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I've had enough sun to last a lifetime. As a kid, we'd spend all day at the beach. I'd come home red as a lobster go to bed smeared with Noxema and barely able to stand the weight of a cotton sheet on my body due to the pain. As a teenager, I spent hours in the sun covered with baby oil to get as dark a tan as possible on my fair skin.
All this sun damage really caught up with me and I've had some skin cancer that luckily was treated. But there's a big difference in the skin that was exposed to sun and the skin that never was. Back in the day we never knew the damage it could cause and anyone that is still baking in the sun is foolish IMO.
I had the same beach experience when I was young. Thankfully no skin cancer yet.
I don't "lay out" to intentionally get a tan, but I do have a bit of a tan, because we have a pool and I get out in that pretty often. In the heat of summer (like now), I don't get out in the sun during the day - my husband and I generally swim in the late afternoon or even at night (when the pool area is shaded or actually dark other than the pool lights). But by now, I have a tan anyway because frankly it feels FANTASTIC to float around in the sun during May and even June. I do wear sunscreen but clearly it wears off. I don't burn though - I haven't burned in decades.
I have noticed though that I get a LOT more freckles - aka "sun spots" or as my doctor euphemistically calls them, "wisdom spots." (Shut up - I know they're age spots.) Especially on my arms and legs. So I know that's damage from the sun but oh well. I don't have many wrinkles and maybe I can still say that ten years from now. I guess time will tell. But I do know that sunscreen applied to my face and neck seems to stay on longer so there's that.
I wear a lightweight moisturizer that's got sunscreen in it so maybe that is one reason why my neck and face aren't wrinkled or spotted.
Anyway, the absolute worst sunburn I ever got was in Colorado when I was about 13 (and I don't think I've had one since - I learned my lesson!). I fell asleep by the pool - because it felt so great out there. It was about 80 degrees and the sun was shining like crazy. OMG. I probably set myself up for skin cancer later in life, who knows. Anyway, the next day it snowed, so I was walking around with a hellacious sunburn in the snow, trying to cobble together some warm clothes that I could wear without screaming. Good times!
I have never had that "golden tan." I have very fair skin (thanks, Scottish ancestry!) but dark eyes and dark hair. I tend to get a sort of reddish tan, but honestly, for the most part, my skin seems to repel sun - LOL.
My grandmother had gorgeous porcelain skin till the day she died at age 87. She worked out in her yard a lot and also walked every single day. But she would wear a long sleeved cotton shirt in the summer, and always wore a wide brimmed straw hat when she was outside, and even carried an umbrella when she walked for exercise! I'm just not going to do all that.
Last edited by KathrynAragon; 08-16-2020 at 08:06 AM..
Hey, all this talk of scents reminds me of a book I read recently that I could not put down. It was "The Yokohama Officers Club" and WOW, talk about a walk down memory lane! It was about growing up on two different air force bases in Japan - one in Yokohama and one in Okinawa - in the 1960s and 1970s. Well, wow, could I relate. And the cool thing is that the title of each chapter was a particular scent - because the sense of smell is one of the most evocative when it comes to memory, as we all probably know.
Anyway, one of the chapters talked about the smell of Coppertone around the pool at the Yokota AFB officer's club and I was really surprised at how that short description immediately took me back to a time and place that I'd pretty much forgotten. Suddenly I remembered swimming lessons, the wives sitting around the pool tanning, kids splashing, etc.
I always wear sunblock, long sleeves and a broad brimmed hat if I am going to be outside any length of time.
I will sunburn very quickly if I don't put on sunblock; I'm naturally reddish haired and very fair skinned since I seem to take after my dad's side of the family.
My cousin is the same age (50) and laid out in the sun and she looks at least 10 years older than me and has had multiple melanomas removed, starting in her early 30's. Yeah, I think I will stay pale and pass on the leathery look and the melanoma.
Location: As of 2022….back to SoCal. OC this time!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daffodil_fields
Do you still sun tan out in the sun?
I love to be in the sun & outdoors....specially now......sitting by the pool, swimming, walking or riding bikes with my fiance.... but I always protect myself with sunscreen & protective SUV clothing & hat. I also drink lots of water to hydrate my skin.
Some ppl say tanning & skin damage is as bad as smoking for future wrinkles & aging......so no thank you.
Sounds like me when the pool was open, been closed this year due to Covid. I wear sun screen daily on my face, even in the winter months. The sun still has UV rays. And wear sunscreen when sunbathing, still get tanned, but no skin damage. Do not want to look older before my time!
If you don't have vitamin D supplements at home, and you don't get the sort of nutrition needed to max out vitamin D, medical experts suggest lying out in the sun this year during the middle of the day in order to improve immune function. It is well established that Vitamin D exposure is very important for immune function as it relates to COVID-19.
This is the first year in many years that we have been lying out in the sun without sunscreen and sunning our backs. (We apply sunscreen to our faces and wear hats.)
It's not possible now with the poor air quality due to wildfires, but it is important to get enough Vitamin D.
So now we are taking a much larger dose of Vitamin D than ever before, that which is recommended by the medical community.
I've never spent time just lying around in a swimsuit in the sun trying to get a tan all over. But I spend several hours every day doing work outside so I get lots of sun on all my parts that aren't covered up. I wear a hat and try to follow the shadows around the grounds so I'm almost always working in shade but I still end up getting tanned on all my exposed bits. Right now my face, neck, forearms and hands have the darkest tans they've ever had.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Daffodil_fields
........ The woman at the pool is probably around age 35-40, and when I've seen her in the winter, she is blonde, and fair skinned, light eyes. Definitely not olive skinned. I get being out by the pool once in awhile, or even once a week, but EVERY day in a bathing suit for 4+ hours a day? I kind of want to ask her - Why? ......
Does she have a nice figure in her swimsuit? She isn't old so if she still has a decent looking figure then maybe she's proud of it and that's why she spends that much time by the pool showing it off to other people. Maybe she's trying to attract the attention of a * special * somebody in that immediate neighbourhood. Maybe somebody else's husband(s).
I've always felt that people who spend a lot of hours at a time in their swimsuits every day just lying around in the sun and around a pool aren't really doing it to get a tan, they're doing it to advertise something and to impress or attract other people or for some other ulterior motives.
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