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

we burned horribly and have terribly sun damaged prematurely aged skin and skin cancer. I’ve had 16 moles removed over 25 years my DB has just had his third skin cancer removed.

we were 1980s kids ; sunscreen was around but we had neglectful parents.

As a child back in the 60s & 70s I don't recall ever getting burnt, in fact I don't really remember it happening to others very often.

DH and I born in the 50s. He's got brown eyes, did have dark brown hair,he burnt a few times when he visited his aunt who lived in Spain. He had a bcc removed from his face,a few years ago. The scar goes from his mouth to his chin, they cut right through into his mouth, this was done under local anaesthetic by a max fax surgeon. I'm a blue eyed blonde, never burnt in the sun. We were on the beach a lot late DF had a boat. By the mid 60s was using Amber solar,then Bergasol always careful. My DF also the blue eyed blonde did his National Service in hot countries, got skin cancer on his legs in his 60s. I had a bcc removed about 5 years ago from my back, which has hardly seen the sun since. A few years ago, I asked my GP, while I went about something else, about a small red spot on my chest he said it was just a spot. The last 6months,it grew then itched. I was already under a dermatologist, I ended up going private, getting no where. I knew by now it was a bcc. They remove a 2 inch margin, this one was incredibly painful.she said because the skin is thin and near the bone.I now have a ruddy great scar in the middle of my chest. .
The downtime was much longer than my back,no bending,lifting, for 6 weeks.

Children did burn in the seventies. I remember many occasions when we peeled off loose skin that was peeling!

I was born in the mid-80s, in a western European country (non UK). I have quite strong childhood memories of lots of very red, badly sunburnt people on the beach. My mother was considered quite extreme / eccentric for slathering us in factor 15 sun cream at the time. It just wasn't the done thing back then. Glad she did though.
My grandfather who mostly had jobs "outside in all weather" had skin cancer on his ear in the 90s. It was luckily successfully removed.

Grew up in the 70s/80s north west uk and nobody ever had suncream. All the kids used to take turns peeling each others sunburnt skin off at the start of Summer till we hardened off and stopped burning. Its totally gross when you think about it.

You must have been mostly in the shade, or not very fair skinned. Perhaps other people you knew were using suncream and you didn't notice.

Humans haven't become any more sensitive to the sun in the last 50 years.

Grew up in the 70s and 80s and wore factor 2 oil. I tan well and used to so dark. My fair siblings though burned and blistered. Now smother myself in factor 50 but miss the days of deep mahogany tans.

Yep, we just burned badly. Bright red skin and whole sheaths of it peeling off at once.

My sibling once had the soles of their feet burn, aged about 4 I think. So painful.

People covered up more.

People wore more clothes and if it was sunny your Mum told you to put a t-shirt and hat on. Hats were part of school uniform, bare shoulders were less common apart from on the beach or in the back garden.

You'd sit in the shade for a bit or be called indoors for a while around lunchtime.

But people also built up a tan.

I ended up with sunstroke on holiday one summer. My parents laughed for ages about my hallucinations!

'Bergasol', that was it.

It contained bergamot oil, and - at the time - it smelled of summer!

I'm in the US, born in the 50s.

There were products available back then that contained zinc oxide which is a sunblock. Grew up in SoCal spending days at the beach and pool and Mum always slathered us with "Sea & Ski" so we didn't get sunburnt, although we did get tanned. Surfers used to coat their noses with pure zinc oxide.

Of course once we became teens it was cocoa butter and baby oil. Got beautiful tans but paying for them now!

We were out to play all the time, I always had a tan in the summer and never burnt but I am of Indian heritage on my dad's side so maybe this contributed to it. It was crazy looking back on it, knowing what we know now about the sun and the harm it can do. I can recall putting real effort into getting brown legs and all my mates being jealous of me. I have travelled to some very hot and sunny places and always used high factor cream because by this time t was common knowledge how damaging it can be. I'm a sun hat and factor 50 girl these days.

My brother, was a red head born 1974, my mother put him in a big sun hat and t shirt with long sleeves,He still got burnt, my mother feels guilty still.

I remember the bottles of suncream were a split bottle with a little section of SPF 15 then some SPF8. I don’t remember SPF higher than 15 in the early 90s.

76 was a particularly hot year and I remember seeing children with blisters and scabs all over their back from sunburn. We went camping in Brittany in 82 when i was 11. I have the type of pale skin that never tans and I remember my skin being swollen where it had got burned.

I don't remember using suncream until we went abroad as a teenager. I don't remember burning until one day a friend had come with us when I was 16. We couldn't find the suncream for the pool my mum had taken younger sister out so we risked it.

My poor friend got blisters on her legs. I've only been burnt once since. Though always made sure DC have plenty on they have never been burnt. But my friend doesn't think we need suncream in the UK unless going through a heatwave.

I've tried telling her it's the same sun. As when we go abroad. She has a DD and 2 grandchildren. Her daughter does put cream on her DC and herself now though.

Agreed, though perhaps ozone depletion has meant higher levels of UV-B. I must go and have a Google!

Calamile lotion. Pink and smelly, liberally slapped onto red skin. We never went abroad, but still burnt. No in our 70s, virtally everyone we know has had treatment for Basal Cell Carcinoma, ranging from an aggressive cream which kills the cells, either just on the affected area, or across the whole face, to surgery. It wasn't just not using sunblock, we would slap olive oil on if sunbathing - we were frying ourselves!

I remember holidays abroad in the 70s where everyone would go out early and grill in the sun round the pool or on the beach endlessly until they were lobster red. The idea was to wait for the red burnt bits to subside and then it would (sort of miraculously!) turn into a tan, and you would go home brown and proud. Some hardy types stayed out at lunchtime but most people went for a nap in the shade of the bedroom. If we got really red raw, we jumped in the pool to 'cool off'. Happy days.

We had spf8 from when I was a baby in the early 80s. We were generally covered in the midday sun but I remember being tanned with a little white bum right into my teens. Everyone else was the same apart from a family whose parents were doctors and they wore very high spf and had hats. We felt a little sorry for them. Nowadays DC and I are slathered in spf from spring to autumn and I wear it on my face daily.
My poor little dad has had several skin cancers removed from his face and this is of a direct result of the sun in Wales and Scotland in the 60s. He didn't holiday abroad until the 90s. I also have several elderly relatives who have leathery skin from sun damage.

Clothing gave more coverage in those days though.

Born 1976. We burnt every summer - sore red back with skin peeling off. It was pretty normal then. Never went abroad, just uk summers. I probably started using sun cream in my teens when it was mainstream.

I was put in a t-shirt because I was a fair child, then wore one because I was a tomboy and self conscious. Avoided sunscreen if I could but rarely burnt enough to peel, just to turn brown.