A T-shirt tan, also known as a farmers tan, is particularly common for anyone who works outside and especially so in the spring and early fall. It is simply a tan which stops at the borders of where a T-shirt would be worn. It cuts off around the neck and mid-upper arm. One of the most famous farmer’s tan pictures around is that of one of the Tour de France participants who trains daily for up to 10 hours in a biking T-shirt. You can imagine the contrast in his tan lines.

Farmer’s tans are so common in spring and early fall because the temperatures are warm enough for short sleeves but not quite warm enough to wear any less. In those types of in-between temperatures, we also tend to forget about sunscreen to protect ourselves, as getting a tan is often not even a thought that crosses our minds. Such tans are also common when people spend long periods of time outside in the summer in places or doing activities where it is inappropriate to wear less than a T-shirt.

Don’t fear, there is a way to fix a T-shirt tan. When you have the opportunity to go topless for the guys and nearly topless for the girls, apply SPF 45 to the areas of your body that are already tanned. Apply only SPF 15 to the untanned area. This will protect you from getting sunburned but will also speed up the equalization process for your tan. Remember to reapply often and be careful to apply the lower sunscreen right up to the tan line or you may have patches of dark tan, light tan and red on your body. The process may need to be repeated depending on how dark your farmer’s tan is.

If you have a farmer’s tan and are proud of it, then show it off in a farmer’s tan T-shirt. You can have one custom-made saying something like this:

• I love farmer’s tans
• I love your farmer’s tan
• Yup, she loves my farmer’s tan
• One day I’ll have a farmer’s tan like my daddy

You can even have a custom-made anti-farmer’s tan T-shirt made up with a line like: This isn’t a farmer’s tan, it’s a gardener’s tan or a golfer’s tan or a watching my kid’s soccer game tan. There are so many choices of what you can print on your anti-farmer’s tan T-shirt. You can even take the high road and print a line like “The correct term is T-shirt tan.”

If you have a group of people working together outside, for a special project or even on a regular basis, you can get a set of farmer’s tan T-shirts made up for everyone in the group. It can say “Proud member of a farmer’s tan T-shirt group” or “This is my official farmer’s tan T-shirt.” Whatever the case, it’ll surely earn a smile from everyone in your group.

Get yourself a farmer’s tan or T-shirt tan T-shirt today and flaunt your T-shirt tan.