sunscreen and trust in UV light may go hand in hand with distrust in vaccines and trust in raw milk. In the post-COVID era, 'there's been more pushback against some of the recommendations that come from the medical and public health community,' says Washington, DC, dermatologist Sara Hogan, MD. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. showed up to his confirmation hearing with a deep tan. According to former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman's 2018 memoir, Unhinged: An Insider's Account of the Trump White House, President Trump's vacation-like appearance may come from daily tanning bed sessions.
In addition, some influencers and talking heads are voicing unproven doubt about sunscreen safety. The survey by Orlando Health Cancer Institute found that one in seven adults under 35 believes using sunscreen daily is more harmful than sun exposure. Tech bro whisperer Andrew Huberman has said on his podcast that chemical sunscreens may be endocrine disrupters. Influencer Nara Smith has even made sunscreen from scratch, blending coconut, beeswax, shea butter, cocoa butter, and zinc oxide powder into something that looks more like a creamy dessert than sun protection. 'There's not enough evidence to show that these ingredients cause harm,' says Marisa Garshick, MD, a dermatologist in New York and a spokesperson for EltaMD. 'We know that the sun causes skin cancer. Sunscreen has not been found to cause skin cancer.'
As is the case with inoculation and pasteurization, we can look to the facts. For women under 50, melanoma is already the third most common type of cancer, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. Gohara frequently sees women in their 20s and 30s with melanoma. Even if you catch it early, a skin cancer diagnosis is like a dark cloud that won't go away. 'Anyone who has skin cancer at a young age has a higher risk of getting other skin cancers throughout their life,' Gohara says. If you still want to look bronze, there is one thing that won't follow you around for life—a spray tan.
A version of this story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of ELLE.
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