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Original poster

To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

485 replies

Leah5678 · 20/05/2024 14:36

Apparently wasn't popularised until the 70s. With children playing outside practically every day back in the days before television was invented how did they not burn? Did they just get used to it?
Apologies if this is an extremely stupid question just something I've been wondering about with the last few days of decent weather

OP posts:
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8
Lurleene · 20/05/2024 14:43

My abiding childhood memories are of being badly sunburnt every time I went out in the sun. I ultimately learnt to stay in in the shade.

Jeannne92 · 20/05/2024 14:43

My mum remembers being sunburned as a child every summer on the beach e.g. Camber Sands in the 50s and 60s.

andHelenknowsimmiserablenow · 20/05/2024 14:43

DM used to make us put baby oil on! She really thought it protected us 😭.
I remember holidays where we had to use 'after sun' spray and peeling the skin off.

BillStickersIsInnocent · 20/05/2024 14:42

Well my mum used to sunbathe using olive oil - in the 50s and 60s.

I grew up in the 80s and I can’t remember using sunscreen in the UK - factor 8 or 12 when on holiday. As a teenager in the 90s we did start to use it more at home, but that was initiated by me reading beauty magazines rather than my parents.

We would tan, or burn. My husband is very pale and tells me stories of him and his brother getting burnt on holiday and peeling sheets of skin off each others backs. Yuk!

SlipperyLizard · 20/05/2024 14:42

I got very badly sunburned on more than one occasion in the early 80s, I can still remember the skin peeling off my back in strips!

vacay · 20/05/2024 14:42

InTheRainOnATrain · 20/05/2024 14:41

No clue about the 1970s but thinking about my French nieces/nephews that live in the south, they spend a lot of time outside all year round, sunscream is really only for the beach or if spending all day by the pool, and so by the time the schools break up for summer they’re all mahogany coloured so don’t tend to burn. MIL looks like an old leather handbag though so it catches up with you in other ways!

🤣

LadyHester · 20/05/2024 14:42

I don’t remember getting burnt just playing outside but certainly did on holiday (1970s) to the point of not being able to sleep. My mother wouldn’t put sun cream on us because she’d read that it could stop you going brown.

Elsewhere123 · 20/05/2024 14:41

Regularly burnt and peeled. Was regarded as normal especially after a trip to the beach.

InTheRainOnATrain · 20/05/2024 14:41

No clue about the 1970s but thinking about my French nieces/nephews that live in the south, they spend a lot of time outside all year round, sunscream is really only for the beach or if spending all day by the pool, and so by the time the schools break up for summer they’re all mahogany coloured so don’t tend to burn. MIL looks like an old leather handbag though so it catches up with you in other ways!

dementedpixie · 20/05/2024 14:39

I have memories of being burnt badly as a child after a trip to the beach. I was born in 1973. I remember peeling skin off after burning on several occasions.