Ryan Udine does not want to be the only one without sun-kissed skin on the beaches of the Caribbean, so he started tanning a few weeks early.

"I go every couple weeks just in the fall and winter to keep some color," Udine (sophomore-recreation and park management) said. "It looks better when you're tan, and it keeps a good complexion."

Udine added that he doesn't want to look different from everyone else.

"I don't want to burn, and I don't want to look pale compared to everyone else," he added.

Billy Blades, owner of Billy Blades, 212 S. Allen St., said that in the weeks before spring break, men constitute 40 percent of his tanning salon clientele.

"No guys come in to use it [tanning beds] all the time," Blades said. "Male students only come in to get color before they go down South."

Although male students tan before spring break, they rarely keep going once they return from their vacations, said Eileen Cramer, owner of Le Salon and Spa, 112 S. Fraser St.

"Tanning is booked solid two weeks prior [to spring break]," Cramer said. "Males come for a little after spring break, but then they just stop."

Gabe Thomas (junior-landscape architecture) said he is going to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, for spring break, and added that he went tanning to avoid sunburn.

Blades said many men go tanning together until they feel comfortable enough to go individually. In Thomas's case, his tanning partner was another fraternity member.

"You know how women can't seem to go to the bathroom alone ... well, men can't tan alone," Blades said.

Although some men have not started to prepare their skin for spring break, some plan to go in the next few days before they leave for their trips.

"I might go once or twice before I leave [for spring break]," Ryan Caruso (sophomore-crime, law and justice) said.

Although Jonah Gottlieb (sophomore-mechanical engineering) said he thinks tanning is a strange thing for guys to do, he does not think it is overly feminine.

"Tanning seems so strange to me since the sun is away in the winter it seems unnatural to be so orange," Gottlieb said. "But there are stranger things you can do to emasculate yourself."

Susan Peterman, manager of Simply Tan, 1635 N. Atherton St., said that once men's vacation is over, some might think tanning is not masculine enough.

"Many of them keep it up, but just not as high numbers," Peterman said.

Travis Dennis (XXX-economics) said he goes to a tanning salon once every 10 days all year and finds that he gets tipped better while bartending.

"I do it for vanity purposes," he said. "I don't like the way I look pale and when I walk out [of the tanning salon] I look better."

University Health Services Marketing Manager Ellen Nagy said that although tanning might help to relieve Seasonal Affective Disorder -- the cause of depression from lack of sunlight -- she does not recommend it.

Nagy said those who go to tanning salons are seven times more likely to get skin cancer than those who do not, and added that other risks include skin and immune system damage.

But Cramer said tanning can enhance muscular figures and overall image.

"Bronze is beautiful," Cramer said. "Guys want to look good too."