Why are some people so pale?

[Ghostskin]

I’m extremely pale and always have been. I look like I’m ill but it’s just my natural skin colour! My ethnicity is a mixture of Irish and Scottish. I use fake tan when I need to and avoid sunbeds.

Today I was thinking and was curious, why is it that some pale people just don’t change colour at all? With my skin, everyone expects me to burn easily but I don’t. I barely change colour in the sun. I spent the last few days without suncream (don’t come at me, it was a mistake and I hadn’t expected to be outside today or yesterday) and I haven’t changed colour at all. My shoulders, neck, tummy, arms, waist and legs were exposed to the sun all day and if anything I think they’re whiter! I’ve attached a picture of the colour of my arm tonight.

I do eventually burn but not easily. On holiday as a (stupid) teenager I refused to wear suncream because I wanted to tan- once I spent 4 days by the pool in a bikini in 40 degree heat- eventually I burned a little bit but not nearly as much as I’d have expected with the heat, my skin colour and no sunblock. Obviously I usually wear suncream now but even without it I don’t burn easily and I never, ever tan.

Why do some pale people not tan, burn or change colour at all? Is it to do with not having any melanin?

TIA 😊

Think fake tan can look ok if you're already a bit tanned

🤣

You have beautiful skin OP. Do you get freckles?

I thought some people (so the distant ancestors of those alive now) evolved pale skin to a. Be able to absorb enough vitamin D from very little sunshine and b. Because their skin didn’t need to be darker/ have more melanin as they didn’t need protection from the sun.

I guess that shows up more in some members of any particular family than others because we’ve all now moved around over the years, and we’re more mixed.

i can’t explain why you don’t burn though OP! I’ve never know a really pale person who doesn’t but I guess you’re lucky in that respect.

I said this about myself just yesterday. I feel like my bright white skin is just impenetrable. The glare of my legs is something else!

I'm pale and I hate it! I wish I tanned easily but I just came back from a 2-week holiday in Italy where I was in the pool or on the beach in the glaring sun almost all day and you'd think I have been to a wintry trip to Alaska. No tan and only a bit of redness (although I always use sunblock). My brother's skin is similar whereas my parents and my daughter tan really easily and turn a beautifully tanned colour just by walking the streets. My daughter was using factor 50 sunblock and she still got SO tanned. I'm very jealous of their skin type. My brother and I as well as our grandfather have really sensitive pale skin.

I don't think your arm is even that pale, OP, I think you'd look tanned next to me My legs especially are ridiculously white and never take any colour

Never has a meme been more accurate for me than this one

This is interesting. I’m half Irish. Only have to look at the sun and tan despite wearing SPF 30 all the time. My sil commented today that o look like I’ve spent 2 weeks in Barbados when actually I’ve yet to go on holiday this summer….one of my sons is exactly like me. One slightly less so. The other needs SPF 50 and covering up as he burns so easily if we’re not super careful. Their Dad is part Welsh. Not especially fair but very susceptible to burning.

I'm of Scottish/Irish descent - very white with a tinge of blue! But I do burn. Factor 50 for me!

Yup, I have the same blue white colouring despite having mediterranean genes. Seems like the Welsh English part of my heritage won out. no idea what's further back in my genetics as I don't want to send my dna off to some lab somewhere (emoji with the grimacy face)

Shopping for foundation is always fun
< picks up porcelain >
"Yeah that'll do.. FOR BRONZER"

@PeloAddict so true 😂

You don't know you're well off. I'm also Scottish and super pale and a baby sunbeam only has to wink at me and I burn.
My maternal grandfather didn't know what suncream was and never burned in his life, had quite dark skin too, so I do wonder what genetic mix was going on there but whatever it was it passed me by, sadly 😞

Its a lack of consistent sun exposure.
Four days here or there makes no odds, but spend two months in the sun somewhere south of Birmingham where the sunlight is stronger and (if you’re like me) you will go a weird Northern European yellow brown.

Even after slapping on factor 50 every day.

Also note, if you are north of Birmingham the sun isn’t strong enough to enable you to manufacture vit D after the Autumn equinox which is why there are more people with MS in Scotland. And more people with SAD.
(I can’t source this, I read it, feel free to ignore).

See it did nothing for me (lived down south until age 12, moved to NW)
I've had horses from age 5, so I've been outside er most of my life
No skin colour change. None
Apparently redheads are meant to make their own vitamin D or something but my body fucked that up too so I'm on a high dose course

Yes I always thought I was imagining it but I don’t burn either really.

I don’t wear sunscreen day to day and arms and legs remain impenetrable. I was I in Spain in the last heatwave and spent a day at the beach and nothing happened to me 😂

One of my kids is also like this, has has auburn hair and green eyes like me so dark hair but very much the red gene

my other child burns as soon as he steps outside

I guessing it’s genetics!

My two girls heritage is a mix of Scottish, Irish and Welsh. Husband and I burn easily and go back to a shade of white - so we hide from the sun and use suncream!! My family some tan (amazingly) Only one daughter has inherited this! They have same hair and eye colour very similar features - though one uses fake tan and has to use sunscreen (even on a cloudy spring day) and the other tans lovely.

We never realised as due to the sunburn I am very over protective avoiding sunburn . Younger they would always be in sun hats, sun protection swim suits and suncream. Never in the mid day sun . When the youngest got older I was less rigid with the suncream during school hours …we realised very quickly she tans - golden colour. We still insist on suncream regardless as she would still burn and keeps skin healthy. But she has a very jealous older sister :)

At the beach - without sun protection as I forgot to do myself 😳

I’m very very pale and burn easily. The only time I’ve ever tanned a little bit was when I was pregnant so I guess hormones play a role in tanning too.

True true 😂😂😂

My friend is a redhead with super pale skin and the good news is, she is 50 and has no lines at all because she never went in the sun ;(I'm talking about in the 80s when tans were in fashion) because she just knew she couldn't tan at all di didn't bother. Now she is delighted. She also reckons her whiteness reflects the sun rays so they just bounce back, rather than being absorbed.

Because you don't have enough melanin for it to cause a tan when exposed to the sun.

I’m the opposite - I am very pale (I once closed my eyes when giving blood and they thought I’d passed out) but I tan really easily.

I think your skin is amazing, OP! You must have super hero powers to ward off the sun! 😃☄️

I have Scottish ancestry, but I’m an olive skinned, hazel eyed, blonde!

I only have to potter in the garden, walk to the shop, drive with the window down and I’m tanned, people assume I’ve spent all day sunbathing where in fact, I’ve hardly spent any time at all in it!

I do take after my DM with my olive skin and my maternal DGF, DF was Scottish and went red then brown but nothing like siblings & I.

Genetics are totally awesome, proper mixed bag!

I used to tan easily but as I've got older I have got whiter. I've got photos of when ds was a baby & I'm really dark tanned but now I could be in the sun every day & not tan.