14 DAY TRIAL // 19-year-old Hannah Norman, who currently lives in the town of Cwmbran in South Wales, UK, is pretty much obsessed with making sure that her skin is a perfect brown at all times. In fact, she says that she doesn't quite feel at ease with herself when not tanned.
Not at all surprisingly, Hannah Norman's obsession with looking like she spends each and every day of her life chilling in the sun and drinking cocktails does not come cheap.
In a nutshell, this young tanning-enthusiast spends up to two thirds of her month’s income on tanning sessions and bronzer. Chances are that, if she afforded it, she would spend way more money on this little obsession of hers.
How it all started
Hannah Norman says that she visited her first tanning salon ever when she was about 14 years old. Despite the fact that she was still a minor, she was allowed to use a sunbed, and together with her older sister Claire, she started visiting such establishments on a regular basis.
The young woman maintains that, despite the fact that she visited numerous tanning salons all throughout her adolescence, nobody ever bothered to ask her for an ID. As the months went by, she became hooked on using sunbeds to darken her skin.
The 19-year-old cannot say for sure when it was exactly that her passion for tanning became an obsession. What she does know is that, by the time she was 16, she couldn't possibly imagine herself looking anything other than brown.
Hannah's daily routine
The woman says that, to stay a perfect brown color, she now visits several salons day in, day out. She has no choice but to use different sunbeds at several such establishments because the maximum legally allowed tanning time is 15 minutes. Apparently, this isn't enough for Hannah.
The 19-year-old estimates that, all in all, she spends as much as 40 minutes working on the perfect tan each and every day of her life. As if this weren't enough, she makes sure to apply loads of bronzer on her skin as soon as she gets home.
The woman currently earns ₤1,500 (about €1,876 / $2,401) a month, ₤1,000 (€1,250 / $1,601) of which is spent on tanning sessions and bronzer. Add to this the fact that she pays her mother ₤200 (€250 / $320), and it really isn't a surprise that she doesn't have all that much money to go out with friends.
Tanning makes her happy
The 19-year-old woman says that, as shocking as this might sound to some people, she simply cannot imagine herself being white, or at least light brown. She says that she loves and adores being tanned, and that she only feels confident when her skin is a perfect, dark brown.
“If I see somebody in the street who's darker than me I get jealous and envy them and wish I looked like that. It makes me feel happier when I'm darker, I feel better in myself. It is how I like to look. It's my thing,” Hannah Norman told the press in a recent interview, as cited by Daily Mail.
“If I don't go on sunbeds I start to feel down and anxious. I tried to give up completely but it just couldn't. I could see other people with their tans and I just thought being pale is not me. Being tanned is just part of me,” she added.
The problem is that, because of how much time she spends working on the perfect tan, Hannah has come to develop some health trouble. More precisely, the skin on her chest and neck is fairly dry and even painful. Since she has absolutely no intention to quit tanning, the 19-year-old makes sure to always carry moisturizer with her.
