How often can you use a sunbed? An honest, sensible guide

If you use a sunbed, or you are thinking about starting, the honest question is not just how to get a colour but how often you can safely go. Here is a straight answer, the sensible-use numbers the industry works to, and the part most tanning pages skip over: what UV actually does to your skin, and why less really is more.

How often can you use a sunbed?

For most people, once or twice a week is plenty. The trade advice, from The Sunbed Association, is to rest your skin for at least 24 hours between sessions, and at least 48 hours if you have fair skin, with no more than one session in any 24 hour period. On top of that, the European Standard the industry follows advises no more than 60 sessions in a year.

There are really two phases. If you are building a base from pale skin, salons typically suggest a short run of three to five sessions over two or three weeks, keeping to your rest gaps and not leaving longer than about 72 hours between visits while you build. Once you are happy with the colour, one or two sessions a week is enough to keep it topped up. Going more often than that does not give you a deeper tan any faster, it just adds UV exposure your skin has to deal with.

Sensible-use rule	What the trade advises
Between sessions	At least 24 hours, or 48 hours for fair skin
In a single day	Never more than one session in 24 hours
While building a base	3 to 5 short sessions over 2 to 3 weeks
To maintain	1 to 2 sessions a week
In a year	No more than 60 sessions

How long should each session be, and what is 3 minutes equal to?

Session length depends on your skin type, not just the clock, which is why a good salon sets your minutes rather than letting you guess. As a rough starting guide, very fair skin that always burns should not use a sunbed at all, fair skin usually starts at around three to four minutes, and darker skin types at four to five, building up slowly over several sessions. We set and adjust these for you in person, based on your skin and the machine, so treat any number online as a guide rather than a rule.

People often ask what three or ten minutes on a sunbed is “equal to” in real sunshine. There is no neat conversion, and the multipliers you see quoted are guesses. The honest framing is this: a UK commercial sunbed is capped by a European safety standard at a maximum UV output roughly equal to the midday Mediterranean summer sun. So even a few minutes is a genuine dose of UV, and as the NHS puts it, sunbeds “can be more dangerous than natural sunlight because they use a concentrated source of UV radiation.” Worth knowing too: research reported in 2026 found many commercial machines actually exceed that legal cap, which is one reason we keep our sessions short and skin-typed.

Building a base before a holiday: how it actually goes

Say you are fair-skinned, you have a holiday in three weeks, and you want a bit of colour so you are not starting from pale. Here is how that looks with us in Haverhill.

You register at reception first, because the sunbed is booked in person, not online, and we go through your skin type and any medication or history that matters. Because your skin is on the fairer side, we would start you at around three minutes, with goggles on, and ask you to leave 48 hours before the next visit. You come back twice more that first week, and by the third or fourth session there is a soft, even colour coming through, developing for a day or so after each session rather than appearing straight away. We would nudge the minutes up only if your skin is handling it well.

And here is the honest bit we would say out loud at that consultation: if the goal is simply to look glowing in your holiday photos, a spray tan gives you that colour with no UV at all, and no risk. Plenty of clients do exactly that, and we would never talk you out of the safer option.

The honest bit: there is no safe UV tan

We would rather tell you the truth than sell you a myth. The health advice on this is clear and it comes from the people with no product to push.

The NHS says plainly that “there’s no safe or healthy way to get a tan,” because a tan is your skin reacting to damage. Cancer Research UK goes further: “there’s no such thing as safe UV tanning,” and it links sunbed use to around 100 melanoma deaths a year in the UK. NHS inform notes that using a sunbed even once before the age of 35 can significantly raise your risk of melanoma. In 2009 the World Health Organisation’s cancer agency classified UV tanning devices as carcinogenic to humans, the same top risk category as tobacco and asbestos.

A tan from a sunbed is your skin reacting to damage, not a sign of health. Sensible limits reduce the risk, they do not remove it.

None of that means we are being preachy about our own sunbed. It means the sensible-use limits above are about reducing harm, not pretending there is none. If you choose to tan, keep sessions short and spaced, wear the goggles every time to protect your eyes, and use as few sessions as you can be happy with. And do not use a sunbed as a way to get vitamin D. Both the NHS and Cancer Research UK are clear that any vitamin D you might get is outweighed by the harm, and a diet or a supplement is the safe route.

Who should not use a sunbed

Telling people when to skip it matters more than filling the diary. Please do not use our sunbed, or any sunbed, if you:

• Are under 18. It is illegal in the UK under the Sunbeds (Regulation) Act 2010, and we card anyone who looks close.
• Have very fair or sensitive skin that burns easily rather than tans. NHS inform lists fair or sensitive skin as a reason not to use one.
• Have a history of skin cancer, or a family history that worries you. That is a conversation for your GP, not a tanning bed.
• Take medication that makes your skin more sensitive to light, or have a skin condition affected by sunlight. Check with us or your pharmacist first.

If any of those apply, a sunless option gives you colour without the risk, and we are always happy to point you that way instead.

Sunbed, spray tan or gradual tanner? Your options

A UV tan is not the only way to look a bit more sun-kissed, and honestly it is the one with the trade-offs. Here is the real set of choices:

• A sunbed gives a UV tan and the risks that come with it, kept in check by short, spaced, skin-typed sessions. Ours is at Haverhill, booked in person.
• A professional spray tan gives you colour for five to ten days with zero UV and zero cancer risk. For an event or a holiday, this is what we would usually suggest.
• A gradual self-tan at home tops up either of the above between visits, again with no UV.
• Nothing at all, plus a good SPF, is what every dermatology body would pick. Pale is genuinely fine.

There is no single right answer, only the one that suits your skin, your plans and how you feel about the risk. We will talk it through honestly whichever way you lean.

The bottom line

How often can you use a sunbed? Once or twice a week, at least a day apart, no more than one session a day and under 60 a year, with the minutes set for your skin type. Those limits keep UV tanning as sensible as it can be, but they do not make it safe, because no UV tan is. If a colour is all you are after, a spray tan gets you there without the risk. If you do want to use the sunbed, come and see us in Haverhill and we will set you up properly.