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

Similar

We had sun cream even in the 1960s when I was little! My father was a doctor. One reason some of us cope worse in the heat (30C in my car just now, outer London) is those of us with reddy colouring have the most Neanderthal genes and those ancestors had to get used to ice ages.

I remember factor 4 suncream. that only came out for the beach.
not much sunburn but we instinctively seeked out shade when it was hot.

I grew up in the 70s and 80s. I'm very fair and I burned a lot - I wore glasses and I remember the kids at school making me take them off so they could laugh at the white stripe across my otherwise scarlet face. I rarely burned to the point of peeling becaue I hated hot sun even then, but it was a badge of honour amongst my friends to have peeling shoulders. I remember using Coppertone and Ambre Solaire, but it would literally just be a quick slap of it in the morning. My dad never wore sunscreen and tanned if he so much as glanced out of the window, but he had to have a massive rodent ulcer removed from his neck in his 90s.

I’ve thought about this too. I was born in 1980 and I remember the same bottle of factor 5 sun cream in the kitchen cupboard for years which occasionally got put on us with little to no effect. My siblings and I are all fair skinned, our mum is olive skinned, she use to go a mahogany colour and we were told to sit in the shade. I remember burning quite a few times but generally I do remember always having a hat on in the full sun and being shouted out to sit under trees a lot.

My mum left me out as a baby with those long white holey socks up to my knees sleeping in my pushchair and I got burnt! I also remember a fully burnt back peeling like crazy! I’m 37.

They burnt. Families were proud of the red and brown shades. My brother's school friend died of skin cancer, being a pale, mole-covered boy often taken to hot places and encouraged to wear nothing more than swimming trunks.

We had sun cream in the 1960s when I was a kid. It was called Cool Tan and I thought it smelt lovely. No idea what was in it. It was only for when we were at the beach though. Never really got burnt out playing.

We did get burnt. Badly.

I would think that many if not all of us who grew up in the 70's suffered some pretty severe sunburns on occasion, even though we used sun cream sometimes. Thankfully we know better now. Unfortunately some of those sunburns will have resulted in skin cancer at a later date. Make sure you get a regular skin check! I just had my annual check last week and thankfully all is good, but I do have friends my age (early 50's) who have had skin cancers.

I remember feeling more weathered than burnt.

We mostly spent our summers in wetsuits, with startling effect when you took them off -- absolute pallor to deep brown with a sharp divide mid biceps, neck and leg.

Yes, another one who remembers getting burnt and skin peeling.
Born in mid-60's plus of course we used to spend every available minute outside.

Grew up in the 70s. Burning was seen as a necessary precursor to 'a good tan' which was 'healthy'. I was always being told to 'go out and get some sun on your face!' (Reddish hair, pale skin). My sister and I would peel great swathes of skin off each other's backs, and only if it got too painful would my mother grudgingly dig out the calamine lotion.

I remember going on a camping holiday and lying on the polyester sheet at night, stuck to it with the fluid from my bursting blisters, too agonised to move...

My mum always used sun cream on us. My dh remembers getting badly sunburnt as a child. He now has moles he has to get checked regularly.

I had more of an olive skin tone so I didn't burn but my brother did, every summer without fail he would burn horrendously until my mother started using sun cream and this was about 1993!

I grew up in the 70's and yes burnt frequently. I remember the feeling of sore skin rubbing on the bed sheets at night. It was considered a normal part of summer - and getting a tan was considered good for us.
I remember my mother using factor 2 "tanning oil" when "sitting out" in the garden.
I remember my uncles and Aunties coming "out to the country" (they lived in London) and sitting in my Nans garden all summer and going home with skin like polished leather.

I have very fair skin that is very sensitive to the sun. I remember spending most of one (UK) holiday in the 80s, vomiting and shivering due to sunstroke. I am very diligent in applying sunscreen to my dc, factor 50 on all exposed skin daily during the summer and I make them wear hats. I think we're much more aware of the damage it can do now, not to mention the aging effect it has on skin

70’s playing out all day DC here, I’ve had 9 malignant melanomas removed, 5 needed a wider excision to get the cancer out and 1 needed removal of lymph nodes. I’ve had multiple BCC and SCC burnt, frozen, chemo creamed off. I need to have my skin checked every three months for the rest of my life.

I used to burn regularly as a ginger, freckled person. Went to south of France with the school about 79/80 and got sun stroke.
Suncream wasn't much used to my recollection
I do remember sun tan oil....

I was taken abroad on holiday from 1959 onwards

I've had one basal cell carcinoma removed

I think I'm lucky because I was olive-skinned.

I have burnt badly - even with sun lotion - I missed a bit!

Back then the sun protection was often oil and people used to just lay there, literally cooking in the sun.

I agree.
I also remember a girl when I was in hospital who’d badly sunburned her shoulder and subsequently developed cancer and died- I remember her arm looked like a dead tree branch, dreadful sight.
Poor girl was only 13.

People knew to keep babies in the shade. The big old Silver Cross prams had massive sun canopies with fringes.

Children probably did burn but I don't remember burning. There again we also wore t-shirts rather than skimpy vest tops.

I do remember seeing men especially construction workers being burn red raw. I guess you only let that happen to you once.
However since about 2000 employers have been pushing sunscreen on sites and trying to kick the whole "its not macho to use sunscreen" mentality into touch. Partly because they are frightened of future law suits of employees getting skin cancer.

Yes we got burnt, and pretty badly too. I remember after-sun lotion being applied but we definitely had nothing to prevent us burning. No skin cancer so far, but I guess a lot of us will have it.

Me also - born 1975

I'm hyper vigilant now especially as my 2 year younger brother has had several malignant melanomas over the year

Just because our generation didn't visibly burn it didn't mean damage wasn't done.

And LOLing my ass off that sunscreen is just for the beach or pool

We just got burnt and nobody worried about it. Far moire relaxing for all concerned.
Sometimes calomine lotion was dabbed on with cotton wool to "cool it".
If we were really lucky, the sunburn peeled and then we could pull it off in sheets 😂
And this was just in the UK - never went abroad.