Throughout history, tanning has seen several fluctuations in popularity. In ancient times the sun played a central religious role in Egyptian, Greek, and Peruvian culture. For Egyptians ������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½Ra������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½ was the sun god, the Greeks had ������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½Apollo,������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½ and "Helios" and the Peruvian ruler was believed to be the sun incarnate. With the introduction of the class system in societies throughout the world, religious beliefs connected to the sun gave way to social distinctions between those of tanned complexion and those without. This class system often separated those deemed to be high class and those who were not. This distinction was physically manifested in the color of one������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½s skin. Those who often spent long hours in the sun with their laborsome jobs were often grouped together as lower class. A sociology professor at Trent University, Stephen Katz, sums up this point with his quote, ������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½Tans were labor tans, and not leisure tans like they are today������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½ [12].
Women even went as far as to put lead based cosmetics on their skin to artificially augment their appearance [13]. However, these cosmetics slowly caused their death through lead poisoning. Achieving this light skinned appearance was brought about in many other ways, including the use of arsenic to whiten skin, on to more modern methods such as full length clothes, powders, and parasols. This fair-skinned trend continued up until the end of the Victorian era. Niels Finsen was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1903 for his ������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½Finsen Light Therapy������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½ [14]. This therapy was to cure infectious diseases such as lupus vulgaris and rickets disease. Vitamin D deficiency was found to be a cause of rickets disease, and exposure to the sun would allow Vitamin D to be produced in a person. Therefore, sun exposure was a remedy to curing several diseases, especially rickets. Shortly thereafter, in the 1920������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½s, Coco Chanel accidentally got burnt while visiting the French Riviera. Her fans apparently liked the look and started to adopt darker skin tones themselves. Tanned skin became a trend partly because of Coco������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½s status and the longing for her lifestyle by other members of society. In addition, Parisians fell in love with Josephine Baker, a ������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½caramel-skinned������¢���¯���¿���½���¯���¿���½ singer in Paris. Those who liked and idolized her wanted darker skin so they could be more like her. These two French women were two trendsetters of the transformation of tanned skin being viewed as fashionable, healthy, and luxurious [15].
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