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"If the threats of wrinkles and melanoma do little to persuade you to stop tanning and start wearing sunscreen, I think my before-and-after photos will. See, even if you think your genes make you less prone to lines and cancer (a dangerous assumption), the sun also makes your pigment uneven, which is a huge factor in making you look older. I know this firsthand.In a recent article I wrote, a dermatologist cited a study that showed that uneven pigmentation is as big a factor as lines in making us look older. Oh how true that is. Look at this photos, which I posted on the blog last summer, before I realized what bad shape my skin was in. See the light all-over freckling and the darkened patches under my eyes that made them look sunken-in? Girls, this was all new to me. I used to have perfectly even skin, all through my 20s. I got easily tan and rarely burned. In college, I had the all-access pass to the tanning salon, and I was a Maine beach baby--I didn&amp;#x27;t get hardcore about sunscreen until really recently. And this is what happened to my skin all at once at age 30. It could happen to you too. Here&amp;#x27;s another photo; look at the bridge of my nose and my hairline--new dark patches. As I recently detailed, a dermatologist has been helping me reverse the damage. Her name is Dr. Dina Anderson, and honestly, I&amp;#x27;m ready to marry her right about now. After just a month of peels and fading treatments, look how much better my skin looks. This is me now, without foundation or iPhoto touchups (but with a faux tan). I think I look a few years younger already, and I definitely need much less makeup. I now not only wear UV-protective moisturizer daily, I also layer on additional protection throughout the day when I walk to the dog or need to step out into the full sun for any other reason. So tell me honestly: How many of you are convinced that sun exposure really isn&amp;#x27;t going to do anything too bad to your skin? How many of you still laid out this summer or even hit a tanning bed? What excuses did you tell yourself while doing so? Let&amp;#x27;s discuss. Then, check out our readers&amp;#x27; favorite non-pore-cloggy sunscreens. More ways to get your Glamour: * Follow us on Twitter * Friend us on Facebook * Add us to your Google homepage "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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