ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604090001
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: MAUREEN HEALY STAFF WRITER
In 1984, Teresa Echols saw an industry in its beginning stages and became a part of it.
At the time, the 29-year-old Giles County native noticed there were no indoor tanning salons in the New River Valley and only one in Roanoke. Echols, who was then working at Virginia Tech, decided it was time to go into business for herself. She opened her first Tan-n-Tone in Blacksburg that April.
Twelve years later, indoor tanning has blossomed into $4 billion-a-year industry, and Echols is expanding with the industry.
This year, she added her second salon in a strip mall in Christiansburg. Both are open seven days a week, catering to as many as 50 clients a day in search of that perfect tan.
"I wanted to have a full-service salon; I wanted it to be run professionally, to be clean and I wanted to educate people to tan responsibly," Echols said.
Judy Tynan, a regular customer at the Blacksburg salon, said Echols' Tan-n-Tone is a premier place with top-of-the-line equipment.
Echols decided that her Blacksburg Tan-n-Tone was bringing in such an assortment of students and adults from all over the New River Valley that it was time to bring the bronze a little closer to her Christiansburg customers.
In January, she opened a new salon at 1504 N. Franklin St., about a mile from the New River Valley Mall in a busy shopping center next to Food Lion. Customers can stop by - even on Sundays - while running errands.
In the two months since the new salon opened, it has attracted about 180 new customers, serving about 45 to 50 customers a day. Echols employs one full-time manager and six part-time employees.
In the salon, clients tan in one of six units equipped with a fan, stereo, towels, goggles and remote control. Three of the six tanning beds are 36-lamp "super beds."
Tanning packages range from five sessions for $22 to 30 sessions for $85.
The beds are all linked to a computer that stores how long each person is supposed to tan. When customers are ready, they merely press a button on the wall and the bed turns on. Because not everyone has the same skin type, customers tan for varied amounts of time to avoid burning. The salons also sell indoor tanning lotions with names such as "Body Drench" and "Swedish Beauty."
Although Echols won't say how much revenue her business generates, she said an average for the industry is between $10,000 and $12,000 per tanning bed annually. With this formula, Echols' company would generate about $130,000 to $156,000 a year from its 13 tanning beds, and additional money from the sale of lotions and other extras.
Despite lotions and precautions, however, indoor or outdoor tanning poses a risk of skin cancer, eye damage, skin aging and allergic reactions, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Echols said she has educated herself so that she can teach her customers how to tan responsibly. She is a member of the Suntanning Association for Education.
She instructs all of her customers to know their skin type, to avoid sunburn, to tan every other day and no more than four times a week. Keeping the skin moist and wearing a sunscreen on the lips are important. These tips are endorsed by the American Academy of Dermatology. Although they will not prevent damage from tanning, they are designed to limit the risk.
"The personnel are knowledgeable about the customer's safety. I think the knowledge is the most important part; the staff cares," said Tynan, an executive for a local hospital corporation.
"It's like everything in our lifestyle, if you're moderate, then your risk is lowered," Echols said. "Tanning and burning are two different processes. You don't have to burn to tan."
LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: GENE DALTON/Staff. Teresa Echols in her newby CNBChristiansburg location. She opened her first Tan-n-Tone 12 years
ago.