20-year-old hits back at trolls who says she looks like a walking leather couch after showing off her sunbed freckles
SOME of us feel our most confident when embracing our fair skin – but Harriet Hart, from the UK, prefers herself when rocking a tan.
The young blonde, 20, loves rocking a bronzed complexion, whether that means sitting in the sun or visiting a tanning salon – but people say they can already see the damage.
Harriet, who posts under the username @harriethartt, recently shared a little snippet of her beauty routine on TikTok.
Here, the 20-year-old, who has over 24k followers, could be seen soaking up the harmful UVA rays in a sunbed.
But whilst Harriet may have not thought much of this, social media users quickly flocked to comments to warn the beauty lover of the high risks.
Amongst the almost 675k viewers, many insisted there was already visible skin damage with darker spots all over Harriet’s face.
Although after posting the clip, Harriet claimed that those were just freckles, TikTok fans said that oftentimes people mistake sun damage for the adorable feature.
There were also meanies who called the young woman ”a leather sofa” and dozens of others who shared their horror stories.
”Used to do this too. Just had melanoma cut off my leg,” read one such comment.
Someone else added: ”I hammerd [hammered] sunbeds until i had a cancer scare, il [I’ll] never use them again, each to thier [their] own though.”
”I used to do this alot but had many skinncancers removed now. If only i could relive those years i wouldnt do it again [sic],” a third penned.
Sunbeds have long been linked to skin cancer and have even been banned in countries like Brazil and Australia.
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According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), there is significant evidence to show that using tanning beds causes melanoma.
They report that sunbeds increase the risk of skin cancer by up to 20 per cent, and also state that they have no positive benefits to our health.
Sharing her expertise, Carol Cooper, Sun Doctor, said: ” Let’s be clear about sunbeds. It’s not just ‘some’ experts that say they’re bad for your skin. It’s almost all of them.
”All three common skin cancers are linked with excess UV rays.
”And there’s overwhelming evidence that, compared with natural sunlight, sunbeds are far more likely to cause skin cancer.
”Actually, anyone who’s ever used a sunbed is at least 20% more likely to develop malignant melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer.
”UV rays damage the DNA in skin cells, so they’re more likely to mutate into cancer. You don’t even have to burn for it to happen.”
Many sunbeds give out greater doses of UV rays than the midday tropical sun.
The risks are greater for young people.