MAIN » ARTICLESOperation Black Man's Legs [PART ONE]
A lot of people commented, well, Ryan and Alan, a few times each, about the dark complexion of the skin on my legs, after I came back from Lanzarote in Easter. When looking at my legs, yeh, they seemed dark, but on a scale of one to ten, where ten is black, one is white, and five is average, I would have been on the white side of the scale. However, these comments did leave me thinking whether I could have made more of my time on the island of the blistering sun. Possibly if I had spent a few more hours being subjected to the rays, instead of being in the gym, or in shade, I could have gained a ‘really’ black dark finish.
Enter Hendy family holiday 2002: the Hendy’s do Spain. The annual trip out of the country takes us to central Spain, this event should give me the vital time in the sun, needed to gain a real dark skin effect, and I’m talking African, and not just Afro-American. I would also like to see if I could gain a lasting black affect, instead of the fading colour that I got from Lanzarote.
As this is a potentially hazardous operation, I decided to bring in the know-how from family member Kate Hendy, known in the ranks as mother, ma, oi and scrub. Also as her current level of blackness is higher than mine, I thought that she demanded some respect. Her top-top-tip-tops for tanning were as follows, and I quote:
“Drink plenty of fluids to replenish those lost through sweating”
“Use suntan lotion to protect skin and filter out UV rays, starting with SPF 15 at the beginning”
“Stay out of the sun between 12 and 3pm, when the sun is at its most dangerous”
She also listed some side-effects that I could suffer from, when undertaking operation: black man’s legs.
Wrinkles
Melanoma [skin cancer]
Heatstroke / Dizziness
Eyesight problems
Sunburn
I’m not too worried about eyesight problems, as I’m quite blind already.
Here is a ‘before picture’ taken July 28 2002, and colour corrected to my monitor settings. Next to this is the colour I am trying to achieve, you can see that it is quite black, and impressive.
As you can see, it is as I described above, black, but not that black, hence wanting more blackness.
As I don’t have the ‘after’ pictures, as I haven’t been to Spain yet, you’ll have to watch the space below for updates, probably coming from 16 August [when I get back from holiday] and then add on about 3 weeks of writing time.
the space you have to watch
Written by Rib
rob.hendy@btinternet.com
Enter Hendy family holiday 2002: the Hendy’s do Spain. The annual trip out of the country takes us to central Spain, this event should give me the vital time in the sun, needed to gain a real dark skin effect, and I’m talking African, and not just Afro-American. I would also like to see if I could gain a lasting black affect, instead of the fading colour that I got from Lanzarote.
As this is a potentially hazardous operation, I decided to bring in the know-how from family member Kate Hendy, known in the ranks as mother, ma, oi and scrub. Also as her current level of blackness is higher than mine, I thought that she demanded some respect. Her top-top-tip-tops for tanning were as follows, and I quote:
“Drink plenty of fluids to replenish those lost through sweating”
“Use suntan lotion to protect skin and filter out UV rays, starting with SPF 15 at the beginning”
“Stay out of the sun between 12 and 3pm, when the sun is at its most dangerous”
She also listed some side-effects that I could suffer from, when undertaking operation: black man’s legs.
I’m not too worried about eyesight problems, as I’m quite blind already.
Here is a ‘before picture’ taken July 28 2002, and colour corrected to my monitor settings. Next to this is the colour I am trying to achieve, you can see that it is quite black, and impressive.
As you can see, it is as I described above, black, but not that black, hence wanting more blackness.
As I don’t have the ‘after’ pictures, as I haven’t been to Spain yet, you’ll have to watch the space below for updates, probably coming from 16 August [when I get back from holiday] and then add on about 3 weeks of writing time.
the space you have to watch
Written by Rib
rob.hendy@btinternet.com