Will swimming make my spray tan fade faster?

 

How to maintain a tan while swimming

Prolonged water submersion or swimming CAN fade a spray tan.

Some say the chlorine, salt, or chemicals  in the water are “bleaching” out your tan. The bleach levels in pool water can certainly dry out the skin (which will increase fade over the next few days), and possibly lighten the tan a little, but they are normally not at a high enough percentage to “bleach” skin and clothing.

There are exceptions of course, some public pools may maintain very high chlorination levels for public health reason (higher then home pool owners would use because of eye discomfort involved),  which will add in an additional contribution to the tan fade.

Water seeps under the dead skin cells, and into the skin layers, causing the skin to swell and fill with water between the cells. A water fills pockets between cells, skin gets “pruiney” and wrinkled looking, after prolonged water submersion.

This soaking also loosens the attachments, holding dead skin cells against living cells beneath. The dead skin cells are spray tanned brown, so as they lift, the tan will lighten, because less “brown” cells are on top, lightening the color.

This will happen with fresh, salt, or chlorinated water, from pools, streams, even a prolonged tub soak. Which is one reason a long tub soak is a recommended method of tan removal.