Do you actively seek a suntan?

I do. I know about the increase in the incidence rates of melanoma and the damage that the sun can do to your skin, but I love having a suntan and I hate being lily-white.

Hmmm, I guess that is a bit shallow, but having a tan does raise my self-esteem and I love being outside at this time of year and through the summer months and I will catch the sun on my skin.

My wife is the opposite. She has very Scottish skin and actively avoids the sun or when she is in the sun she puts factor 20 sun block or higher on. She also puts the same high factor sun block on our children. I can understand this with our youngest as she is only 3 and has skin like her mother, but the older two have skin more like mine which will brown, but does not require such a high level of protection.

What has spooked her is that my father-in-law has been plagued by pre-cancerous skin lesions over the last 10 years on his neck and face. He thinks it was caused by the amount of time he spent outside in the sun when he was a young PC in Strathyclyde Police. I can’t imagine that skin protection was high on the priority list for bobbies back in the 60’s!

I don’t try and get a tan, as in sunbathing etc, but I don’t avoid the sun and don’t wear sunscreen

How could someone in Strathclyde get too much sun??

Ho Hum pictured reclining at home yesterday:

Get the factor 40 on. We’re British, for Gods sake man! Its not natural for us to be exposed to direct sunlight

Not really. I do expose myself a bit gradually to encourage a light tan and a bit of resistance. I don’t like the idea of sun cream – it’s a bit chemically. I usually just cover up though.

However thanks to iDave I now look pretty good in a sleeveless jersy, so that should be seeing the blazing continental sun as soon as it warms up.. by this weekend hopefully 🙂

Binners has a farmers tan as he won’t get his ‘moobs’ out in the garden….. ‘jus sayin’

(Is very smug)

Surely even as a person of ethnically dark skin you can still get sunburned?

Surely even as a person of ethnically dark skin you can still get sunburned?

They certainly can, not sure about in UK conditions though! An old, very dark, indian friend of mine used to complain about getting sunburned when going home for a few weeks.

Incidentally I rarely wear sun screen of any sort, sun clears up any skin issues I happen to have and makes my life much better. Build up the tan without burning and all is good. If I’m more wrinkly when I’m older – who cares, I’m not winning any beauty contests.

Cooking yourself alive and it raises your self esteem 😯

If that’s the case, imagine what a pair of gympsy earings in your nipples would do for you!

Or even better, a my little pony tattoo on your left breast, or even better x innit and dashing and infinately more awe inspiring for the general public, than a mere poxy tan, a 10″ cucumber stashed down your speedo’s, remember to stash it down the front 😉

I’m dark anyway so I tan quickly and I agree with the OP it feels better. I like a tan but I won’t sunbathe as it’s boring so I get the standard UK tan below the knees and above the waist.

Yes, but it takes a LOT of sun for me to be ‘burned’. Like when I fell asleep in the garden on a lounger, and woke up several hours later with a pink chest. Can only really get burned if I spend several hours in the direct sunlight around midsummer time.

Unlike my ginger mate Jason, who would burn if he looked at a holiday brochure. And Sean, who would never ever use any sunscreen, then have to suffer when I slapped his back in a very cruel and sadistic manner, knowing it would cause him acute pain.

Both of them wore shell suits. 😐

Joking aside, it ages the shit out of you, not for me I woulde rather be pale and look young for my age, than be tanned and end up like a human raisin!

a my little pony tattoo on your left breast

I want this:

I don’t tan very much (particularly my legs) and burn very easily when outside on holiday in spain!

When in the UK, I’ll put on sun cream if I’ll be out in the sun for more than an hour, don’t actively sun bathe, but its nice to not have the usual chemistry student stuck in lab pastiness!

I don’t actively look, it just kind of happens.

Both of them wore shell suits.

Aha… I think I know what your real identity is now Fred. I suspect that THIS is you and the two friends of which you speak…

Joking aside, it ages the shit out of you,

Some people. Doesn’t seem to have aged me much, I got ID’d the other day, I’m 30. 😆 By the time I’m 40 it might catch up, but who cares – guys look better with scars and age, otherwise you just look like a boy 😆

Yes, but it takes a LOT of sun for me to be ‘burned’. Like when I fell asleep in the garden on a lounger, and woke up several hours later with a pink chest. Can only really get burned if I spend several hours in the direct sunlight around midsummer time.

Snap, and I’m white 🙂 Walked for 12 hours in pure blue skies the other day, not even a hint of burn, but nicely tanned. 🙂 That said, I have spent most of my youth working and playing outdoors, often on the beach for 12+ hours a day. I check my moles often!

I do when I get chance, but there’s normally something calling me back indoors.

Apparently some people in Scotland are not white, but a pale blueish colour. What does this mean? Is it due to a sunlight deficiency?

And what is it with some Scandinavians; y’know, the propperly blonde blue-eyed ones what go really brown?

Aryan Master Race? If I weren’t me I’d like to be one of them.

Naively googled ‘tanned blonde’ for an example of what I meant, and it’s mostly just utter filth, so I best not. 😳

Aryan Master Race?

Wasn’t that the phrase coined by the squat little dark haired bloke with a funny tash

OMFG! a my little pony storm trooper! I wants it, MY PRECIOUS!!!!!

No, but i do tan from being outside cycling/running/spending time outdoors as much as possible. I generally always wear factor 30 on my body and factor 40 on my face and reapply it lots.

I couldn’t lie on a beach and seek out a tan for a week though.

I hide from the sun, lot’s of memories of being really badly burnt as a child, I burn horribly fast, so it’s factor 30 for me and even at that i’ll wear long sleeved tops in the sun alot.

(Is very smug)

Racist.

I use factor 50 sunblock. Not because I’m worried about skin cancer (I have never heard of one single case of it in anyone I know), but ‘m not interested in tanning and don’t want to get burned.
My mum has always been a sun worshipper but I don’t see the point.
As for fake tan and sunbeds, they’re just frickin weird

I had skin cancer at 27 from too much sun as a child, so no.

Don’t do sunbathing, but do actively try and get a tan early in the year. Not for aesthetics, but for the protection from burning so that I can do long races in the sun without having to worry about sun cream. Have the advantage like several others on this thread of tanning rather than burning – I very, very rarely use sunscreen in the UK – but I do (did) also race abroad where it’s more of an issue.

My oldest son is blonde haired but has my complexion – he still gets slathered in the sun cream (just like his little brother who is very blonde and has lighter skin) as he doesn’t need the tan and any sun exposure isn’t actually doing him any good.

I cremated my face on a ski trip a few years ago. It was so bad that they gave me some cream to make the skin peel off quicker and tablets to make the swelling go down! It started cracking and bleeding everytime I moved my mouth. Worst of all the cream meant I couldnt go outside to ski and the tablets meant I couldnt drink any alcohol, not cool at the British Universities Ski Champs!

Im always a bit more cautious especially when abroad in strong sun.

Hence, “crispo” ?

😆 No but i like what you did there…..

(Is very smug)

Racist.

It actually is, No use denying it really. 😳

I am blonde (kind of) but tan. If I roast myself I’ll get a bit red and maybe peel a layer, but that hasn’t happened since I was a teenager out on 4 hour mtb rides in the blazing sun with no shirt.

As a kid (before sunscreen was popular) I used to spend all day on the beach digging holes which meant my back to the sun. I went so brown my Mum said I looked Indian. Although she is prone to exaggeration – light Indian maybe.. plus my hair was quite blonde then and tended to go white in the sun. That and my small size at the time probably meant I looked like some kind of old Indian guru of some kind who’d meditated his way to smooth skin.

Unless I’m in a pool or the sea I always stay covered up. I don’t really like the sun anyhow.

dont use suncream but dont sit in the sun unneccesarilly either

did 4 months in west africa – never burnt , colleagues burnt to a crisp…one fell asleep outside on a surfer from the rig and had to be put on light dutys inside for 3 weeks – couldnt sleep , couldnt wear a hard hat etc … worse still his missus is the skin care guru at boots …

did 4 months in NZ – burnt once , fell asleep by the pool at the hostel after a long day on the bike….

did a month in australia – had to limit my exposure there but made sure not to burn my self

a friend has had melanoma on the leg – he carrys a sun meter thing around now and reckons the sun in scotland (when it gets out) is more dangerous than in auz according to this meter of his

did 4 months in NZ – burnt once

Ozone layer hole innit.

I don’t sunbathe as such, but 8 hours of biking a weekend means i can’t avoid it really. I’ve already got ‘better’ tanlines this year than i had last September. Madness.

White bits!!!

Seriously though sunbeds are vicious ( but fake tan does stink). I seem to go pink then straight back to white. Sunbathed topless a few years ago on a beach and got really sick (throwing up all over the shop) the sun was really strong but there was a lovely breeze. You could peel me in long strips! Kept the skin for a while as well LOL!!

MC1R Homozygous#, childhood spent on the beach (in white shirts), basal cell carcinoma (benign skin cancer) by 30. I use factor 30 spray and have never sunbathed. At least the kids have better genes and olive skin!

For those avoiding the sun, I have found the clear sprays excellent. Started a few years ago with Factor 10 and can now get up to 30. I think these are better than creams, because when suncream is tested, you’d be surprised how much you are supposed to use. The sprays give the right concentration without rubbing.

#Pure ginger

EDIT – Oh and you only ever have sunburnt feet once. The spray works wonders with the Tevas.

as someone who works at a cancer institute heavily involved in melanoma research I’m sad to say I do try fortunately I have no patience for just sitting around but should try and use sunscreen more
smoking and sunbathing both increase cancer risk by about the same level,
skin pigmemtation is not the great defence people often think especially once even a small amount of eoropean genes have been introduced to a family