To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

My mum was actually pretty militant about sun protection for the time. It's just that when 15 was the strongest sun cream you could buy, it still wasn't that strong. I do remember getting red, but not to blister or peeling stage, so definitely better than a lot of my friends who "burnt to tan". I do remember mum getting very cross with my dad when he took me to a water park and didn't reapply the cream, so I burnt. I have carried this on and been careful with the sun my whole adult life.

Badly sunburned as a child throughout the 70’s (hotter, sunnier country than the UK).

I have bad sun damage. As soon as I was old enough to take control and have access to sun protection I sorted it out myself, maybe from about age 13, but the damage was done.

I still resent my mother (olive skin, never burned) for letting blistering sunburn happen to me again and again. I remember being bedridden with it when I was 5.

i had my first basal cell carcinoma removed in my 40s.

@fieldsofbutterflies sorry I think I was meant to quote someone else. I definitely agree!

What do you make of all the posts on this thread from posters who were regularly burned to blistering? The posts about scarring and heatstroke and skin cancer in later life? Are we all making it up?

The "building up a base tan" idea doesn't work for those of a naturally pale complexion. Didn't in the 70s and doesn't now.

Yeah, that was kind of my point, lol.

The people who got awful burns in the seventies are the ones who are having cancers and moles removed now.

70s baby here, pale, freckly always burned, never tanned. Sun cream was rarely used. Have already had one non melanoma skin cancer removed....

I used to get horrendous sunburn, my mum didn’t like the feel of sun cream so she either didn’t put it on or such a small amount it did nothing. My dads hands were so rough I didn’t like him putting it on

red head here with classic pale skin born in the mid 50s spent most of the summer a pretty shade r red with millions of freckles

I was born in the 1960s and, as young children, we had baby oil put on us. It did protect us a bit but paler family members did get sunburn a little.

I'm quite lucky as I only go brown, albeit slowly. During the 1980s I used tanning oil to get a deeper tan. I'm much more careful these days and tend to use factor 15 on exposed areas.

I remember having the hump about having to put on sunscreen when I was on holiday in Spain in the early 60's . I was about 6 or 7 . My mum pinned me down and smothered me. I was playing with a brother and sister the same age as me and their mum didn't smother them. I moaned every time she put it on me until one morning they didn't come out to play. They had such severe sunburn their back was one huge blister. I can remember seeing it clearly even now some 50 odd years later. It was awful and they were in such pain. Mum didn't need to actually pin me down after that.

The sun is the sun wether it’s here or abroad. Sun rays/UV light can also go through cloud. It doesn’t have to be a blazing hot day. A ‘base tan’ does not mean you can’t get skin cancer.

Also many people could have gotten skin cancer many decades ago but not realised it before more was known about it. Many probably died from melanomas and spread and knew nothing.

Sunscreen isn’t over hyped it’s saving lives all over the world. We’ve had several people who work with the elderly in this thread state it’s very common in the generations from the 40s onwards….. we’ve had people that have had nasty cancers removed.

I was burned as a kid in the 80s and probably didn’t use enough sun cream as a teen in the 90s. But i’ve looked after my skin ever since.

i was born early 80s and always burnt on holidays. always naked too with no sun cream

Plus I think increase in skin cancer could be linked to more travel abroad. I’m in Cyprus at the moment and the amount of roasted english hams walking about it shocking. I’d rather look like a milk bottle.

Skin cancer can take years to develop, most aren’t quick. Plus I think increase in skin cancer could be linked to more travel abroad. I’m in Cyprus at the moment and the amount of roasted english hams walking about it shocking. I’d rather look like a milk bottle.

I burnt a lot as child in the 70s. But I also remember covering up a lot because people felt it was perfectly okay to openly comment on how pale you were 🙄. Like a PP, I can remember people saying "You dont look like you've been away" if you came home without a physically impossible to acquire tan.

My neck and top of the chest is where you can see the most sun damage now. Can still get caught out there if out on a hot day.

In the seventies nobody wore sunscreen and now, forty odd years later, rates of skin cancer are at their highest.

I wonder if there could be a connection? 😬

I grew up in 80s/90s and my mum always put suncream on us

It would explain the huge amount of skin cancer in the uk.

Yes, we burned! Getting sunburn was an annual rite of passage, peeling was a mark of honour, and "taking a tan" was considered a big compliment. I have lots of sun damage on my face, arms and upper back.

One of the few things I ever blew my stack about with my parents when I had my own children was their attitude to sun protection. By then, parents were taught to be meticulous about protecting our children from sunburn, and I was hot on hats, shirts and sunscreen, but my parents held on to the belief that a scorching did the children good, and would be like, "Oh, they screamed and ran away when I tried to put the sun cream on, and they look like a clown in that stupid hat," or, "Auntie Jeannie kindly offered to take them to the beach, and we gave her the sun cream, but you know what she's like, she has to do everything her own way and she brought them back like wee beetroots."

And also I think back then the ozone layer was thicker?

Grew up in the 80s/90s, never had sun cream on us and have no recollections of being burned - but I don’t remember starting to burn in the sun until I was pregnant as an adult. Now I need liberal lashings of the stuff!

Edited to add - I’m from the generation that put baby oil on as a teen and went to sunbathe though so perhaps we weren’t the smartest in the sun anyway

I remember my Mum putting Nivea face cream on me in the 60s

I remember dDad getting an absolute bollocking from a French pharmacist when I was around 7 or 8. My back was blistered, it was horrific. I'm fair, rest of the family not so much. I'd had suncream on but didn't reapply when in and out of the sea (iirc the instructions weren't clear on this, and as a pp said around factor 15 was highest). Pharmacist was lovely to me and dressed the blisters). Don't think I took my t-shirt off in the sun for years after that!

Many years later I had a few moles removed (all clear but had looked dodgy/were catching on my bra strap and bleeding). Still got loads of moles but so far (40 odd years later) no other permanent damage 🤞

Actually, I may be doing my parents a disservice. I remember being told to put a t-shirt on at the beach (UK and abroad) if our shoulders went red. I recall lots of summer photos of us in swimsuits and tshirts😂

The smell of aftersun takes me straight back to childhood summers. Aftersun stopped you burning, right?

Oh, and peeling sheets of skin off ourselves at service stations on the long road home from France.

And starting off on the factor 20, before dropping down to 12 then 8 (foreign holidays after the Doctor Scolding year).

Joy.

And yes, I keep an eye on moles.

I remember a heatwave in the early 90's
where my back got so badly burnt,it was one big scab

I remember my mother picking bits off-she didn't believe in suncream

I remember saving up for a bottle from mothercare/boots as a skint single mum to my baby in the late 90's and her being puzzled and shouting that I'd wasted my money

The first and last time I allowed her to take the kids to the beach,she didn't bother putting any on them (even tho I'd given her a brand new bottle,the kids kept telling her 'mum makes us put cream on' and me phoning her to remind her)

She 'forgot' apparently