To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

Also we never wore sun hats and for years I thought sun hats just make you more hot so why would you wear one

Absolute revelation when I figured out how the hat actually works I still struggle with summer heat but it is slightly more bearable when I know how to manage it.

I was born in the early 1960's and remember getting sunburnt many times. Don't really remember using sun screen as a child but do remember using coconut oil as a teenager!
I don't know when the use of sunscreen changed but my DCs born mid 1990's were definitely slathered in it every time the sun made an appearance.

There is some logic to getting a slow tan as protection. Evolutionary changes have designed us that way. A tan gives you about factor 2/4 protection, similar to those early creams.

I spent a lot of time in Italy as a child from the 60's. I would say DM was careful to keep me in the shade at the hottest times of day, always with a hat, factor 6 cream, and we slept all afternoon, so I don't remember burning as a small child. I also used to get terrible prickly heat, made worse by the cream, so avoided the sun and heat due to that too.

As a teen however, after getting that lovely "base tan", I would lie out with factor 2 body oil. Lovely coconut stuff it was, it was also coloured dark brown, so looked lovely on. I am a blue eyed blond, although not a creamy celt, and now tan really easily. Bit crinkly wrinkly though! I do get my moles checked annually.

We did get burnt. It was just seen as a totally normal thing! People would say "You've caught the sun" and really bad sunburns were seen as something to laugh at

We did wear sun cream when I was a child (which we called "sun tan lotion" even though it was SPF) but as a child I didn't have the mentality to avoid ever getting sunburnt at all. We would basically put sun cream on if we were going to be out for a long time in the middle of the day but I don't remember ever reapplying it, and we wouldn't wear it for school and stuff, like I do for my DC. One bottle used to last us literally years, to the point the SPF had probably totally expired by the end of it. I think we probably only ever had 3 bottles throughout my entire childhood

We had after sun/aloe vera gel to put on sunburn to soothe it, and used this regularly. I am absolutely horrified and really cross at myself if I get sunburnt now and would be upset if the DC got burnt (I think unfortunately DS1 probably did get burnt a couple of times because I was more lax when he was younger).

And this was the 90s. I wasn't born in the 70s.

How do you not remember this? Are you v young, or do you have a skin type which doesn't burn as easily? (I am very pale with ginger genes and have never tanned in my life).

I understood that the reason we are much more hot on sun protection now is because in the past, sunburn was seen as a temporary discomfort (so we'd only bother to try and prevent very bad sunburn) whereas now we recognise that even a "mild" sunburn contributes towards a raised chance of skin cancer in the future. I don't remember thinking about skin cancer in terms of sun protection as a child. Whether that's because it wasn't explained to me or whether it was that the general public weren't really aware of this link I don't know. I knew about the link between smoking and cancer, so I wasn't totally oblivious to cancer risks.

We burnt.

But also there still a bit of ozone layer left at that point.

Who do you have this check with? Would be interested to do this

Late 70s born, never wore suncream in the uk, regularly burnt, would only wear sun protection abroad and only then a very low factor. Got terrible sunstroke abroad as a child as well. I also remember as a teenager slapping on baby oil to get a tan and my best friend slapping on butter!

I grew up in a European country with very hot summers in the 90s. I HATED getting burnt so I used to put factor 15 as a teenager when we went for a day at the (hit Mediterranean) beach. I still tanned and even burned, but not as badly.

My mom, dad, aunties, friends' etc shouting at me still rings in my ears. They were adamant that sun and burning is healthy. Literally none of them admit to this now. They shrug and say I was a kid and making things up. I was 16 and definitely not making it up! I had to buy sunscreen with my allowance as my mum only bought factor 5 oil!

Most of my relatives now look like an old leather sofa.

Our first foreign holidays were in the 70s and the factors back then (from my family's point of view) were factor 4 for the first week and then factor 2 for the second week so you could get a nice colour. Insane now thinking about it.

Was just away last week and wore factor 50 on my face all week and 30 the rest of my body and I am quite sallow so no real burning involved.

Also, on holidays around Ireland in the 70s both of my brothers got sunstroke but still carried on as normal.

A Scottish radio presenter who died of skin cancer said he could directly link the area it occurred to where he was horribly burnt on a Scottish beach as a child.

As a pale ginger in the 70s I spent my childhood either burned or the only kid on the beach with clothes on.

The rest of the time I was hot a red faced mess. There were times that I truly hated the sunny days.

Born early 70’s. I remember the pain of sunburn, blisters and peeling all too well. As early teens we even slathered baby oil all over to get a tan! I didn’t use sunscreen until I went abroad at age 17.
Madness!
I’ve worn high strength protection (daily on my face & on my body between spring-autumn end) since I was early 20’s

This. Born at about same time. Very very fair skinned. I just got burnt all the time. Sunscreen wasn't generally worn by anyone when I was young. It was very expensive and people didn't know how harmful burning was.

Fried pretty regularly as a kid but also not that good with the sun so much more likely to be sat in the shade with a book. Actively avoid the sun and sunbathing as an adult but damage has likely been done. My father has regular chunks of skin removed and weird acid peel stuff. So far nothing worse but he's under active 3-6 month reviews and never goes without having to have some sort of treatment now and that's been the way for 10+ years. He loved the sun so was a real lie in it with factor 2 oil and used to really pressure me to get a tan.

I was born in the late '60s, andf have pale, freckly skin. I remember getting sunburnt each summer on caravan holidays in the UK. Back and nose, usually. The sunburn would hurt - you'd use 'after sun' cream. Then it would blister, then a few days later peel off in sheets. The idea was to go brown as quickly as possible. I remember a particular sun oil, smelled amazing (sort of orangy?). No SPF to speak of, of course...

These days, I keep a close watch on my collection of moles and dark skin marks, for any changes that could indicate melanoma. I use factor 50. I try to stay pale.

We all used to say the same in the '70's:
"I have to go red before I go brown"
It was rare to see any sun factor over 6. Mostly we used Hawian Tropic because of the smell.

Spent lots of years living abroad on a Mediterranean Island and no, local children play out on the beach all day long and I never saw cream used.
That's not to say they didn't use it initially, but they were so tanned by then.
They had probably played on the beach up to 10 hours a day by the end of April onwards.

Dark skinned Siciliani, not Anglo Sax/ Scots/Irish with red hair and Freckles though 😁🌞

80s child and very pale. To my mother's credit she was quite sun safe because she didn't want her children to experience the pain of sunburn...

Yes, I should add that my mum was, in fact, way more attentive about sunburn than most parents were, but 'attentive about sunburn' when I was little meant a bit of Factor 4 on your shoulders and then maybe a bit more later if you seemed to be turning a bit pink. And there was none of the advice then about re-applying frequently, remembering to put more on after swimming, etc.

I remember once, around 1990/1991, that we had a swimming gala at school when I was a teenager (outdoor pool) and we all had to attend even if we weren't competing. There was almost no shade and it was over 30C and everyone was either in their swimsuit if they were competing or a short-sleeved cotton open-necked school shirt and bare legs if they were spectating. Nobody had sunscreen, hats or water and we all went home that day with awful sunburn and belting headaches. A couple of parents (including my dad) wrote letters of complaint - one of my friends was a very pale, freckled redhead (she was Irish and had that classic Irish complexion and beautiful dark red hair, really stunning) and she burned so badly on her legs that her shins blistered.

We used to wait for our mums to fall asleep sunbathing, then put jigsaw pieces on their skin

I am Australian born in the early 70s.

We used to just burn. There was an idea that you had to burn to a tan, so the aim was to burn in the first days peel the skin (we used to sit around and peel each other's skin off like wall paper) and then go through the cycle again.

There's a reason why Australia has the highest skin cancer rate.

My parents were the same. They both have had a number of skin cancers removed and now in their mid 70s they both have a standard 6 month checkup with their skin cancer specialist and usually have something else removed every year or so. My mother a week or so ago had a skin cancer removed from behind her ear. My dad a few months ago got one removed on his back. My dad's first one was when I was about 6 (I recall visiting him in hospital).

My mum got sunburnt a lot in the 60s/70s and now has had skin cancer, I think that's fairly common.
Even in the 90s I remember kids at school often coming in with sunburn and blisters and peeling skin - schools would be reporting parents for neglect if they let their kids get in that state these days.

Me too. Seven surgeries, a year of immunotherapy, permanent side effects from immunotherapy plus my arm is twice the size of the other as it is full of fluid as I had to have my lymph nodes removed.
Stage 4 melanoma is not much fun.

I got sunstroke on holiday (in Somerset!) when I was about seven or eight, and was seen by the holiday park's doctor. After all the usual advice about drinking plenty of fluids etc, he just told my parents to get me a cotton baseball cap to keep the sun out of my eyes in future. Never even mentioned the notion of staying in the shade or whacking a bit of Ambre Solaire on me.

I’ve never had a natural tan in my life, I am pasty white or bright pink with not a hint of tan in between.

Thank heavens for fake tan to make me look slightly less ghostly.

I was born in 1972 and I am paler than a pale thing, and despite a permanently outdoors upbringing I never tanned and just burnt. So due to that and my tendency to get sunstroke my mum got me special permission to wear a hat outside at school and sourced sun cream for me. I still remember being terribly burnt though and all the skin coming off my feet round my sandals.