What is a High Pressure Tanning Bed?

woman in tanning bed

No doubt if you are interested in using tanning beds you might have wondered what a high-pressure tanning bed is and what’s the difference between that and a regular tanning bed.

A high-pressure tanning bed is designed to give you a natural looking tan in a matter of minutes, in as little as 1-2 sessions per week. How they differ from a normal tanning bed is that they are typically safer for your skin, tend to last longer and are a little more expensive.

Below we will go into this in more detail to help you understand why.

How a High-Pressure Tanning Bed Works

To help you understand what a high-pressure tanning bed does it’s important you know first how it works.

Just like the sun, tanning beds emit UV rays. UV rays can be split up into UVA and UVB rays.

When it comes to tanning UVB helps increase melanin in your skin which helps with getting a tan. When overexposed to UVB it can cause your skin to burn though.

UVA causes the melanin in the skin to be oxidated which basically causes a chemical reaction that makes the melanin and then therefore the skin to become darker.

Of course, tanning beds emit both UVA and UVB rays to help you create a natural looking tan. Though how high-pressure tanning beds differ is they have a different ratio of the rays. This ratio contains a lower amount of UVB content.

This reduces the risk of your skin burning which helps with making your tan deeper and more vibrant along with it making it last longer too.

High Pressure Tanning Beds Vs Regular

As we briefly mentioned before the main difference with high pressure tanning beds vs regular tanning beds is their ratio of the UVA and UVB rays. High pressure tanning beds have a lower amount of UVB rays. This means high pressure tanning beds are safer due to the lower risk of burning.

This also means deeper more vibrant tans that tend to last longer.

High pressure tanning beds tend to be a little more expensive when compared with regular tanning beds, but we would argue it’s worth the price difference.

Also, with high pressure tanning beds you tan more quickly in comparison to regular tanning beds. This means faster tanning sessions.

One final difference is that as high-pressure tanning beds tans last longer, that also means less sessions are needed to build and even maintain your tan. 1 session per week is easily enough to maintain your tan and 2 sessions per week to build up your initial base tan. The build up to the base tan typically takes around 3-5 sessions.

Keep in mind if you are just starting out with a tanning bed it’s a good idea to start slow and increase the time spent in the tanning bed gradually. For more on this check our article – tanning bed time chart.

Related Questions

What Level Tanning Beds Get You the Darkest?

Typically, a higher-pressure tanning bed will tan your skin darker and more quickly. Typically, these beds are considered level 4,5,6 tanning beds.

What is a Low-Pressure Tanning Bed?

A low-pressure tanning bed is considered to have more of a balance between UVA and UVB tanning rays. These kinds of tanning beds tend to take longer to tan and to be cheaper than the high-pressure beds.

How Often Can You Use High Pressure Tanning Beds?

While only 1 session per week is often enough to maintain a tan in a high-pressure tanning bed, you can use them more regularly to build up to your base tan. 2 sessions per week should be enough for this. For more information on this check our article – how often should you tan in a tanning bed.

Finally, don’t forget to check out out guide – how to get the best tan in a tanning bed – 11 actionable tips.

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