Why won't my neck tan? (This is bound to be the most pressing question ever asked on Fluther...:P)

Sounds like you may be developing a mild case of Red Neck-itus

Have you noticed any of the following symptoms?

-teeth loosening?

-craving for fried everything?

-unexplainable new fascination for road kill so much that you have to take the skulls home and set them on your front porch?

Be on the lookout. Red Neck-Itus is very difficult to recover from. I recommend that all single string musical instruments be removed from your life immediately.

Good luck!

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies, so rude. Funny, but rude.

@DrasticDreamer , I think it’s to do with your background and just the type of skin you have. People from the Northern Hemisphere seem to suffer from this problem. Obviously, it has something to do with your melanin levels. I don’t know whether Melanin production is increased the more your skin is exposed, that would seem the most likely reason your neck doesn’t produce much. It’s possibly covered by hair, a collar etc. most of the time.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I laughed, but no, I don’t think I’m developing a case of that, considering I’ve lived in a major city my entire life and have no other symptoms. ;)

@Earthbound_Misfit It’s just weird, since even the more covered parts of my body tan very fast and easily. I typically always make sure my neck is exposed when I’m in the sun, but it doesn’t make a difference. So it looks even funnier right now, because my face is tan, along with my chest and arms… but my neck is stubborn and refuses to darken. Even my stomach is dark, which I never expose, so I don’t get it. Maybe my huge head just casts such a large shadow that my neck bathes in its darkness… lol

Yes, it must be your oversized head, that acts as a natural umbrella? Haha
I have a tanning issue too. My left arm and shoulder is like 3 shades darker than my right because it is the arm that gets the most exposure when driving. I hate it so much!

I wear a lot of sundresses and tank tops and am always squeezing my arm to my side and trying to hide it when I am driving with the sun on my left side. I have even thought of draping a little towel over that arm. How stupid would that look? lol

Make sure you use sunscreen when driving @Coloma. In his previous role, my husband had to drive a lot. He was in the job for years. Now, one side of his face has significantly more sun damage than the other. Many more wrinkles and more skin cancers. Now we have tinted windows, but if you don’t have your windows up all the time, don’t forget the sunscreen.

Perhaps your neck doesn’t tan because of something you’re using on your hair? Hot oil treatment or conditioner for dry or damaged hair?

Your neck is really the only place where treatments you use on your hair are going to collect.

@ibstubro I never thought about conditioner, but I don’t think so. Other than that, I don’t use any other hair product. I think I’m just going to start craning my head back this summer to make it match the rest of my body. No idea what else to do. Or just use self-tanner everywhere and hope it can even everything out.

Well really @DrasticDreamer, a self-tanner is the healthiest option. Tanning is not a good thing for your skin and it may look pretty now, but a few years from now you will wear the sun damage. Our necks are one of the first places (with our hands) to show our age too. I live in the sub-tropics and I avoid the sun. I see too many people having bits hacked off them or burned off their skin to bother getting a tan. None of my kids tan either. So save your skin, use a self-tanning method.

@Earthbound_Misfit Definitely agree. Only reason I’m doing any tanning at all this summer is to get my vitamin D levels up. Last blood test I had, I just barely rose above deficiency (really bad, too) for the first time in years. However, I attribute that mostly to the cod liver oil I started consuming on the advice of a fellow Jelly. But I figured about 15 minutes in the sun per day would also help my numbers rise to where they should be.

It could be that your neck has been infected by tinea versicolor , which make it appears white regardless of how much sunlight it received.

^^ Yes, some of the reading I did suggested a possible fungal infection.
Washing the area using Selsum Blue as a body wash was recommended as a cure. You should also try that, to eliminate one possibility, @DrasticDreamer

Necks, because of their flexibility, have differently textured skin. Less amenable to tanning.

A fungus? Wow, weird. Wouldn’t there be any other signs if that was the case?

I think @elbanditoroso might have it. That and I really am starting to think it’s because the sunlight just doesn’t hit it well enough. Today, I angled my head back much, much farther than I typically would (wasn’t at all comfortable… lol) and it seemed to actually do the trick. It’s not as dark as the rest of me, but there’s definitely a difference. Maybe I should get one of those old-fashioned silver reflector things and just aim it at my neck.

Apparently not, @DrasticDreamer. I was reading about the fungus on a tanning bed thread and one woman even claimed that her brother had stripes on his back that would not tan, like prison bars, lol.
It’s a real, and apparently common condition. I didn’t see that there was any symptom beyond not tanning, and I didn’t see anyone suggest anything more aggressive than Selsum Blue to cure it.
I read probably 3–5 questions that dealt with it, researching this question.

Google “neck won’t tan”.

I have noticed the same thing. All my life (50+yrs) I had no problem with an even tan. Now all of a sudden my neck won’t tan. I wonder… menopause? Recently diagnosed with Lyme disease? Or does it have something to do with the titanium plate and screws in my neck? Do you have any of the mentioned?