To get a deeper tan, don’t sunbathe every day

A master regulator of gene activity sets skin cells to make melanin every 48 hours

person sunbathing on a beach

48 HOURS  Daily exposure to the sun can hurt sunbather’s chance of developing a dark tan. That’s because skin cells don’t operate on a daily schedule, instead making melanin only every other day, experiments in human cells and mice show.

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Sunbathing — if you must do it — should be limited to every other day, a new study suggests.