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At 42 I remember the pre-sunscreen days as well. At the beginning of summer we would all go to the pool and get a nasty burn. Within a week we were at the po
by ltbarcly3 4y ago
At 42 I remember the pre-sunscreen days as well. At the beginning of summer we would all go to the pool and get a nasty burn. Within a week we were at the pool all day every day and would not have a burn again until the next year. On average we would be getting around 3 painful but not serious burns per year (one at the start of summer, one when we went to the amusement park, one when we went out on a boat or something) despite hundreds and hundreds of hours of direct sun exposure each summer.
These days I rarely spend much time outside in the sun, and when I do I almost always burn. I am not in the sun enough to maintain a tan. When I go on vacation I can build up to about 4 or 5 hours of full sun exposure without burning in about 2 weeks (if I get outside a few weeks before to kickstart things), just in time to come home and lose my tan completely. As a result, I get sunburns more often now than I did as an 8 year old when I spent more than 40x more hours in the sun every year (roughly 4+ hours per day for 100 days of summer weather, vs today where it's maybe 20 minutes every few days).
I guess my hypothesis is: much less cumulative exposure can result in more damage to DNA if it is punctuated by periods of intense exposure when compared to consistent intense exposure.
- wirthjason 4y ago42 as well. Once you got a “base” it wasn’t really an issue. And I’d be out all day riding bikes and playing 8 hours a day. Everyone had a farmers tan. That said, I now use sun screen like crazy but it’s mainly about vanity as I confront aging. I also make sure my daughter is protected with sun screen, it’s like being bilingual, she’ll thank me later.
- dghughes 4y ago53 here. My Mom said when I was a baby in the stroller she'd pull back the blanket a little at a time so my legs could get some sun. I have blue eyes, was very blond as a kid, but not super pale. During the summer we went to the beach quite often. I don't recall ever having a sunburn. I'm sure I had sunscreen on at some point but it probably washed off with the salt water. I think my geekiness of being inside from early teens onward counteracted any extreme sun exposure I may have experienced as a child. And I'm male so I didn't sunbathe like girls did at the time with baby oil to increase the sun damage to tan faster.
- cycomanic 4y agoI'm not sure where you guys grew up, but I'm 46 and remember putting on sunscreen as a kid, as did most of my friends. Even with sunscreens (which sometimes you forget to refresh...) you occasionally would get a nasty sunburn. On the other hand i remember being in Australia and all the British tourists would follow the strategy you layed out. So after the first day on a boat trip they all looked like xcooked lobsters. While all the other nationalities would just put on sunscreen and be fine. You would also still get a significant tan even with 30+ sunscreen.
- ltbarcly3 4y agoThe rest of us are probably from the northern hemisphere which doesn't have uv-c exposure due to the ozone hole. Totally different up here!