I love being outside. I hate the sun. I also hate sunscreen.

I feel like there’s a weird split between the reality of having this gross white goop on you all the time (most people don’t wear sunscreen all the time, right? Right??) and the reality of the sun basically wanting us all dead.

This sunburn calculator made by a dermatologist will show you how quickly you can actually get burned. Personally, today, I literally can’t stay outside for longer than 14-ish minutes (probably even shorter in my case) without any sunscreen before I’ve had too much sun.

Even on a somewhat cloudy day, I can’t stay out there for more than half an hour. I notice that I’m getting too much sun, too. I feel like my eyes are sunburned practically. I struggle to comprehend how skin like this even evolved. People practically shame me for “not going out enough” when they straight-up just have darker skin than me.

…And yet the idea of always putting sunscreen on is like, some kind of social faux pas on top of me really not wanting to. It smells, people notice that it smells, it feels gross, people notice that I’m even pastier than usual. It’s like wow, you care about skin care enough to deal with that and spend gobs of money sticking a shot glass of sunscreen on yourself every two hours? God forbid if I actually had lip balm of all things as a man, and wearing clothing that would actually keep the sun at bay a little bit, ahhhahahaha. No. /rant

TL;DR what do y’all do about the sun existing?

Edit: I got over myself and started buying decent sunscreen. And decent SPF lip balm because Jesus Christ my lips are somethin’ else. If people think it’s weird to not get skin cancer that’s their problem.

  •  Silent-G   ( @silent_g@beehaw.org ) English
    2•1 year ago

    I went camping last month in a bright, sunny area with minimal tree coverage. I’m currently on accutane, so I made sure to ask my dermatologist if there was anything special I should do to be careful about sun exposure. They mentioned that I should look into getting some UV protection long sleeve shirts, so I bought a 4 pack of those, and also a sun hat with similar UV protection rating. I’ll admit the hat was not stylish at all, but the shirts were lightweight and soft enough that they didn’t bother me at all. I think I put on sunscreen once during the 4 days we were camping, and I didn’t get sunburned at all. If you’re looking for a hat that might provide some sun protection but also looks nicer than the generic outdoorsy style, maybe look for a bucket hat.

    Also, beyond all of that, just don’t spend time around people who judge you for wearing any kind of sun protection. If you’re encountering people like that, then they’re the one in the wrong, not you. Remind yourself to address which actions are harmful or helpful. Which is more helpful: wearing sunscreen or criticizing someone for wearing sunscreen? Obviously wearing sunscreen is more helpful and criticizing someone is more harmful, and the harmful action deserves no energy put towards considering or reacting to it.

    Normal, polite, nice human beings that deserve your time and energy do not do things like make fun of you for wearing sun protection. They understand, sympathize, and sometimes they’ll even help you.