Childhood sunburn from the 80s

[Iceniii]

I use to burn a lot in the 80s and probably 90s. DB and I use to have competitions on the largest piece of skin we could pull off. My nose use to peel dreadful. Having watched a non blood relative die of skin cancer, does anyone else really worry? I don't think my parents knew about suncream and if they did it would be factor 6 or 8 once a day. I use factor 50 now but think the damage has been done.

The last time I went abroad I came back the same colour as I wore factor 30 and stayed under a shade. My husband has photosensitivity due to lupus so we were really careful. The first thing people at work said was ‘where is your tan?’ I said I stayed in the shade with DH and got told ‘you should have left him in the shade and got yourself tanned. I don’t want a tan, it’s skin damage.

We used to go abroad every year wheb I was young tbh my mum was very vigilant even in the 80,s about getting su burnt, she used to make sure we always had sun cream, and wore t shirts in the pool when we were swimming, and never let us out in the midday heat, she had lived in Spain for a year though when she was in her 20,s
Sadly my cousin died of brain mets when she was 24 from skin cancer, so I'm very vigilant around my boys.

My DM had skin cancer a couple of years ago. She told me in the 80s they used to pour baby oil or even cooking oil all over themselves to get a better tan. She also abused sunbeds right up until the mid 00s so she wasn’t surprised. It was caught quickly and gone within a couple of months so she was lucky, it does thankfully have a high survival rate anyway.

I burnt quite a lot as a child in the 90s and early 00s. I’m sure we applied suncream but obviously not enough. Worst sunburn I had was on holiday in Mexico, my whole torso was tomato red and I was honestly in agony.

I felt so awful on a holiday in Majorca when my daughter was about four. She was wearing an all-in-one UV swim suit with short sleeves and short legs, jumping up and down in the waves, the bottoms of her legs and her arms and face sunblocked. What I didn't realise was that as she jumped, the legs were riding up about half a centimetre and she burned: little rims of pink around each thigh. It only took half an hour and we thought we had been so careful.

Yep i used to burn all the time. Probably several times a year just from being out in the UK sun.

Holidays my mum used to hire a sun bed before we went and make us use it to build up a base tan so we wouldn’t burn. Then it was factor 5 for a week and factor 3 or nothing for the rest.

I have a lot of discoloured patches, skin tags and moles now.

It's that generation who still think a tan looks healthy they don't get its a sign of skin damage.

Things that blur the message don't help. Thing's like staying out of the sun between 12 and 2, which latitude do they actually mean? 🤔

I can see the logic if your talking about Spain or South of England but maybe not in Scotland where the sun isn't as strong.

Thanks for that post with the increasing in SPF I didn't realise the difference was so little. And kids do need some Vit D too.
I think I'll drop down the factors for home.

It's that generation who still think a tan looks healthy they don't get its a sign of skin damage

I don’t think it’s generational. Or else there would be more people flaunting naturally pale skin. Fake tan or sun induced, the narrative is still “i look so much healthier with a tan”

I remember sun cream featuring a lot in my childhood, but the norm was Factor 8 (we were not a family who tanned easily! 😂), factor 15 if we wanted high protection and when we went to Florida when I was 11 the Factor 25 big guns being brought out and everyone saying how that was total overkill! No rash vests or anything either, which for me now are the main line of defence against sunburn for my kids, much less arsing around with cream etc!

I don't bother buying anything below 30 these days either.

I have had some serious sunburns in my time so am expecting some form of skin cancer in my life. I have already had a different type of cancer in my thirties already too, so am quite vigilant looking at moles and marks on DH and I.

Do they not have skin clinics you could go to? I’m in Australia and just have a skin check every year to look at every little mole, freckle and skin mark.

Yes The Mole clinic is good here. It is about £100 at least a pop so in understand why some people don’t want to pay that.

GPs no good I find!

Yes that’s quite a lot. We pay about half that - competition I guess as we have clinics all over the place.
What I will say to you all though is that when I had my first check the Dr doing it said “ah I can see you didn’t grow up here as you have such good skin!”
She said that although people would get burnt in the U.K., they didn’t have the level of skin damage that Australians get just by their incidental level of sun exposure.
Skin cancer is very easy to treat if you catch it early so just keep an eye on moles or go to a skin check clinic once a year. £100 isn’t too bad for peace of mind.

Not a worry at all because we only needed sun cream on holiday in Devon, where we were locked in the house before the factor 50 was applied.

Where we lived in London it was a frippery, an affectation used by middle class mummies. There is no skin cancer in London you see

@Reallyreallyborednow

It's that generation who still think a tan looks healthy they don't get its a sign of skin damage

I don’t think it’s generational. Or else there would be more people flaunting naturally pale skin. Fake tan or sun induced, the narrative is still “i look so much healthier with a tan”

The thing is, most people do look healthier with a bit of a tan. I am so pale i am almost see through and i have spent half my life people asking "are you ill" and i cant stand it! I look healthier with a tan, i feel better having had the warmth on my skin. I use suncream and i dont allow myself to burn but if any tan is skin damage then frankly i'll take it if it means i feel better about myself.

I’m in Australia and just have a skin check every year to look at every little mole, freckle and skin mark.

I know an Australian mole checker. He is the most depressing person to be around.

The thing is, most people do look healthier with a bit of a tan

Is that culture though? We are conditioned to think tan= healthy, in the same way people always think they look ill without make up. I saw an interesting article the other day about a journo who always wore make up, thought she looked ill and tired without it. Then lockdown, stopped with make up, but by the end had grown used to how she looked bare faced and realised it was all self conditioning.

I love pale. I don’t like how I look with a tan. I don’t think I look healthier, i look older, my wrinkles are more defined, skin tone is uneven, and I just look like I’ve been left in the oven too long.

I think I look far healthier pale. Same with most people. When I’ve been to certain countries in my youth my pale skin was much admired. My dc have inherited my colouring and they have lovely skin. They look no better with a tan.

My DM has just had a melanoma excised off her scalp. She never sunbathed, never went on holidays abroad except a coach trip to Belgium. She wore a hat or sat and walked in the shade, stayed indoors on hot days. Although living on the coast we hardly went down the beach and then She would be covered up.

She unfortunately ticks a lot of skin cancer boxes, red haired, blue eyes, pale and freckled skin. Her GP, Dermalology and Plastics Consultants were quite surprised is was a melanoma because it didn't look text book.

No, we didn't spend summers getting burnt. We are slightly brown though so maybe that's why.

I've only ever burnt twice in my life, once when I was 18 in Ayia napa, I peeled ever so slightly on my shoulders and then 2003/2004 I sat in a park in the UK smothered in baby oil. Yes, I did get burnt. Yes, I could peel of great swathes of skin. I could barely sit back on the sofa. It was horrendous and I've always been very careful with sun cream since.

In the 80s I put sun cream, hats and t-shirts on my kids in the summer when it was hot. They got brown but never burned, even though we lived by the sea for a time and they spent a lot of time on the beach.

I now use sunscreen myself but not every day - certainly not in the winter months - and no more than factor 30 occasionally on my face. (My own sunburn back in the 1950s doesn’t seem to have done any discernible harm.)

@Etulosba

I’m in Australia and just have a skin check every year to look at every little mole, freckle and skin mark.

I know an Australian mole checker. He is the most depressing person to be around.

I can imagine! Luckily the woman who examines me is very jolly plus I especially like her as she said I had “the skin of someone 10 years younger” so she’s officially one of my favourite people.

I’ve worn factor 25 on my face since I was 15 as my mum said when she was you g she loved the look of Elizabeth Taylor who never tanned so she went for that pale skin look too. Plus I’m fair so it’s easy to stay out of the sun. I have burned before but never too badly as I can almost see my skin cooking.
My son is the same, very fair skin and hair so always wears long sleeved rashie, board shorts to his knees and factor 50 on his face. My other son is more olive skinned and I can see how it would be easy to take sun care less seriously as he doesn’t burn easily.

My Mum is obsessed with having a tan. Her main priority when buying a house is a garden that's full sun all day.

When we were little we were given sun in spray to lighten our hair and sent outside, I don't think she ever bought suncream. Holidays were a competition to see who had the deepest tan and we were encouraged to spend loads of time in the pool for an even one.

She's had several skin cancers removed and my sister has had several dodgy looking moles removed.

As children in the 60s, the only time we used sunscreen was on holidays abroad. The smell of Ambre Solaire always brings back memories.

For those of you who always avoid the sun please make sure to get vitamin d levels checked. You can always take a supplement if they are low... But avoiding the sun + plus living in northern climate is perfect recipe for low vitamin d... Which can increase your risk of heart disease and some cancers by really high amounts. So please go get it checked.

Holidays were a competition to see who had the deepest tan and we were encouraged to spend loads of time in the pool for an even one.

I'd forgotten about people doing that, putting arms together to compare tans.

You've reminded me of someone who only tried to tan her forearms so she could compare tans. Sun bathed with Head under a brolly, legs under a towel, just the arms getting the sun.

@Reallyreallyborednow

The thing is, most people do look healthier with a bit of a tan

Is that culture though? We are conditioned to think tan= healthy, in the same way people always think they look ill without make up. I saw an interesting article the other day about a journo who always wore make up, thought she looked ill and tired without it. Then lockdown, stopped with make up, but by the end had grown used to how she looked bare faced and realised it was all self conditioning.

I love pale. I don’t like how I look with a tan. I don’t think I look healthier, i look older, my wrinkles are more defined, skin tone is uneven, and I just look like I’ve been left in the oven too long.

I think I look far healthier pale. Same with most people. When I’ve been to certain countries in my youth my pale skin was much admired. My dc have inherited my colouring and they have lovely skin. They look no better with a tan.

Maybe it is conditioning, but I'm never going to change what I think. I really do look ill without a tan.

Weirdly I don't think other people who are pale look ill, and it can suit the right person, but generally it can look a bit "never goes outside" which is associated with being unhealthy.