1/2 Baked is 100 percent about skin safety

Moses Lake business seeks to educate customers about safe tanning

MOSES LAKE — If more people around town are looking bronze, that might just be Christina Hofstetter's doing.

Hofstetter opened tanning operation 1/2 Baked, located at 104 W. Broadway Ave., about three weeks ago.

"I have been tanning since I was a little over 16 years old," she explained. "I have a skin condition called eczema, and tanning helps keep that under control."

About a year and a half ago, Hofstetter purchased her first tanning bed, and realized that a lot of people suffer from skin conditions which can be treated with the help of tanning equipment.

"It's not a cure to it, it just helps keep it under control," she said, noting that depression can also be aided by the use of tanning equipment. "I think that a lot of people that offer tanning aren't as thorough, maybe, on the knowledge and the benefits of tanning. It's really important that when you're tanning, you replenish your skin, because the sun does damage your skin."

Hofstetter said that tanning is an acquired taste for newcomers. She suggested people start out with a lesser amount of time for their tans, and within a certain period of time, work their skin up to where they can sit for the whole allotted time.

"If you don't tan out in the sun, it's very unlikely that you're going to tan from a tanning bed, but with different lotions and different products, you can obtain (a tan)," Hofstetter said.

Different benefits can be obtained from scheduled usage and someone who is knowledgeable about tanning, its risks and the lotions that can be used for replenishment and the like. 1/2 Baked offerings include tanning beds, a variety of lotions and tanning packages, beginner beds and spray-on tans.

Hofstetter decided she wanted to open 1/2 Baked to create a comfortable, relaxing environment for her customers, and because newer equipment was available. Many customers don't have 20 to 30 minutes to sit on a tanning bed, she said, while 1/2 Baked has 15- and 20-minute beds, and is hoping to have a high pressure bed with a 10- to 12-minute tan time by the middle of the year.

Although newly open, Hofstetter said she has been getting a lot of response, even before tanning season starts toward the end of January.

"It just really picked up," she said. "We're not so busy now as to where we have to have appointments, but it's been busy enough, because it is a new learning experience. It's different having one bed as compared to five and six."

1/2 Baked, open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m to 7 p.m. and Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., has two part-time employees (one of which is Hofstetter's daughter Alysha Fuller) in addition to Hofstetter.