Is the cute swimsuit worth the tan lines?

It’s summertime and that means purchasing this season’s newest and cutest, latest trendy swimsuit. The thought at the forefront of everyone’s mind when buying a swimsuit is tan lines—how to avoid and manage them. 

Oftentimes many find girls sporting swim suits with crisscrosses everywhere—front, back, sides even—as well as those eccentric suits with the side or even front cut-outs. When validating this swimsuit purchase you first need to ask yourself: is this cute swim suit really worth the odd tan lines that will follow? Girls (specifically) love lounging outside to get their tan on, but of course they also love looking good while doing such—but which need outweighs the other? Men, on the other hand, don’t quite have this worry. 

What happens when girls purchase these cute but tan line-worrying suits it throws them into a predicament. Many girls can surely attest to that after buying that cute swim suit that that season called as “in” afterward it left a large red X in its place (literally, when dealing with crisscrosses). After receiving these awkward tan lines it can be a real battle to erase the mistake, often fighting to correct them the rest of the summer. With that said, are they really worth it? 

After many years of going back and forth on the trend, one-pieces have certainly made their comeback—and they’re coming back with full force around every corner. At first, one-pieces were often for those women who were a little more self-conscious about their bodies and wanted the extra coverage, but now it seems to really be more than that. This remerging trend, though, has had its positives—such as with more women choosing to wear one-pieces it blossomed confidence within those who chose to wear one-pieces for slimming or coverage reasons. On the downside, though, when wearing that cute one-piece it is often difficult to tan—at least the majority of the body. The one-pieces that have found their way back into the limelight are those with the very low and round-cut, open backs and wide-stretch straps (practically resting on sides of the shoulders) as well as with the very high-cut leg holes (practically showing off the inner pelvis). These features alone bring trouble to the topic of tan lines as, of course, your entire torso is getting no sun at all. 

In addition to these features, though, is the concept that many of these are also crisscross, tie fronts—leaving open spots for sun to seep in between ties and crosses. This is extremely stressful if you want to wear a normal tank top in the following days, as that tan line is sure to become very prominent. This same issue arises with two-piece bikinis as well, especially in those with high collars. 

Not only do tops create a problem in regards to tans, but so do bottoms—specifically high waist ones. If you head outside for a day at the pool sporting your favorite high waist bottoms, and the next day you want to wear your normal fit ones instead, a line is sure to form in prominent distinction to where the two tan lines ended—creating a distinct and awkward pale area. With this, many popular bottoms right now are those with slits on the sides—obviously, this has the potential for additional strange tan lines. 

All in all, staying mindful of the consequences of your sun tanning is essential, as not only can it cause skin cancer but also awkward tan lines. Which is worse? Sort your priorities out and decide that for yourself. If you want to avoid this (more or less absurd) problem this summer, just lather up with the good ‘ole sunscreen and call it good—not only will you swerve your path from skin cancer, but also from those pesky tan lines—all while still enjoying your newest, cutest, funkiest swimsuit.