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...

No I never had sun cream on in the seventies. Burned though, even in Scotland.

I remember factor 2 or 4 (early 80s)

have very very sensitive skin, so I could chose between burning or being itchy all over...

I have s couple of moles under observation but the consultant says she sees quite a few cases of melanoma in people who hardly ever are exposed to the sun at all (housebound or covered up) and she says that sun exposure is only one factor.

I was born in late 60’s. The only dark skinned child out of 4.

I remember m6 siblings always wearing cream, but I don’t remember wearing it very often. Certainly not to go to school.

My mum was usually fully covered by clothes in the sun as medication made her super sensitive,

Grew up in the 80s. Can't recall whether parents put sun cream on me, but I remember them using tanning oil themselves and also having some pretty painful sunburns as a kid on holiday. I think there was a perception it would 'turn into' a suntan but I've always had much fairer skin than anyone else in my family so it just peeled eventually.

Since being a teenager I've put high factor suncream on myself.

Had MM (stage 1) earlier this year - on one of my boobs so no idea whether it was related to sun exposure as I've never sunbathed topless! But now reading this post has made me wonder whether damage could have been done years ago. I think I might have been one of those unlucky things though.

My parents were born in the 40’s and their DC’s the 80’s. They were about suncream over factor 15 as they they thought it was OTT.

Born early 70’s and age 11/12 spent a couple of summers slathering baby oil on to cook ourselves because that’s what our friends older sisters did to get a tan I got badly burned instead and my skin peeled off in sheets.

We then moved onto Hawaiian Tropic tanning oil which also didn’t have an SPF.

I don’t go below factor 15 even out and about in the U.K. now.

Born mid-70s
I remember the lovely smell (coconut?) of Ambre Solaire oil. Factor 2 or something. I do remember my parents giving us suncream, again with a very distinctive smell. Only for the beach tho. Never for day to day life. Everyone was really brown during an 80s summer. I’m talking verging on mahogany. Got burned now and then as a kid and as a teen I got sun stroke. I learned my lesson from that, definitely. It was awful.

Born in the late 60s and I well remember the agony of sunburn. Calamine lotion, blisters, peeling skin, etc. We went to Guernsey when I was a kid and my mum bought a tiny tube of blue gel factor 5 which she rationed to such an extent that it lasted years.

I am hyper vigilant now and watch my moles like a hawk and DS has never burnt. My uncle and one of my DBs have been treated for melanoma but my DPs (in their 80s) still avoids sunscreen like bloody toddlers and regularly go red.

In the 80's factor 8 was described as high protection!

born in the 60s - we used sun cream (Soltan which I think is the Boots own brand?) all the time

My parents never used any sun cream ever
My mother won a years supply and gave the whole lot away!
I’m spray happy with mine and always will be

Sun cream was expensive. I think I remember paying £15 in the 80s for a bottle of sun cream. It was also far lower factor than is standard today.

Yes, factors 1-4 and 4 was being ultra cautious, the old ladies used olive oil to maximise the tanning. Yes and burning till my back pealed off!

born in the 60s - we used sun cream (Soltan which I think is the Boots own brand?) all the time

I think you must have been very much not the norm, ime no one used sun cream except for a foreign holiday.I used to work in Boots in the early 80s and even then sun cream was only stocked in the summer. Maybe the very large city centre branches had it at other times but the hign street type ones didn't and it was all low factors

By mid 80s at least, most people knew that putting oil on you was very bad and risked skin cancer. But earlier, a lot of people did not realise the risks.

I'm a pale skinned red head born 1955 and remember sun tan oil or the home made version which was more like salad dressing. I never tanned anyway so just stayed out of the sun or covered up. I wised up in the 80s and have always worn a high factor protection on my face whatever the weather and on arms and legs if exposed to sunshine for any length of time.

@coconuttelegraph I agree. In the 60s and 70s at least, suncream was seen by nearly everyone as something you used in a foreign holiday somewhere hot. Where I lived you had to go to the local chemist to buy a bottle.

Born in the early 1960s and I don't remember my parents ever using sunscreen on me but they did on my younger siblings who were born in '65 and '68. I have my mum's family's mediterranean skin whereas my siblings took after my very pale skinned dad. I don't ever remember burning, even during the heatwave of '76 but my siblings used to resemble lobsters after a day in the sun even with sunscreen.

I used sunscreen on my own kids and now use it on my foster children.

We had the same can of sunscreen in our bathroom cabinet for about a decade. I also remember peeling was just a part of being on holiday. I don’t ever remember getting sunburn that hurt though, just going a bit pink. I always cover up now and my derm thinks I have excellent skin. I wear sunscreen on my face year round, although I prefer big hats and long clothing for my body.

My siblings and I have all had carcinomas and recall peeling strips of skin off one another in the 70s and 80s on UK beach holidays! We didn’t travel abroad as children and use high factor sunscreen as adults. Our mum used tanning oil on herself but nothing on us that I member. Needless to say our children have never been allowed to burn!

My mum never used it on us and I remember burning. Born in the 70s. My granny used to use olive oil to get a tan. My grandad in later life got some compensation as he had had miles removed etc from being sunburnt badly in the Mediterranean while in the Navy (1939-1945, he always said suncream wasn't really a priority they were more worried about torpedoes).

Born early 70s. I remember factor 10 was the highest you could get. Not that we had it! On the foreign holidays we had then (camping in France), we put on t-shirts. I've burned so badly that I've bled. ☹️. Won't leave the house without spf50 now, but the damage done before I was 10 is frightening.

Born late fifties, red haired father, olive skinned mother. Guess whose genes I got? We used to go camping in Europe and spend all day outside. I had to wear a T shirt over my swimming costume in the pool until my skin "got used to the sun". Suncream was applied thickly but not sure it was very effective. Sunburn was guaranteed every holiday and was treated with calamine lotion.

We didn't know the real consequences of sun damage. The main reason for avoiding sunburn was because it hurt, not because it was dangerous.

Moles not miles flipping autocorrect

I don't remember my parents using anything on me as a child (1950's) and I have photos of me looking very dark, playing on the beach. It was never given to me to use as a teen either.

I started using suntan oil and cream in the 1980's but I seem to recall only on foreign holidays, I never burned, just a little bit of redness on my shoulders at first, then I would just turn dark brown.

I keep a very close eye on moles and blemishes as there is a lot of sun damage. I have a kind of yellowy, not quite olive skin so maybe will be OK.