Will tanning a week out of the year give me skin cancer?

For the past few days Ive been tanning in preparation for my vacation to the beach next week. For about three days ive been laying in the sun off and on for each day totalling maybe 5 hours of direct sunexposure. And then next week- maybe 3 days of beach sun. Ive also applied Australian Gold tanning lotion. Will this amount of exposure lead to skin cancer? Usually im very well covered and i always wear spf 20 on my face.

The damage caused by the sun is cumulative. That means that the damage that you're doing this year will be added to the damage that you will do next year. Also, tanning beds are many, many times more damaging than the sun. That's why they're so effective at giving you a tan. To answer your specific question: it's not likely that tanning for one week will give you skin cancer, but the cumulative damage that you do over time can.

My suggestion: if you must tan for short periods of the year, at the very least, tan under the natural sun. Stay out of tanning beds. Also, wear sunscreen all over your body, all year long. Clothing only provides a sun protection factor of about 6. Besides, the sun damages your skin, and you don't want to have a young-looking beautiful face with an age and sun wrinkled body when you get older. You'll want to be beautiful all over.

lol no. the only way to get skin cancer is if you go like every single day. and that is becasue it messes up your insides. i go ever one in a while but i promsie you wont lol

Sun damage is accumulative. Not worth any kind of beauty and the price to pay is high when you are older.

No.