Page 8 | Did anyone else have parents who would toast themselves to a crisp every holiday?

Imreallysnowedunder · 2022-08-10T13:27:59+00:00

Another thread made me think of this. Both my mum and dad would go on holiday and just lie under a baking hot sun on the beach all day. Sometimes they’d briefly dip in the sea but the main portion of the day would be spent roasting. They would both get extremely narky with me if I sought shade.

BryceQuinlanTheFirst · 11/08/2022 11:02

Yes and my mum was top less 😆.

My DH calls those people rotisserie chickens on holidays.

I get a spray tan and lie in shade with factor 50 so I come back lighter than I go ha.

Baggyeye · 11/08/2022 11:06

The Greek people were using the pool and beach from 6pm it was only mad dogs & Englishmen that were there all day & then leaving the pool / beach at 5 to get ready for dinner!

Reallyreallyborednow · 11/08/2022 11:18

As a result most drs will instruct people to put on sun cream after at least 15mins in the sun to give the body a chance to absorb vitamin D

advice is to put suncream on 30 mins before going out, and again immediately before- see NHS advice attached.

also your body does not “absorb” vitamin d, it makes it from cholesterol.

this will still happen if you use suncream, and there has never been any link to daily sunscreen use and vit d deficiency.

so maybe get your facts straight before you start calling people snowflakes.

Did anyone else have parents who would toast themselves to a crisp every holiday?

User639921 · 11/08/2022 11:23

I'm in my 60s so would probably be the age of a lot of the parents spoken of on this thread, I remember using suntan cream as a child in the 60s, it was called Cooltan and was very expensive and probably the only one available, I think we had one family tube between 4 of us for the whole holiday (UK)

In the 80s DH and I would go to Greece and roast on the beach or near the pool all day starting off with factor 4 and then 2 and when we had got our base brown usually after burning we used the oil, some people I think used olive oil and vinegar but I did use proper sun oil.

I now have lots of sun damage marks on my skin which are actinic keratosis so keep well covered now.

LovinglifeAF · 11/08/2022 11:25

Not so much that but I don’t think they realised you could get sunscreen above about factor 4. Sunburn was very much a feature.

BryceQuinlanTheFirst · 11/08/2022 11:28

I see a huge number in their 50s, 60s, 70s with sun damage on their face and chest. I'm early 30s and so careful with sun protection.

DeltaFlyer · 11/08/2022 12:05

My fil will sit in the sunshine as much as possible sans suncream. He will usually look quite purple. Dh recalls never having suncream applied as a child (born in 77).
I (born 1990) always had it applied. Even now on a day at the beach he won't touch the stuff and always burns. I am a shade seeker.
I apply it literally to ds although both pil and dh tell me it isn't needed..Ds also has long sleeved and legged swimming gear for the beach.

woodhill · 11/08/2022 15:58

FishinthePerculator · 11/08/2022 10:01

Fair, ginger Scot here. Daughter of sunworshippers with darker complexions.
We would holiday abroad every summer in the 80s and had the same experiences as described here. Dad never wore sunscreen, in fact we had an argument about this just last week. He was in the army, stationed in Libya and Cyprus for years in the 60s and apparently his sergeant major disallowed any form of sunscreen as it was for cissies. They were told they had to live like the locals who didn’t go around seeing protection from the sun. My dad still lives by these values to this day. So when we were on holiday in the 80s, he wouldn’t apply anything. Mum would use factor 4 for the first couple of days (to acclimatise) and then move to the carrot oil. I’d be left to my own devices.
We would sit by the pool or beach all day every day. I’d be responsible for checking the time so that mum could keep rolling over and ensure she was getting an even tan.

I remember, when new flights from the UK would arrive, a shout would go up from poolside “here come the milk bottles” and everyone would laugh at the newcomers with pale skin, next to our much more attractive bright red or deep mahogany shades. I frequently blistered and was in pain.
I remember once my legs got so burnt and blistered that I had to stay in bed for two days – I could barely walk. Of course all that happened was that the rest of the family jeered about all the lovely sun I was missing. Peeling was a competitive sport – we would peer strips off ourselves in the evenings – burning was a precursor to tanning and the more we peeled, the better the tan would be.
And the tan, of course, was just to show off to people back home that we had been away.

Mum and dad took things a step further and ended up moving abroad to one of their favourite holiday destinations. They still spend most of their days sitting in the sun, burning to a crisp and showing off their amazing healthy tans on video calls. Mum has had three lots of melanoma removed but says it’s nothing to worry about – it’s not proper cancer apparently, just a procedure that people in hot countries have to have from time to time. I’m terrified about the damage caused to my skin in early life but haven’t found anything to worry about yet.
Apart from the damaging aspects, as others have said, I just remember being so bored all the time. I can’t imagine spending weeks on end just lying still under intense heat. I do love the feeling of warmth on my skin but am fanatical about high factor sunscreen now (I wear spf on my face year round), as well as staying in the shade as much as possible. I also can’t cope with heat above 24 degrees.

Is this a class thing to show people you could afford to go abroad?

Dalaidramailama · 11/08/2022 16:00

Absolutely not. Irish, ginger parents 😂.

MotherOfPuffling · 11/08/2022 16:07

Oh Lord yes! We could never afford to go away on holiday, but lived by the sea and every day not spent at school was spent either in the garden or at the beach, with my mum and grandparents soaking up the sun and my dad running around being all active while I hid in the shade with a book. Mum even used a kind of mirror thing to reflect the sun up under her chin to help her neck to tan when she was lying on her back! I am v pale, only member of my family with skin like this, and I don’t tan, ever, while they all got 70s/80s conker tans. Mum regrets it now as she is somewhat, hmm, handbag like shall we say?! Me I regret the annual second degree burns I used to get, complete with blisters, the scarring I still have as a result, and the fact that I’ve a much higher risk of skin cancer as a result. I never set foot outside without sun cream these days, even in winter 😊

BryceQuinlanTheFirst · 11/08/2022 16:08

I hate seeing when people are so red. My Auntie was in the garden this week, she'd been told by her GP that she shouldn't get so burnt (in about something else). I urged her to use the factor 50 I had. She begrudgingly used three small pumps for her entire body.... Ie no point bothering.

I can't understand it.

woodhill · 11/08/2022 16:11

People are so obsessed with looking youthful so it doesn't correlate with this blasé attitude to tanning and sun safety

Remember Bergasol in the 80s

WhereAreMyAirpods · 11/08/2022 16:28

There was definitely sun cream in the 80s/70s. But it was sun tan lotion, not sun protection. And usually 2, 4, 8. I think the most I ever remember was 15. It was definitely a thing to use a higher (like 8 or 10) factor for a few days and then aim to not use any at all. It wasn't available in places like supermarkets though, you had to go to Boots and it was expensive. Or order from the Avon lady. At the same time, stock up on the blue bottle of "after sun" to cool down your skin after getting burned. Not getting burned in the first place didn't seem to be an option.

And @woodhill I think it was partly a class thing. Package holidays in the 70s/80s meant people could afford to go abroad who had never been able to afford it in the past. People who had always been wealthy enough to travel couldn't give two hoots whether they had a deep tan or not. But people who were not accustomed to being overseas wanted a visible sign of their being able to afford it. Same as when my granny bought her council house the first thing she did was change the (perfectly good) front door so that everyone knew.

User639921 · 11/08/2022 16:57

It did used to be a thing that when you went red (burnt), which was almost expected, that a few days later you would turn lovely and brown

ReneBumsWombats · 11/08/2022 17:17

User639921 · 11/08/2022 16:57

It did used to be a thing that when you went red (burnt), which was almost expected, that a few days later you would turn lovely and brown

Does the burnt skin not just peel off, revealing pale skin underneath?

ThickCutSteakChips · 11/08/2022 17:25

ReneBumsWombats · 11/08/2022 17:17

Does the burnt skin not just peel off, revealing pale skin underneath?

Show quote history

No, if I burn and peel, I do go quite a nice shade of tanned aftera few days. I try not to burn in the first place these days though!

Festoonlights · 11/08/2022 17:29

These threads are always started by pale people with blue legs that look terrible in summer clothes and hate the fact they go from blue to red and that’s it!
They will try and tell us it’s terrible to be outside
God forbid! But it’s really about something else. I have a friend just like this! Everyone rolls their eyes - we all know she’s uncomfortable with herself

PeloAddict · 11/08/2022 17:30

@Festoonlights I burn after 10 mins so I'm not spending any time without spf unless it's before 9.30am or after 5pm
I get vitamin D from a supplement as I won't get a golden glow no matter how hard I try, I'm pale blue porcelain and that's my skin colour. Which is perfectly healthy and needs a bit more care so I don't burn

ReneBumsWombats · 11/08/2022 17:31

Festoonlights · 11/08/2022 17:29

These threads are always started by pale people with blue legs that look terrible in summer clothes and hate the fact they go from blue to red and that’s it!
They will try and tell us it’s terrible to be outside
God forbid! But it’s really about something else. I have a friend just like this! Everyone rolls their eyes - we all know she’s uncomfortable with herself

What's it really about?

PeloAddict · 11/08/2022 17:33

Festoonlights · 11/08/2022 17:29

These threads are always started by pale people with blue legs that look terrible in summer clothes and hate the fact they go from blue to red and that’s it!
They will try and tell us it’s terrible to be outside
God forbid! But it’s really about something else. I have a friend just like this! Everyone rolls their eyes - we all know she’s uncomfortable with herself

I'm not uncomfortable with myself at all, I'm uncomfortable with the sun! I get headaches easily, overheat and have had heatstroke before on sports day as a kid
I burn after 10 mins, less if it's peak UV. Making sure every inch is covered in spf 50, repeat as needed, covering up, finding shade. It's just a ball ache TBH so I prefer to just stay in during the hottest hours

There's nothing wrong with pale skin, it's my natural skin colour. I get sick of people asking why I haven't tanned, have I not been away, could I not put some fake tan on, blah blah

WantSomeEqualitea · 11/08/2022 17:45

Definitely. I was the odd one out in our family of 4, 3 of them with olive skin and me with pale blue skin and freckles. My Dad would complain about me sitting in the shade when he'd "paid good money for me to look like I'd been on holiday" On one occasion they hired a sun bed and insisted I use it in the run up to a holiday. This was late 90s/early 00s!

Tilly10too · 11/08/2022 17:59

Yeah, my mum is basically a walnut through sun damage. I think she regrets it now though. I always found sun bathing so boring, so would read in the shade or swim a bit. When I was older I'd go on trips to museums by myself.

Spudlet · 11/08/2022 18:03

@Festoonlights You know sun-cream
isn’t compulsory, right? If you want to slather yourself in olive oil until you sizzle, knock yourself out. 🤷‍♀️

Although according to a friend who has been, on certain beaches in Australia they have people walking around like sunscreen ghostbusters who squirt anyone they think is burning…! So maybe steer clear of those places 😂

User639921 · 11/08/2022 18:18

ReneBumsWombats · 11/08/2022 17:17

Does the burnt skin not just peel off, revealing pale skin underneath?

Show quote history

Not if you have a bit of a base tan and don't go too red, it did sometimes peel a little bit but not much, if your skin was very white then any burn would peel straight off but this red to brown stage was generally a few days into a holiday, I'm sure no one would do this now but this was mainly in the 70s and 80s when people basted themselves in oils. Actually I'm sure I can remember DM saying to me, probably in the 70s, you will go lovely and brown when the redness fades

Kteeb1 · 11/08/2022 18:18

My mum was the opposite. I'd be slathered I'm suncream and made to wear a t-shirt and hat in the pool. Glad I never had to be rescued from the water as I'd slip right out of any life guards hands. My husband on the other hand, his mum would bake and would put tanning oil on all of them. Twas a simpler time.