AIBU to think that sun cream was rarely used in the 70s? Recovering from the big C.

[Serendipity12]

So, am always paranoid about sun exposure with my two DCs and with good reason - 6 years ago I was diagnosed with malignant melanoma. Luckily am still here but it really got me thinking back and as I was growing up, although we rarely went abroad, like all other kids I enjoyed playing out and about and I have no recollection of ever being slathered in sun cream. Do remember the calamine lotion for occasional sun burn though😬
Not meaning to be judgey of my parents but is this the experience of other similarly aged people on here? Because it was obviously a factor in me developing that disease. Just trying to get perspective, really...

I remember my mum putting sun cream on us, Ambre Solaire. No idea what factor.

This was in the 70s, I meant to add

Yes that was my experience as a child growing up in the UK in the 60s, and I also had skin cancer as an adult.

Born in mid 50s, no sun protection except a hat! Mum used to use olive oil and vinegar to get a tan. I remember the vile smell.

Don't remember getting burnt as a young child despite this but definitely over did it quite a few times in my teens and 20s especially on holidays abroad. Also lived in Spain for a number of years so quite a bit of exposure then, albeit protected.

I do worry that it might come back to haunt me one day and look at any moles or marks with suspicion. Fortunate so far but.....

None in the 60s and only a bit in the early 70s. People usually slathered on factor 2 and used shiny deflectors to tan their faces! A tan was considered healthy. Late 70s-80s people were getting a bit more clued up but still only on the beach. Wearing it daily is a much more recent thing.

Yes same here and was born early 70s. We are a fair haired, pale skinned, freckled family. I do remember bottles of Avon sun cream but factor 8 or 10, certainly not 15 and higher. Sun cream was only ever used on the hottest days when we were outside all the time. (And we never went abroad). I have lots of memories of sunburn. Just wasn't a big deal.

My parents are better now and will put cream on the kids on warm days. But they only ever buy factor 5 or 10 for themselves and never, ever use it when they are in the UK. In the 70s, dad used to put veg oil on while sunbathing.....

Born late 70s, I remember dad wearing it because of his fair skin but mum has olive skin and we didn't wear it.

I work in elderly care and 4 of my contacts have skin cancer of some kind. Not one of them was a sun bather, 2 worked outside a lot (builder and policeman) and the other 2 were prolific gardeners.

In the 80s as a teen i never wore suncream. Early 90s it was all about Hawaiyan Tropic (sp?) which was mostly just scented oil. Factor 1 probably.

Rest of the 90s when i had my oldest 3 DDs i sought out decent cream for them for the beach and knew to have them in oversized T shirts for sandcastles and running around ect. Decent factor was quite £££ iirc. At home I kept them lightly covered for playing in the garden in the sun. Had youngest 5 years ago and the high factor creams and spray on creams are easy to use and easy toget hold of. No excuse these days.

I was born mid seventies. When abroad as a young child I can remember my mum thinking that sun cream would give her a better tan than without. She used to make me do her back, and I wasn't allowed any sun cream. Then she wondered why I always got a tan and she didn't.

She copped on by the time I was 8/9 though.

Oh and it was most definitely "suntan" cream, lotion, oil. A product to help you get a tan.

Redhead, pasty and freckled. Never had a hat, never mind sunblock - that was for stupid people who went abroad, apparently, and if somebody wanted a tan they should put oil (cooking oil, not even Olive Oil) on their skin.

I remember lots of days with heatstroke, the last being aged 14 with my mother bellowing at me that I was embarrassing her by passing out on the street in the middle of the town centre at 1pm in 85 degree heat.

My freckles joined up by the time I was about 6.

Sunburn was the norm in the 80s and 90s.........I remember going into school after the hols and comparing our burns. And there would always be the one twat in the class ready to aim a slap on the singed bits. 🙄 Huge blisters and peeling skin were normal.

That just wouldn't be acceptable now. My DC have never had sunburn........DD got a slightly red chest when walking on the beach once. I was horrified although it was pretty much gone the next day. Absolutely nothing like what we had as kids.

I remember holidaying abroad and rationing the one bottle of sun cream between 3 of us. Once it was gone, that was it.........I also remember collapsing from sun stroke.

You could get it in the 70s. I know because first time we went on holiday with the IL (in 1997) they had their factor 2 bought in the 70s and had "lasted" that long.

They tried my factor 30 and were surprised to find it worked.

born 1963 and remember Ambre Solaire oil being used as a kid. Also remember using Bergasol which smelled great circa 1978/9
I remember however my Mam using olive oil and vinegar on her skin!!!

I think there’s more to MM than sun. My dad died of it in the early 90s and had never been burnt and hated the sun. Never went abroad and never sat in the garden.

I don't remember using sun cream at all as a child or teenager (I was born late 50's).

We played out all summer and were always brown. As a teenager I remember going on long walks in halter neck tops or bikinis etc and us all getting very burned. My older sister spent hours lying on the lawn in the sun - I think she put oil on herself - she definitely fried, and burned - I remember her peeling off long strips of skin !

So yes - safety in the sun pretty non existant - I'm vigilant over moles, odd skin marks etc. My parents also both permanently tanned and very much outdoors people - lived until their nineties (my Mum is still alive at 97) but I imagine they were lucky. I hope my sisters and I are lucky too - I've always been super vigilant about my children being protected (especially as my son is a red head).

I remember the days when factor 8 was the highest available. I burnt to a crisp regularly (fair-skinned redhead). My more olive-skinned mother OTOH could use Ambre Solaire oil which had a gorgeous smell but no protection at all.

I regularly use factor 30 and 50 now, brilliant stuff. As yet, my DD has never had sunburn (she also has more olive skin than me though) and I think that's due to the much higher factors available nowadays.

I was a teenager in the summer of 76 which was notoriously long and hot. I went on a week long school residential and iirc not one of us wore sunblock. My precocious BFF bought a bottle of cooking oil to baste herself with and also had a tin foil lined neck visor thing to reflect extra rays from her neck to her face. She remained lily white and still is to this day.

I was born in the early 80s.
My mother used a little sunscreen on the beach (usually factor 15) but nowhere else. I was terribly sick from heatstroke for 2 weeks when I was 5, but nothing changed. I remember burning every summer (we lived in France) and Mum calling it "nice colours".

When I was a teen and decided to wear hats, T-shirts and sunscreen she repeatedly called me a "milkman's shit".

When she got skin cancer in her 50s, she could not understand why.

Witchend - They tried my factor 30 and were surprised to find it worked

I remember as a young teen in the 80s not being too sure if the idea was for the cream to help you tan or to stop it. Consequently i rarely bothered. One time i did bother i remember putting some on my shins really slapdashly (is that a word?) because i was going to a festival out in the sun all day and felt i should. I had an actual perfect white hand shape on one thigh the next day where i'd not rubbed it in. I was well impressed and amazed!

I remember my gran had a factor 2 bottle of Hawaiian tropic tanning oil which she used to put on us occasionally. We never wore cream at home (80's) but on holiday would very occasionally get oiled if it was particularly hot. I don't remember getting burned though either.

I've made my young self sound quite thick with that last post, but i just didn't know back then, y'know?

Born mid '70s. We only used suncream when we were in holiday in Spain. And even then it was only factor 5 or 10 for my very fair skinned red-haired sister, and factor 2 for me as I am more olive skinned! After the first few days, once I'd 'browned up nicely' according to my mother, she wouldn't bother putting it on me any more. My poor sister would end up with blisters and whole sheets of skin peeling off

As a teenager I insisted on wearing factor 50 and staying in the shade. I still wear factor 50 daily in my 40s. My mum still rolls her eyes and recalls how I lectured them all about suntans being 'radiation burns' - she tells me everyone looks better with a bit of colour and still sunbathes whenever she can. My sister, who has had moles removed ffs, still tries to go brown and looks a good ten years older than me despite being five years younger.

I was born late 70s and suncream was only used on beach holidays. We used factor 6 or 8. Eventually my parents cottoned on that I kept getting sunburnt and they bought factor 12, which I think was the highest widely available at the time. I remember in the 90s they introduced the idea of using at least Factor 15, which was considered a very high factor at the time.

Another 50s child here. Fair skinned. No sunscreen but DM made sure we had loose tops over swimsuit or shorts in the garden or beach. Mostly we didn't actually want to be in full sun all day and made dens or whatever in shaded places or went indoors.
I did the same with my 70s born children. I remember being told about P20 in 1979/80 and being amazed that it worked! Factor 20 seemed so high back then.
We all use SPF30 or higher routinely in summer these days.