Fantasy Tan Page Four

The new big thing for our aging baby boomer population are businesses combining the services of dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and spas, where you can get an AHA peel, a leg waxing, and maybe a couple of collagen injections.

Starr has already sold Fantasy Tan units to such establishments, and, with her new streamlined device which would look right at home in a doctor's office, she expects to sell even more.

She has also sold the Fantasy Tan units to some individuals. After getting a Fantasy Tan in Hilton Head, many clients pressured her to sell them the unit. One woman even threatened to go back to tanning beds if she couldn't get one.

Starr did not want to sell the units; she wanted to wait until she had her new model and tanning solution perfected. But she frequently relented because of what she calls The Scar.

The Scar could be anywhere: stomach, back, or legs, but it was an unspoken reminder of the danger of sun exposure. Many of the Fantasy Tan clients were skin cancer survivors who had gotten the message the hard way: no more real tans for them ever.

These clients loved the Fantasy Tan — a cool mist, just the thing on a warm summer day, very little odor, and a light fragrance. "It needs to smell good, but not too good," said Starr, in a reference to the many men who are Fantasy Tan clients.

At a resort area like Hilton Head, her business was guaranteed to take off simply through word of mouth. Starr, herself a type II who can't stand the sun, as it makes her feel instantly sizzled, was the first walking advertisement. As pale as can be, she suddenly sported a tan, and in the small Hilton Head community everyone demanded to know her secret.

Adele develops a perfect brown color from the Fantasy Tan. A type III, she used tanning beds in the past, but gave them up years ago. If I hadn't known she was using the Fantasy Tan, I couldn't have guessed.

But about that dinner: After discovering everyone in South San Francisco turns their lights out at ten, we went back to the hotel where we had an excellent meal at Marriott's American Grill.

During the meal, we discussed the differences and similarities between the Fantasy Tan and the Mystic Tan. I confessed to Starr that I had considered the Fantasy Tan cause hopeless, but that was before I learned that the first California Mystic Tan location charges $49 per session; purchasing multiple sessions lowers the price to $20 each.

I estimated that using the Mystic Tan to maintain a dark tan would set me back $160 a month, assuming that the prices where I live, the San Francisco Bay Area, aren't even higher. A Fantasy Tan session in Hilton Head is only $20, and if you purchased a unit and used it regularly you would save a bundle over a fairly short period of time.