Before we talk more about men’s special needs when tanning, we should discuss the actual tanning process and what it does to our bodies.Originally tanning occurred when you spent a lot of time in the summer. The sun produces UV rays, the most important of these for tanning are UVB and UVA rays. UVA and UVB rays hit our bodies and cause the extra production of melanin in our skin.Melanin is the pigment that causes our skin to have a specific color. If you are fair skinned you have less melanin than those people who have darker skin tones. When the UV rays cause more melanin to be produced in our skin, it turns a darker color. The extra melanin also provides a small amount of sun protection as well. There is actually a second way for our skin to become tanned, and this can also occur when we spend time in the sun. We can also get a tan by the UV rays moving the pigment in our skin around, this causes a darker look without actually increases the amount of melanin produced. The one difference with this type of tanning is that no sun protection barrier occurs on our skin this way.