Choosing The Right Lamps The MegaSun® tanning system is designed to provide a wide variety of choices for your equipment that will suit your skin type needs. To prevent the harsh burning associated with over exposure to UVB, a base tan can be achieved through establishing skin types, and progressively moving from low UVB to higher UVB according to each person's tolerance. Since all tanning lamps contain the rays responsible for tanning, UVA and UVB, the percentage of exposure to each of these rays is important and is controlled by the type of lamp in the tanning unit and the length of each tanning session.

UVB UVB is the "reddening ray". It is the ray that causes a reddening response on the outer layers of the skin. This reddening effect stimulates manufacture of the melanin cells. People who have more melanin in their skin, e.g. olive complexions, types 3-4 need more exposure to the UVB ray to create a dark, satisfying color. The darker skin types can tolerate more exposure to UVA and UVB without burning. Lighter skin types, e.g. fair skin, type 2 benefit from smaller doses of this ray by using a low UVB lamp to prevent the burning they are more susceptible to. Fair skin types tend to burn more easily with UVB exposure. The browning action of a low UVB lamp reduces the reddening response while giving a quick brown color. UVA UVA is the "browning ray". Its action is to darken the pigment of the melanin cells. This effect is more dramatic in a lamp with low UVB. After establishing a base tan in this type of lamp, fair skin types can tolerate progressive amounts of UVB to darken and prolong their tan. The MegaSun® system suggests that fair skinned people use this progressive building process, especially if they are planning on exposure to natural sunlight, to help reduce their chance of burning. Darker skin types, although they may prefer the effects of the high UVB lamps, can boost their brown color by using low UVA lamps. The combination of these two types of lamps allow tanning to become a more individual process, reducing the chance of over exposure while achieving a very natural color.