How to get the best spray tan of your life
At The Dolly Byrd, spray tans are a detailed, skin care process. We go to great lengths to ensure your tan is the BEST. Included in every spray tan service is a skin analysis, high quality ingredients that benefit your skin while you wear your tan, uplifting conversation because every body is BEAUTIFUL, and hydration spray to lock it all in.
Here are some tips on how to get the best tan and keep it the best as long as possible (up to 10 days).
Pre-Appointment Tips:
Wear loose clothing to your appointment
Jeans or leggings can ruin your tan before it is fully processed. I recommend wearing sweat pants and a loose, full-coverage top like a crewneck. Skip the tight socks and sneakers in favor of crocs, flip flops, or other open and airy shoes. An umbrella on rainy days is always recommended.
No lotions, potions, or shaving the day of your service
Just clean, dry skin. If you have any skin concerns or questions, please reach out! Avoid oil-based products. If you shower and moisturize the day of, the pH of your skin can be altered, resulting in a brassy or orange-looking tan.
The day before
Shower, exfoliate, shave (if that is your preferred form of hair removal), and moisturize. Make sure you exfoliate all of your previous tan off to make way for your fresh one! I recommend using an exfoliating mitt and tan remover (Rose & Caramel and Nuda have good ones).
48 hours before
Wax no later than 48 hours before your service. Your follicles are still open and healing if you do it sooner, and it can give you little brown dots everywhere you were waxed, since the tanning solution will penetrate deeper into open follicles. It will also increase your likelihood of ingrowns and bumps if you do not wait 48 hours to get sprayed.
Stay hydrated
Spray tans look much better on hydrated and well-cared-for skin. Drink plenty of water (as a life rule) and moisturize well 24 hours before your appointment. Moisturize twice daily after the 24-hour development time.
Avoid harsh soaps
When prepping for your tan, don’t use Dove soap or other harsh cleansers. This can cause you to have spots, streaks, flakes, etc. If you are on a skin care routine, we can always skip spraying the face if that is your preference.
Come to your appointment deodorant-free
Unless you are okay with having green underarms (this should not last more than 24 hours)
Post-Appointment Tips
No sweaty activities for the first 24 hours
You will have a rinse time assigned to you that is customized to your tan goal, but a tan is not fully finished developing until the 24 hour mark. We want to disturb the tan as little as possible until that time.
Rinsing
When rinsing your tan, rub your skin gently with your hands and rinse until the water runs clear. I recommend using lukewarm water as hot temperatures can damage your skin and lead to dryness/flakiness. No moisturizer after your rinse unless you were instructed to by your artist.
24 hours after
This is when you take your soap shower and moisturize. Remember when I said that hydrated skin looks the best? If you felt like all of your tan washed away at your rinse, you should be feeling much more developed and glowy now.
Avoid exfoliating
Your spray tan lives only in the very top layer of skin, which gets scrubbed off when we use enzymes, scrubs, or exfoliating mitts. Oils also soften the skin, making it slough off more easily, and taking the tan with it. Retinol, tretinoin, glycolic acid, salicylic acid, and other active ingredients in our skincare will strip a spray tan off. Retinols and ingredients that accelerate cell turnover must be discontinued a week or more before your spray tan appointment.
Don’t
Don’t use products with ingredients such as: petrolatum, AHAs, BHAs, fragrance, mineral oil, or sulfates once your tan is applied, as they will strip it off quickly. Perfumes should be sprayed onto clothing- not skin.
Bonus tips:
Hormones
Hormones play a role in how a tan turns out. Pregnancy, menopause, and hormone imbalances can cause a tan to not appear at all or not adhere to specific places on the skin.
Fungus
Versicolor tinea is a very common fungus that many people do not know they have until they get a spray tan. It looks like pale spots where the tan doesn’t adhere. While this fungus clears fairly quickly with treatment, the spots can still show up with a spray tan for many weeks (I recommend waiting 6 weeks to try a spray tan again).
Don’t forget to wear sunscreen! Spray tan does NOT protect your skin from the sun!
Products that make tans even better:
Tan extending lotion or milk- apply daily to keep the glow going!
Nuda body shimmer- makes your body reflect the light and look luminous.
Body washes and body butters made by spray tan brands (Nuda, Sjolie, Glazed Sunless, The Glow Doctor, etc.)- spray tan brands have a vested interest in turning out beautiful tans and keeping them that way.
Tan remover- for when you are done with your tan and are ready for a new one. Barefoam by Nuda.
Tanning water- great for spritzing the face since it fades the quickest, or for spot fixes. Cloumist by Nuda.
Nuda Sunless has come up with a concept called “Tan Cycling” to simplify your routine if you want to consistently be spray-tanned or self-tanned.
Tan Cycling
Day 1: Exfoliate, shave, and moisturize
Day 2: Spray tan (rinse at designated time)
Day 3-5: Shower and moisturize
Day 6: Shower and moisturize- add tanning water to face for touch-ups
Day 7-8: Shower and moisturize
Day 9-10: Tan remover & exfoliate, shave, and moisturize
Repeat
