To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

My mother pulled this stunt as well.

I was 12 and remember being really, really vivid red and peeling and flaking off and I couldn't lie down.

She may have mistaken me for a fucking chip that needed frying!

Stupid bitch (long story)

Raised in the 70/ and I was terrible at using sunscreen until my mid 20’s when I came back from a holiday and a girl from New Zealand asked me why I had allowed myself to burn so badly (I thought I looked great!). From then on I was more careful and am to this day. I like being in the sun but never go out without applying sun cream.
To be fair to my parents they did their best to put some cream on me when abroad but it was a thing to soak up the sun and suffer a bit. Really silly and I probably look older than I should now.

YABVU and this thread is very irresponsible to promote that a lack of SPF is in any way acceptable. My Gran, born in 1923 and half Italian was one who used to sun worship while coated in oil and guess what? She ended up with skin cancer. I know at least half a dozen people, including myself, who've had pre-cancerous moles removed in 40's or younger. Imagine we hadn't spotted the signs that they were potentially problematic. Another 20 years and we could all be dead from skin cancer. And we were all born in the 70's and 80's!

It is an ignorant post. Ironically the thought then was that the big danger to kids minds & health was screens. The telly screen that is, or the box what makes you stupid. Our parents had grown up without televisions and didn’t like how it made children fat, lazy and defiant. Filling our heads with dangerous nonsense. So the conscientious parent would limit screen time to one after school show like Blue Peter and send their kids outside to play the rest of the time.

And look, we have come full circle in some ways!

Yeah, my brother and I were in the boot of the hatchback estate car because the three youngest were in the back seat. Seatbelts were optional then too.

Oh, that is so sad. The ones on the scalp often go undetected.

I had two melanoma cancers on my scalp. One was a raised mole on the top of my head that went bad and when I went in complaining how it was itching, hurting, and bleeding they found an even larger flat melanoma on the side of my head! I didn’t even know the larger one existed. Zero symptoms.

I was 26 and it was in the early 90s. Had the full cancer treatment and then plastic surgery so I didn’t have huge bald spots.

I feel very lucky to have survived.
Your poor SIL.

Oh yes, sun burns are just like a burn from a fire and there are different degrees of severity. A bad sunburn will be bright red, skin swollen and inflamed, it can even blister, and then as it heals, the dead skin on top peels off. You can burn on a cloudy day too.

Wow, I don’t realising getting sun burnt was literal. As in skin actually peeling off! New thing learnt today.

We burned during the first day of hot sun, every summer. Calamine lotion was applied afterwards, to little effect. It hurt so we couldn't sleep. Then we peeled; and then sort of hardened off. Ended up lovely and brown as we were outside all the time, and had dark hair and easy skin. It was all considered normal.
The memory gave me the horrors when I had children. I slather factor 50 on at the beginning of the season, and go into shade in the middle of the day, much as I love the sun.

@PippEmma Wonderfully marinated, though. A few mixed herbs in the rub and you would have been perfect!

Holidays abroad in the 1960's, mother covered me in olive oil and left me on the beach all day.
Red and blistered every night😱

I was born in the late 60s, I don't remember ever wearing sun protection as a child but I do remember burning badly in the very hot summer of 76

80's kid here.
No sun cream and lots of sun burns & sun beds as a teen.
1st skin cancer removal this year with an 80% chance of recurrence....paying the price.

My no melanin Celtic skin burnt red raw every year on holiday in west wales. Sun screen never a thing. Lucky we didn’t venture to the Med. 😳

But interesting - the highest number of skin cancer patients - come from those raised with sun cream.

Where's your evidence for this, please?

Thanks @buffyslayer - he has all the cream, he just doesn't top it up during the day, lol 🙄

He has ADHD so I genuinely think he just forgets - it does worry me though!

@fieldsofbutterflies would he use a spray? I recommended one to my dad as he was struggling to get SPF on his feet and had burned them. It's one you don't have to rub in

Chanel popularised suntans in the 1920’s. This is when it became fashionable to get a tan.

They all swanked about in south of France in backless beach pyjamas. This is one of the reasons backless gowns became fashionable in the 1930’s

I have fair skin and was born late 50s. Didnt really get burnt as at first sign of sun early mornng we were thrown out half naked to 'catch the sun' and l just think it was such a gradual process that we tanned gradually. I am early 60s now and often get complimented on my skin and general consensus is l look young for my age. Maybe its just luck or genetics though and me and my Dsis s are the exception.

oh and a lot of people believed it was better to burn first and then you get a deeper tan. I can remember Just 17 and Mizz (teen magazines) having articles on how to get a good tan on holiday. NGL…I still love a good holiday tan even though I know it’s terrible for me

Sun cream was a big factor in life by the late 80s when I had my first. Before that it was cover up or burn for sure.

Nope. We never wore sun cream.

But interesting - the highest number of skin cancer patients - come from those raised with sun cream.

Is it global warming?

Or is it that tans only became popular in the 1980's with people deliberately over-exposing themselves to the sun?

People will quite happily ink, surgically change, bake their bodies in the name of fashion.

We never wore sun cream. But if it was hot, we came inside. We didn't try and tan our skins.

We've worn wide brimmed hats for centuries.

I tend to think sun cream was a response to people wanting to tan as much as their skin as they could. Another extreme pointless fashion.

In the 80s we would get a bit of factor 8 on our shoulders in the morning before hitting the beach or pool on holiday. Maybe reapplied after lunch. My very pale sister stayed in the shade otherwise she would burn so badly it blistered. I tanned easily so played in the blazing heat and would be complimented on my ‘lovely’ tan even at a very young age. How times have changed!

Tim Spector from the Zoe app thinks we over use sunscreen.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/may/13/health-expert-tim-spector-criticised-for-remarks-on-year-round-use-of-sunscreen

My SIL died from skin cancer on her head. She lived a very outdoor life and no one really thought a hat was necessary in the U.K. sun. Absolutely tragic.