Once you've gone red, you'll turn brown: Wrong. This is what we tell ourselves to feel better after burning our skin at the beach. But burns caused by lack of protection affect the surface of the skin, meaning we peel quickly but retain the memory of the burn within our cells. 11.

Does sunburned skin turn brown?

When the skin is exposed to the sun, it makes more melanin to protect the skin's lower layers from damage. As the skin becomes damaged, it produces even more melanin. The extra melanin causes some people to become a darker color, or tan.

How long does it take for red skin to turn tan?

“This usually begins two days after the exposure and lasts 10 to 14 days,” Wasserman says. That means the healing of your sunburn may happen to coincide with the deepening of your tan. (UVA rays create “immediate pigment darkening,” so you may already have some color before the delayed darkening occurs.)