Very similar to me, except I’m at sea level. My wife was laughing after the BH weekend because, every year, as soon as the sun comes out for an hour in spring my face, arms and legs go immediately brown. As a result I am way too slack on suncream.
If we’re out on a hot day/ beach day with the kids I’ll slap it on my face and arms, maybe legs and feet but jot always.
I hate hats, so never wear them.
Mrs does tell me off a lot, working in cancer and that. She’s much better plus has the moisturiser with spf in that she puts on every day anyway like @Sowler mentioned. Tbh that would probs be a good idea for me as an easy way to make sure it goes on at least once a day.
But this is a good reminder to get much better at this!
I did a CPD module on skin cancer last week and it scared the living daylights out of me tbh!
Sounds like you may have more protective melanin, if you tan rather than burn. Whereas I definitely have the most pathetic type of skin, the freckly type that just goes pink or red. There was a case study of a “70 year old gardener with sun damaged skin”, did a doubletake because the photo of his forearm looked exactly like mine with white and red splodges, big and small freckles etc
Going to try really hard to avoid Scorpions, Landcruisers and UVA.
Not sure if all the posts have covered it but not all sunscreens are made equal! You really need to research that it’s right for your skin and has BOTH UVA AND UVB protection. Way too many sold in Europe (especially UK) do not have both ratings and are almost pointless.
My mum and I were talking about it on our perfectly sunny walk in the lakes this morning. We’ve both had 26 years in Africa where the sun burnt you to a crisp. Sunscreen in the 80s and early 90s was pretty foul stuff so as a kid I hardly wore it. My mum remarked about school galas where all of us kids would sit out in the sun all day with no shelter and no hats! It was a challenge to see who got the worst tan lines - thankfully cricketers like Allan Donald started to make wearing “zinc” cool. (That was the coloured paste stuff with SPF).
I seem to have slowed the aging down but I do have my grandfathers Swedish skin that tans rather than burns - although I was a very fair child. I am now pretty meticulous about wearing factor 30 or higher everywhere and a hat. Old types of sunscreen and acne prone skin were not good friends and it was a real struggle, but now La Roche Posay and Vichy make amazing sunscreens that actually feel good to wear.
These guys are also really meticulous about sunscreen - you go this brown over a long period of time using a good one. The terrible habit of searing yourself to crimson on the first 2 days in the sun then peeling is what everyone thinks you should do, but it is utter rubbish and is the main contributor to the sun aging your skin.
Covering up in UV protected clothing is the only way to save particularly sensitive skin. Sunscreen only unfortunately will still not stop damage entirely. It helps but it’s not great. Also time of day - when I’m back in SA or in a very hot place I genuinely will not sit out between 11am & 3pm as it’s just not worth it. Comparing how I look versus my old school friends in SA in terms of aging and sun damage, I seem to have done the right thing (mostly).
This is me too. I never put it on in this country really. Long bike rides in the past have been out the door at 6am, so most of the ride won’t have much exposure. And I go brown very quickly.
On holiday I’ll put it on it all the time. And always use it when I race abroad. The stuff I use is uva and uvb per the above. I did panic put some on that was freely available at the school before Boston last year. That was lucky, because as its point to point you have the sun on one side the whole way…i definitely got a “vest tan” on my right hand side.
I think the last time I burnt in the UK was about 15 years ago when I played in an all day softball tournament on a baking day with no sunscreen. If I was knowingly going to be out all day in the sun with no shade nowadays, I would put some on. But I also don’t really like the sun, so that rarely happens.
All of my holidays up to the age of about 11 were spent in a caravan in Northumberland, so I didn’t know sun block existed .
When we started going abroad on holiday, I discovered very quickly that my skin doesn’t tan well at all. If I don’t wear high factor sun cream, I burn badly and after the burning has gone down i reckon I look brown for about 2 days before it all peals off and I’m back to where I started.
I usually wear factor 50 if I’m going to be out in the sun for any length of time and I slowly tan over the summer.
They don’t directly measure UV exposure, but the Garmin solar watches record how much solar power they generate which will correlate with UV exposure, it should be possible to write a CIQ app for it to warn you when it has had too much
I’ve been fairly cautious about this since I got into tri and even moreso after the my friends melanoma spread to the lungs!
Usually wear long sleeves and if I know I’m going to be out for a long time in the sun I’ll put on F50, same for racing, and in recent years I’ve even taken a few minutes to top up in T2 if it’s a strong sunny run, e.g. Cali last year.
I’ve never been one to sunbathe but like others of my age we weren’t really conditioned to put it on, especially living in the north!
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