We talked about the best cities for your skin on here, so its only naturally that we would write about the worst cities for your skin as well. I decided to do the best first, because I think we should focus more on the positive side of things. That being said, the negative side still deserves a mention.
The same criteria was used in picking the worst cities, as when they picked the best ones. The cities were studied by the people over at TotalBeauty.com, they took into account things like pollution, percentage of smokers, number of tanning salons, sunshine levels and humidity levels. Some of the list were places you’d expect, while others I found quite surprising.
Beth Mayall-Traglia, editor of TotalBeauty.com, summed up their intent with releasing this list by saying “Our study goes beyond just ‘outing’ bad skin cities — it draws national focus to the deadly skin sins — smoking, sun exposure, pollution. So while you can’t control the pollution level in your city, you can do something — you can wear SPF, wear a hat, stop smoking. That’s our aim here.”
One of the most surprising cities to be included on this list to me, was Portland, Maine. I’d always thought of that town as a great mecca of old school Maine charm, and while it might be that it has a lot of negatives going for it as far as your skin goes. Smoking and skin cancer rates are both very high in Portland, as well as they have an extraordinarily high number of tanning salons clocking in at 25 per every 100,000 people. These factors contributed to it making the list.
Macon, Georgia was also fairly surprising to see on the list. The main thing that counted against Macon is something that’s out of their control, the excessive humidity there. At an average of 88% humidity, Macon is one of the most humid cities in the country. Your skin does need humidity, but not that much. When your humid, you sweat, and when your body sweats oil and dirt can get clogged in your pores basically suffocating your skin.
Charleston, West Virginia clocked in at #6, mainly due to the fact that it is the city with the most tanning salons in the entire country. When I think of fake tan people, I don’t really think of people from West Virginia but apparently I should. Charleston has a staggering 34 tanning salons per 100,000 people.
Taking home the top prize as the worst city to live in for your skin in America, is the lovely town of Bakersfield, California. Bakersfield received this distinction based largely on the fact that The American Lung Association ranks Bakersfield as the city with the most year-round particle pollution. That can’t be very good for your skin, or anything else on your body for that matter. Also this high rate of pollution is coupled by the very dry, stagnant weather that means there’s nothing really blowing that pollution away, it just sits there. Bakersfield is also the 2nd most ozone polluted city, and that causes more UV rays to seep through to a city that is stiflingly sunny and hot already. All this contributes to your skin wanting you to live anywhere, but Bakersfield.
The 13 Worst Skin Cities:
#13 – Portland, Maine
#12 – Tacoma, Washington
#11 – Macon, Georgia
#10 – Tampa, Florida
#9 – Kansas City, Missouri
#8 – Detroit, Michigan
#7 – Cleveland, Ohio
#6 – Charleston, West Virginia
#5 – Phoenix, Arizona
#4 – Las Vegas, Nevada
#3 – Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
#2 – Houston, Texas
#1 – Bakersfield, California
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