Soapbox

last weekend i completed sharp edge, blencathera and Skidaw in the lakes. Was it hot you bet.

With shorts on i thought I was safe given that i am an asian already reasonably tanned.

On the way home late Sunday evening I realised my lover legs were sensitive to touch and a little itchy. At home I realised how cooked i had become below the knees. SUN BURN albeit only slight.

Anyone recomend asian and afro caribean people use factor in this weather?

Mohammed,

The Met Office website UV Index page shows how the UV index on weather maps related to different skin types.

Anyone can get burned, it's just a case of how good your natural protection against it is.

As for what factor, I'd say I am "fair, tans" and tend to just smack on the factor 15, having said that I find hiding in the office is also a good defense.

I use factor 15 most of the time. Scientific research apparently shows that cream with a lower SPF than this is pointless.

I've currently got some evil sunburn on the back of my legs too from walking on a glacier last week, the strength of the sun certainly suprised me then.

Pointless?

I require factor 30 at least--preferably 45--otherwise I burn horrendously. I lost most of the skin off my nose on one occasion last summer. =(

That sounds hideous, It's hard for me to imagine what it must be like being sun-sensitive.

Pointless...

Lloyds pharmacy choose not to sell anything lower that factor 15 because it's inneffective. Im sure a web search will throw up some more convincing arguments.

It is effective, just obviously not as effective as higher SPFs and therefore lloyds have taken a moral stance not to sell it. It's probably a money driven plan so that people think they must care and therefore go and buy from them.
Or maybe I'm just a bit sceptical about businesses always caring more about money than their customers.

Oo-er, I've never used anything more than factor 8 in my life - when I remember at all!

Ah well, something's gotta get you in the end, might as well leave skin cancer on the list....
;-)



<fx: apologies if anyone has experience with skin cancer that means they don't appreciate my "gallows humour">

I don't really see the point of using a low protection sun cream. If you want sun protection, get proper sun protection, the minimum I bother using is factor 20, why would you want to use less, it's not as if using a higher protection sun cream has any disadvantages, is it?

Presumably you don't react to the sun much either, Matt C.

In this recent hot weather I've used F8 on my arms (they have had enough sun over the years and never look pale any more) and face (don't want wrinkles) and F4 in other places. I often don't bother as I don't tend to burn and sometimes don't react at all.

With just the above protection (or nowt for a lot of the time) I just have a nice light tan and no red and no burns. I could slap on F30 all over but then I wouldn't have a base tan and I'd be susceptible to red, uncomfortable skin if I accidentally got caught out at length. A light base tan protects me from damage.

Yes, I'm sure that some of you will say "But ANY sun damages you" but my mother's family were Italian and they were all very dark-olive skinned and none of them burned. Nor did any of them ever get Skin cancer.

Edit to add:
Our posts just crossed. Actually I may have answered you, Jon. Wearing F50 wouldn't allow me to get the light base tan that stops me burning if I'm caught out with winter-paler skin.

Edit to add:
Ben, you probably can't see the point of lower-factor creams because you just posted above that you have evil sunburn. Not everyone gets burned but some want protection that isn't a total block.

That's how I see it Jon.

That's right JJ, I seem to go brown and it takes a lot to burn me. What damage it's actually doing I'm not entirely sure.

Jon, you're right. I've been on 8 because it always seemed like enough. I achieve a kind of "perma-tan" and then seem to be ok. Of course in recent years this has all gained a much higher profile. My new tube is factor 15!


PS. No idea where I get it from JJ - my roots are Yorkshire and historically out of Ireland!

Pale and ginger me =( Generally do ok on the arms as I'm in a t-shirt 364 days of the year but my neck and ears go nice and crispy after a short stint in the sun.

Some people can wear F20 and still end up sore and they'll think that anything less than F15 is not worth bothering with.
And that's probably correct for them.

But that's a bit like saying "my fractured arm was an open fracture which required 12 weeks in plaster with an operation therefore every arm fracture in future needs 12 weeks in plaster".

Using a lower factor allows the skin to develop its natural protection; you tan, rather than burning.

Tanning is nature's sun protection mechanism. It's been tested over quite a long period.

Are you sure that the stuff in the sun lotion you use is safe...?

lol Captain!

Yep, that "nature's sun protection mechanism" has been tried and tested by my ancestors in Italy for several hundred (thousand?) years....

Actually, to answer the point made by the OP:

A girl I worked with is Jamaican. In the English summer, she wouldn't burn at all but her sister who had identically-black skin and the same biological parents, sometimes did. Strange.

There's lots of conflicting advice re sun exposure - a couple of months back there was a report on the radio that as well as the recommendation here http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-10/sc-ntr100803.php
that depression and other psycological illness can be exerbated by insufficient sunlight. The doctor/expert said that daily exposure to arms and head was an insufficient dosage and that large body areas required exposure.
I doubt if trying to get a years sunlight in two weeks on the Med is what's recommended though.
I'm lucky that I don't burn (get a red face though) in less than 3-4 hours sun, without any protection.

I think I read a report that Rickets is also on the increase due to people not getting enough exposure to sunlight these days. It'll be a return to all the little old men with bandy legs in a few years, exaberbated by the fact that they'll all be 16 stones due to the diet of junk food when young.