To wonder about sunburnt children before suncream was popularised?

[Leah5678]

Apparently wasn't popularised until the 70s. With children playing outside practically every day back in the days before television was invented how did they not burn? Did they just get used to it?
Apologies if this is an extremely stupid question just something I've been wondering about with the last few days of decent weather

Reading a lot of these comments and seeing the old suncream ad, I think sun oils and creams were sold as a glamour fashion item, with glamourous people sunbathing by the Med, to give you a glowing tan, not as an essential medical product to prevent sunburn. Sunbathing was not a thing in my circle of friends, we were active, playing, swimming, working, so the thought of spending holiday time just sat going brown was totally alien to us. Furthermore, we never went abroad. Our hols were a couple of weeks in Bridlington, Scarborough or Cromer, or camping in the Lakes, Scotland or Wales, none of which were known for their blazing sun. As I reached my teens, Dad found the English Riviera, so off to Paighton for my last couple of family hols. It still rained though. My first holiday abroad was in 1976. The summer of the drought. Worked all summer indoors, looking forward to a week in Italy with my new partner. We went to Como in Sept. It rained all week, so no suncream needed.

Sun cream has been around for decades, but no one worried too much about getting burnt anyway.

We burnt. Clothing was the only protection .Mother used to liberally apply Acriflex cream on the burn when it happened....Also while we're on anyone remember getting into the car on a hot day,in shorts,and trying to "hover" above the nuclear temperature vinyl seats?!

I remember several gross slatherings with calamine lotion. Wtaf was that stuff???? Then my mother discovered Ambre Solaire and we were slathered head to toe in that thereafter …

In the early '90s factor 12 was high. I think 20 was called sunblock.

On our Spanish holidays as a child back then we just burned and then wore a tshirt once your shoulders were in agony. No-one thought to put on tshirt before burning!

We burnt. I had fair skin and red hair. One day on the beach, burnt. Sun creams were useless. Sometimes we covered up a bit but no one seemed to worry very much, certainly not for being in the garden. Holidays in the UK and sun wasn’t guaranteed at all.

My mum encouraged me to burn so that I would eventually get tanned. Luckily I only got singed a few times as I do tan easily. The remedy was calamine lotion.

Calamine for sunburn

I burnt. I also stayed inside a lot because I associated the sun with pain.

I have had a suspicious mole removed and although it wasn't cancerous I was told I'm more likely than most people to get skin cancer. Every new mole gives me the heebeegeebies.

Such a good point. My parents grew up in a time and place where kids really did have rickets, and 'getting sun on your body' was a good, healthy thing.

I am very fair skinned, but burned repeatedly in the 1970s. My holiday memories, in the UK, are the smell of calamine lotion and painful tears at bedtime.

Sun lotion was available, but it was low SPF compared to today, and I remember it being very expensive, we didn't use it very often.

Today, although I cover up and wear SPF50, I continually worry about getting skin cancer (as I already have another form of cancer).

Are you me😂😂😂?

Brought up in 1970s. My partners were ultra careful. Things like couldn’t go swimming with friends until I was confident swimmer or not allowed in water for an hour after eating. Never allowed to stay at friend’s homes unless he knew parents. BUT we NEVER wore sun cream, although they did make us wear t shirts between 12-2pm. I was reasonably lucky as I have skin that, after initial redness, tanned quite well. My poor sibling had very pale skin and burned every year (even now they don’t tan). Every time we went outdoor swimming pool or beach, they expected to come home like a beetroot!

I'm 40 and my parents were pretty good about it as I'm a redhead but I did burn so badly one year that my shoulders and back were full of blisters

I remember mum getting really angry at school - they wanted us all outside all day long on sports day with no shade and it physically isn't possible for me, I get really unwell.
Eventually they let me go inside but i remember her saying shade is better than suncream and they cant expect children to do sports on the hottest day of the year from 9 - 3 with no shade

The sun was less hot in black and white days. It was only when colour came in that it became a problem.

I burned badly in Spain when I was 10 in 1986 and my mum cried over the subsequent blistering. After that I was kept safer in the sun.
I went to Australia when I was 20 and after seeing so many people with lumps cut out of them from melanoma I swore to use total sunblock from then on. It’s stood me well if I’m honest, my face looks younger than I am. I’m in Spain at the moment, covered in SPF50 and sitting in the shade. Been drummed into me that tanned skin is damaged skin.

Yet people are still on about
Building up colour
Base tan
You've got a good colour

it's still damage

Old leather handbag! 😂😅😂😅😂😅

You were lucky if you got to hover above the scorching vinyl seats… for me (youngest child in a big family), I was sitting on the floor of the car in the foot well, just behind the gap in between the two front seats. Imagine a four hour journey to the coast squished into a tiny gap… My husband (as a child) used to have to sit in the boot of the car… (estate car I’m presuming!)

Sun cream was around but generally only used factor 3 or 4 abroad and nothing in the uk. I remember staying in the shade quite a bit and gradually increasing sun exposure until I had a good tan. Once I was tanned I didn't have to worry about burning.

I am not that old but the rule was you stay in between 11 and 16 then off you go in the garden again til bedtime 🤣🤣

we also had very large hats and we needed to move or be under shade.

We burned, maybe we got factor 3 if we were lucky. Some used baby oil. Peeling skin was common.
It’s catching up with our generation now with skin cancer/melanoma rates. Scary that it’s something we had no control over as children that could kill us now.

Definitely got burnt a few times as a child of the 70s. I also remember taking an old t-shirt on Spanish holidays specifically for swimming in though so maybe my parents understood a bit about sunburn risk factors!

Yep - it's scary that people still think a tan is healthy.

My DH is guilty of this and it worries me - his hobbies and job are all outdoors-based and he never puts enough cream on. It wouldn't shock me at all if he got skin cancer.

I had some absolutely awful sunburns as a child - blistered and red raw. From a day at the beach with no protection. The most I’d be told was to pop a tshirt on to cover up.

No way would we have a day at the beach now without all of us wearing sunscreen.

We just burned! Put camomile lotion on afterwards sometimes.