70's -80's children how many remember getting sunburn.

[Sunflowerkeep]

I barely remember them putting suncream on me always dark, sometimes burnt i certain areas and parents are like ahh you got a nice tan even when I was clearly burnt and must have had sun stroke as remember feeling bit chilly in 35c yeah really. Loads of my friends remember the same from that generation. Weird hey. I've got olive skin but my brother I remember burnt to a crisp one year. Poor thing

70’s child here. Can remember getting burnt a few times. Sun cream wasn’t a big thing then.

Ambre Solaire used to smell amazing

I remember factor 2, I think, smelling like coconut. Hawaiian Tropic? But parents weren’t really bothered and I definitely burnt a few times. Also I was permanently thirsty, taking drinks out wasn’t a thing, at least in my family. My parents still express surprise at how much water I drink now. They barely have a couple of cups of tea a day.
I’ve probably gone to the opposite extreme and the kids have factor 50, hats and drinks with us all the time in summer.

I remember getting sunstroke on a day trip to Weymouth with my mum and dad..... sun cream just wasn't used in our family in the 90s..... First time I ever remember using it was on my first ever holiday with a mate to ibiza at age 17!....... even today my parents do not use sun cream!

No chance! Masses of suncream all over, hats, sunglasses, no exposed shoulders, t shirts in the swimming pool and after sun spray to follow. I thought it was OTT but now approaching my forties I’m very thankful my parents were so diligent.

I'm fair skinned and ginger haired. I burnt quite badly a few times, but in the 80s factor 7 was considered high protection.

There are areas of my skin I'm concerned about - in fact I'm going to the doc on Tuesday (after waiting 3 weeks for an appointment, and resisting an attempt to make me have a phone consultation after sending photos 🙄)

I remember getting yellow blisters along with sunburn when I was a kid, I played out alot so don't know if it was reaction to pollen or the sun caused it. Usually they appeared on my arms

I’m a late 80s baby. I only have memories of being sunburned once as a kid, and ironically that was a day I had worn sun cream. That was during our first holiday in Spain though, I never remember wearing sun scream at home as a kid.

I had no real sunburn as such but unprotected sun exposure. Malignant melanoma removed in 1996, stage 4 metastatic melanoma cancer diagnosis 2021. Unprotected sun exposure is dangerous, I’m glad that people are more educated these days and are protecting themselves and their families; but there’s still a long way to go.

70s 80s here only holidayed in UK.and had to wear shorts from Easter hols to October hols to "get air about our bodies" but in hindsight was great as we just very slowly slowly built up the kind of tan that protected us from burning. A few instances as a teenager that I remember I deliberately went out my way to burn slightly 🙄 to get brown faster but nothing I would worry about now. Feel.quite lucky looking back although I hated the shorts rule at the time reading some experiences on here!

Born in the mid 80s, I'm blonde with blue eyes so was smothered in factor 20 (max available in boots back then without being sunblock which was like emulsion). Then had to wear a t shirt in the pool and sit in the shade between 12 and 3. My sister who is olive toned had factor 10 and no t shirt. My nan is used to cover herself in oil and lie in the back garden. If we were being looked after by her she would reluctantly put a bit of factor 4 on me but nothing on my sister.

Growing up in Scotland in the 1960/70s I never saw sunscreen and at the first hint of sun all the children were stripped off and sent out to get sunburned. Peeling skin was a badge of honour. I'm not particularly fair-skinned, but I had some unpleasant bouts of sunburn and now have quite a lot of long term sun damage.

My parents retain their scepticism about sunscreen to this day. My mother is adamant that you only burn if you "sunbathe", and that if you're walking or running around in the sun, or swimming, you're somehow immune from burning. They were good, involved grandparents, but me wanting them to use appropriate sun protection on my children and ensure they didn't burn became a battleground every summer.

I was a child in the 70s and although sunscreen was used it was only factor three or four. That was probably a good thing though because it only protected against UVA and not UVB so better to just stay out of the sun.

I’d like to know whether there was a spike in skin cancer diagnoses for the generation who were children when package holidays became affordable to most people (so from the late sixties onwards), or whether we’ve stored up problems for the future.

It was only in the early to mid nineties that people in the U.K. started to be more sensible about sun protection. The Australians were streets ahead of us there. I was going on girls’ holidays in the early nineties and I still remember my friends debating which lotion would give you the darkest tan (answer: Hawaiian Tropic dark tanning oil, with the bonus of helping you to look like a prune in later life). And laughing at me with my factor 15, which was the highest protection that you could easily buy then.

What surprises me is that sunbed places still seem to be around in significant numbers and still seem to do good business. Most people look better with a bit of a tan, I certainly do, but surely nobody still thinks that sunbeds are good for your skin? I think that some legislation was introduced about ten years ago to regulate sunbed use by young people, and quite right too. Fake tan is much better, even though it is messy and a nuisance.

@Iamthewombat It amazes me that sunbeds are still legal!

Stats on cancer risk from sunbed use:

‘The World Health Organisation tells us that using a sunbed causes skin cancer
Even one sunbed session can increase your risk of developing squamous cell skin cancer by 67% and basal cell skin cancer by 29%.

Even more importantly is the increased risk of melanoma, the most serious form of skin cancer.

If you have ever used a sunbed your risk of melanoma increases by 20%.

Using it before the age of 35 increases your risk by almost 60%.’

Grew up in the eighties. Was fortunate to not burn but I distinctly remember the tanning lotion you could get 😳

I grew up in the 90s but remember getting sunburn every year, peeling and one summer getting sunstroke after playing out all day. My parents brought sun cream for holidays abroad but it was low factor SPF and there was usually one bottle of some kind of sun oil that would improve your tan and basically cook you. We spent all day by the pool on most holidays and sun cream was rarely reapplied and we didn't wear hats if we didn't want to.

I think it's just a product of it's time. It does make me laugh how different I am with my own DC and the sun compared to how I grew up.

My mum swears there was no sun çream in the 70's and 80' and that kids now don't get enough sun and their immune system is worse. Reckons she never had any problems growing up. Doesn't use sun glasses either lol. She did grow up in hotter countries as well as UK due to her parents travelling around for work. Dad is the same really.

There is actually an element of truth in that. Research is being done currently about the role that sunlight to vitamin D conversion (not the vitamin D itself, but the process of conversion from sunlight) has on the immune system and its showing that the actual process plays more of a part than we previously believed or understood. So vitamin D supplements are not as beneficial as first thought. This isn't to say they are not beneficial, just they aren't the whole solution.

I do put sun cream on me and the kids if we'll be out all day, or I don't know how much shade there will be but I have definitely increased our unprotected sun exposure since reading some of the studies. My children have never burnt though as I'm extremely careful in how I manage it. Sun burn is very bad for us!

On skim reading this thread there seems to be a devide between those of us whose childhood was predominately in the 70’s / early 80’s and those born in the 80’s onwards where it appears parents were slightly more enlightened in these things!

Yes I burnt loads growing up, as much now as then.

@Darbs76 You still burn a lot now? You know there are ways to avoid that? (Sorry if I’ve misunderstood you!)

In the 70s, yes, always burnt, one boy, aged about 15, burnt his back so bad, the whole thing (his back) turned into a massive blister and then popped loads of watery shit out.

I was a 70s child and spoke earlier about the idea that you had to 'burn off'.

I also recall my mother rubbing in vegetable oil into her skin early into the season so she would 'tan'.

She has had a few skin cancers removed over time. But extremely lucky I think it has been few and very contained (so far - she's early 70s).