Can a fair skinned person still get a tan when using a high SPF all over?

Do what you want, but sunscreen may help avoid sunburn, but doesn’t usually help with skin cancer. If you really want a tan, you are best off working up to it. Get out into the sun for a limited time initially…15 or 20 minutes. That is 15 or 20 minutes of exposure to the sun of all areas of your body you want tanned. After that, wear lightweight clothes to cover your skin. Wear a floppy hat. As time goes by, slowly increase the amount of time you are in the sun. It takes a while, but you will eventually have a nice base tan and will be able to spend a little more time outside.
For reference, I am part Irish and part Scottish and part English. I’m a redhead at birth. I am as fair skinned as they get. I spent most of my life dodging sunburn. I could be out for 20 minutes and be white as a sheet but if I stretched it to 21 minutes I would burn. Now I am living in a southern coastal region. I did the slow build up and now I can be outside in just shorts and flip-flops for a couple hours and I don’t burn.

Or go with a spray tan.

With the sunscreen you will probably get close to nothing. I am very fair, I burn in 20 minutes in the hot summer sun, and if I use just 8 SPF I get nothing—I stay white. Unless, it’s many many hours out in the sun, and maybe that’s because it’s fading off of my skin after many hours. With spf 15 and higher I get nothing period. I can walk around Disney for 10 hours and the 15 completely protects me.

I haven’t done it in a long time, but I used to get tan by going in the sun for 15–20 minutes and then putting on my sunscreen, or flipping over to my other side if I’m just laying in the sun, and doing that 4–7 times in a week.

You will get a feel for how long you need. If you stay out 20 minutes and seem to get nothing, you can increase it to 25, etc. You might want to start at 15. The tanner you are, you will be able to stay out a little longer, but probably not much since you are very fair.

This time of year, winter, the UV index and the power of the sun is lower, so it’s not a bad time to test it out, but beware, the cooler air is deceptive. You might feel like you are not getting any sun, but trust me you are, use a timer.

Tanned skin is damaged skin.

Forget about it.

I wish I had tanned in moderation when I was young, but instead I worked on my tan, and several times in my childhood I got very burnt. Now, I have to be careful all of the time, but if I had been more moderate when I was under 20, I would definitely be going into the sun more now and not taking such huge doses of vitamin D. The best I have felt in the last 10 years was when I had spent a couple of weeks in the sun a lot, and I was the tannest I had been since I was in my 20’s. My vitamin D test shortly after was 70! I felt really good, and hadn’t connected the dots until my results cane back from the standard tests I get at least twice a year. I think the sun was probably part of the reason. I keep my D around 40 now, and maybe I would feel better if I took even more supplements, but that would be a ton of D pills, and that worries me too. I already take at least 50,000 IU a week, usually more.

I’m not a medical doctor, this is only what I would do personally with my experience from being D deficient.

I tan gradually in the summer by using a sunscreen and limiting my beach time in the early part of the summer. As I get browner, I can stay out longer but I don’t let myself sun bathe as much as I used to. I’ve been lucky and never had a cancer scare.

FYI: My uncle loved to BBQ and hang out in the sun in Southern California without a shirt on. He died from melanoma at age 35.

Dermatologists have been slicing and dicing on me most of my life. One mole was ID’d as pre-melanoma plus a lot of AK and other nasty stuff was removed. Not much of my skin ever sees the light of day anymore.

Good health!