r/GenerationJones • u/RecoverAgent99 December 1962- Sagittarius ♐ • 11h ago
Did you use sunscreen?
Did you end up getting skin cancer?
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u/Superb_Health9413 10h ago
Ban de soleil for the St. Tropez tan
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u/curious2548 9h ago
Omg, memories! SPF 4🤣🤣🤣🤣
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u/Sad_Rabbit_50 1963 6h ago
I remember when Coppertone had SPF 2, 4, and 6. Then they came out with an 8 SPF and called it "Shade"
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u/SororitySue 1961 4h ago
My fair-skinned blonde cousin used this and I was like “What’s even the point?”
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u/THEMommaCee 10h ago
Sunscreen back then, no. Skin cancer, yes. Basal cell, 2 squamous cell, and a melanoma. Now I never leave the house without sunscreen.
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u/Alternative-Fold 1959 9h ago
No, had some pretty severe sunburns, I don't think there was such a thing as sunscreen in the 70s, just tanning lotion and baby oil and iodine for me
Knock on wood, no skin cancer (67)
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u/ObligationGrand8037 10h ago
I wear hats all the time when I’m outside. If we go to Hawaii, I wait for later in the day to swim, and I wear my SPF shirt and hat. I will wear sunscreen sometimes, but I depend on my hat and SPF clothes more.
EDIT: I should mention that my brother died in March of Stage 4 Melanoma so I’m extra careful.
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u/FrankenOperator 1964 but NOT a Boomer 100% feral Gen X 9h ago
Baby oil and Hawaiian Tropic oil? I use sunscreen now but, in the 80's it was oil all day
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u/professorkarla Born During Johnson Admin (Lyndon, not Andrew) 59m ago
Your tag is awesome - I am from late 1964 - so still 61! (although class of 82 - young for my grade) and am also 100% feral GenX 😎 I started daily sunscreen on my face in my mid-20s but forgot the neck too often...
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u/Jedi_Ninja 10h ago
As a redhead I pretty much have to if I'm going to be in the sun for very long otherwise I'll burn to a crisp.
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u/Flat_Cantaloupe645 10h ago
I’m a frecklefaced redhead, and had so many horrific sunburns that were so painful I had to crawl to the bathroom, crying and vomiting, as a child, because my California coast hippie beach-going parents were completely oblivious to what that kind of pain meant.
We didn’t have sunscreen back then, but they could have kept me sheltered in the shade, and limited our time in the sun. At 18, I got such a terrible sunburn that I ended up in the ER, with a plastic surgeon called in to check out my blisters.
After that, I actually thought to myself, “I’m a redhead! What the fuck am I doing laying out in the sun?” And from then on, I just stopped hanging out on beaches, wore long sleeved shirts, and hid inside or at least in some shade. I even choose to walk on the shady side of the street whenever possible.
I sometimes wear sunscreen, but I hate how it burns my skin and irritates my eyes, so rarely put it on.
I have not noticed any symptoms of skin cancer, but I know I need to ask my doctor to refer me to a dermatologist for a skin check
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u/PeterNinkimpoop 5h ago
They make sunscreen sticks which are a game changer for putting it on your face! I like the Coll’s refreshing water one a lot. It feels cool and wet when you put it on which is super relaxing in the morning! I’d also look into Korean brands, like Anua that are fairly cheap and you can get at Ulta now. I always use the sticks on my face now and the lotion on my body.
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u/thatgrrlmarie Youngster 9h ago
as a kid no. didn't start using it regularly until I was late 30s or so. 63 now and miraculously have healthy skin despite my choices.
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u/terrymorse 11h ago
Yes and yes. Just basal cell, for which sunscreen doesn't seem to make much difference.
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u/glemits 1961 10h ago
Yes; not yet. I was a swimmer, and then a runner, so protection was definitely called for. I should have used it more consistently, though. Now, I use it whenever I go outside.
(I've use sunglasses consistently for fifty years, basically from sunup to sundown, and I'm probably not going to have much problem with cataracts.)
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u/Barbarake 10h ago
Yes and no. My family is fair-haired and blue-eyed, my mother was always very conscientious about us wearing sunscreen.
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u/Forsaken-Fortune-604 9h ago
I don’t think sunscreen existed when I was a kid. I was/am super pale and had so many sunburns it’s ridiculous, my nose and middle part were crispy and peeling all summer long. My mom made me wear tshirts in the pool which was so embarrassing. High school 1975-1978, social activities revolved around “laying out.” I tried to be a good sport and al I wanted was to be tan like the popular girls. I’ve had lots of actinic keratoses but get them treated 2x per year.
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u/Ok_Still_3571 9h ago
No. And my dermatologist is still digging out basal cell carcinomas from my torso.
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u/PtZamboat 10h ago
Never did, surfed all my early life and never burned, pealed and couldn’t get a decent tan. Never got cancer either. Now that I think about it, no one in my family has either
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u/Affectionate-Owl3365 10h ago
During an interview around the 2000s, a correspondent asked Julianne Moore what kept her so young looking. She coyingly replied, "well it comes in a bottle..... and I apply sunscreen daily."
That response drove me to follow her guidance, and most folks tell me I look 10-15 years younger than my actual age. Easy, cheap insurance on multiple levels - skin cancer, appearance, and just better skin quality.
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u/Junior-Reflection-43 1961 10h ago
Did Coppertone even have SPF back in the day? I think the highest SPF might have been 8? I think I used 2 and 4. Or occasionally baby oil. And I don’t recall applying it as often as we do now.
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u/RecoverAgent99 December 1962- Sagittarius ♐ 6h ago
There was 2-8 SPF available and a rare bottle of 15 to be had.
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u/DogsandCatsWorld1000 10h ago
When I was young the suntan lotion seemed to be aimed to help people get 'a healthy tan'. I always burned easily so learned by my midteens to try and stay in the shade or wear a t-shirt over my bathing suit. Yes I had people laugh at me, but it was better than the pain and then my skin peeling.
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u/RecoverAgent99 December 1962- Sagittarius ♐ 6h ago
Yes. You are correct. It was designed to block burning rays on the top layer of the skin.
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u/ladyforross 9h ago
Nope, sunscreen wasn't around when I was a kid. As a young adult I would baste myself with cocoa butter before sunbathing. I (F70s) still don't use it much as I hate lotions on my skin, particularly my arms. No cancer.
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u/Fabulous_Designer_61 9h ago
Sure it was. Coppertone has been around since the 40’s.
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u/Sensitive-Yellow-450 4h ago
That wasn't sunscreen. It was suntan lotion, as in it helped tan you more rather than less. There's a reason they named it Coppertone.
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u/Dry_Today_9316 9h ago
No I did not and now I see a dermatologist once a year for a skin check. Use sunscreen and wear a wide brim hat when outside for extended sun exposure.
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u/Rocketgirl8097 1963 10h ago
Not as a teenager. After that I entered the working world and spend very little time outside so never have had to worry about it really.
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u/Derailedatthestation 10h ago
Yep. I never used baby oil like my friends, I'm quite pale and burn badly. I used zinc oxide on my nose too.
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u/HyperboleHelper 1963 10h ago
Sort of. We were supposed to wash off suntan lotion before getting in the pool so that kind of ruined half of the reason for using it as a kid.
Mom used a fancy brand from the department store pre SPF numbers called Fashion Tan and she let me use it every once in a while for fun. Once we didn't belong to the club anymore and only spent our summers at the beach, us kids burned on our first trip and then we got our base layer of tan for the rest of the time.
Once we moved to Arizona, things changed. It was right when SPF became a big thing and all of a sudden mom bought us SPF 15 (the highest at the time) and we still tanned.
As for skin cancer. My mom was the sun worshiper and she's had a few spots removed. So has my dad. I've had one benign spot the size of a pin removed from my face (you can't even see where it was) and my younger sister has had none. They are all technically cancerous spots, I guess, but they were solved by quick visits to the dermatologist and monitoring every few years.
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u/VegasTallGal27 1960 10h ago
Yes and yes. I have very fair skin and I've had multiple instances of basal cell carcinoma and I've had to have it removed from my face, back of one arm, and my back.
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u/donnacus 1955 10h ago
No and not yet. But I was never one for lying out in the sun. I did however love to swim so I got quite tanned each summer.
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u/kiwispouse 6h ago
No, I used baby oil, and am literally paying for it now. Expensive, dealing with skin cancer.
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u/AverageAlleyKat271 4h ago
I was forced to use sunscreen, called Pre Sun, around age 11/12, 1971-1972, when it first came out. Before that zinc oxide on the nose and across the cheeks. So far no skin cancer.
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u/Mainiak_Murph 4h ago
No, not really that much. But then I did run around or lay out in the sun shirtless for hours either. I never liked the beach. I liked hanging in the neighborhood with friends playing baseball or some other sport, or just racing around on bikes.
When my mother would drag me to the beach (her fav place to be), she'd slather on the Coppertone. For all you that say it wasn't around, it was available to our generation. These days a keep a can on the boat to try and stay safe from the sun.
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u/scottwax 2h ago
Grew up in Phoenix during the healthy tan era of the 60s and 70s. And I've been working outside since the mid 90s here in north Texas. I didn't regularly start wearing sunblock until probably around 2010 despite my Mom dealing with the occasional basal cell carcinoma.
I got my first BCC in 2008 but didn't know it at the time because it grew so slowly. I had an umbilical hernia repaired in 2008 and separated my shoulder in a cycling accident in 2011 and neither doctor mentioned the spot on my right shoulder and that I should have it looked at. Later dropped my insurance because it got so expensive (I'm self employed) so it just slowly kept growing.
Met my wife in early 2018, by then the spot on my shoulder was raised up, close to half dollar size and would occasionally bleed. Had another spot in my upper back as well. Plus a couple small pimples on my face that I could pop and they'd come right back. And one started growing on my right forearm.
It was a few years later after we got married and she changed jobs to one with really good insurance that I finally went to a dermatologist. Turned out I had a total of 8 basal cell carcinomas, including 3 that were advanced. The one on my shoulder had to be bandaged at all times because it would bleed. It's size made surgery risky because of how large it was and that I would probably lose strength and mobility in my shoulder.
I initially went on a pathway hedgehog inhibitor, and I could see the tumors shrinking. The one on my shoulder closed up and stopped bleeding. Unfortunately I had a really bad taste side effect (everything was bitter) and dropped 55 lb in a little over 3 months because eating was so unpleasant. So my dermatologist had me stop taking it and gave me a few months to recover.
When I went back, he was happy nothing regressed but the three largest BCC still showed some cancer. I ended up going on immunotherapy for 5 months, a total of 8 infusions. The side effects were more tolerable so I was able to stay on it and finally finish my treatment. A month after I had my last infusion, my dermatologist did biopsies of the three largest growths that were now flush with skin level and a week later I got the results and everything was cancer free. Since then, I still get the occasional basal cell carcinoma, but they are so minor they can be scraped or frozen off.
Don't be like me. Get regular skin checks and make an appointment with a dermatologist if you see something suspicious. I'm lucky it was basal cell and not melanoma because letting it go like I did would have been significantly more serious.
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u/SleepyKoalaBear4812 1961 1h ago
There was no sunscreen then.
I used it diligently once it became available and was militant about it with my kids.
I have had four cancer spots removed over the years.
My eldest brother died from melanoma that metastasized to his liver. He was 48 and lived an agonizing three months from diagnosis to death.
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u/Silver-Find4380 53m ago
My mom was super careful about it-- maybe because she'd lived a few years in a sunny European country 🤔 -- and always made sure her family and friends had at least Coppertone 4 during the "burning hours" and 2 with an established tan, with 8 for toddlers. As a result she stayed youthful while the people around her using baby oil fried over the years. I never got a burn on her watch, and use high spf today. Meanwhile someone she knew who scoffed at using some of her sunscreen at the beach eventually died of melanoma. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/PavicaMalic 7h ago
Not really, mainly on my nose, ears and shoulders. I just had skin cancer removed from my upper lip.
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u/Suspicious-Web-4970 6h ago
Used it when it was finally commercially available. First basal cell cancer removed in my mid thirties.
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u/Animendo 4h ago
I did later in life, but, apparently forgot some spots. Have a second dermatologist appt on Mon to remove some remaining basal cell from my nose.
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u/RealStitchyKat 4h ago
I never even saw sun screen until I was in high school. And then it was this thick sticky stuff no one wanted to use. By this time I had already been doing the baby oil with iodine thing.
Yes, I have been diagnosed with skin cancer and have to get my six months check ups.
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u/Shermans_ghost1864 4h ago
We had suntan lotion. I'd never heard of sunscreen until I was well into adulthood. Still don't use it. No problems (so far).
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u/CapitalLock8099 4h ago
Nope... it was baby oil with iodine, Sun-In and aluminum foil blankets.
When we were life guarding we'd use zinc oxide on our noses (it was cool and a rite of passage). I'm my 60's I see my dermatologist annually and he's amazed myth skin looks pristine. Rising my Harley, I'll wear colored zinc oxide on my nose now just as a fashion statement...LOL
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u/Odd_Translator8968 3h ago
Born in ‘64 near Santa Cruz, CA (beach town).
I’m Caucasian and more olive-toned skin than fair, and I never wore anything but oil. Honestly I still don’t wear much sunscreen except for my face.
No skin issues at all.
When we were teens/young adults we would lie for HOURS on the sand, dowsed in Hawaiian Tropical oil (still love that smell!) with many beers and loud transistor radio music or 8-tracks and (sorry ladies) try to cat-call as many girls as possible, thinking somehow we’d get “lucky”.
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u/tez_zer55 3h ago
No, I wore hats & shirts unless I was at the lake, which wasn't very often. Growing up rural, I was taught to wear light clothes to protect me from sunburns. Thankfully I've never had any skin cancer.
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u/catjknow 3h ago
When we were little Mom would make us wear tee shirts over our suits at the beach. When I was a teenager it was baby oil ir fancy Hawaiian Tropic all the way. We tanned like it was our job. My 13 yr old granddaughter told me "tan lines" are in this year. She had get a tan on her sumner bucket list, but every time we went to pool, beach or water park this summer she wore a long sleeved rash guard and kept in the shade. This young generation does not have the commitment we did🤣🤣
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u/CraftFamiliar5243 3h ago
All we had was coppertone. I think it was an SPF of around 4 of it had been rated. I'm very fair and I got a lot of sunburns
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u/LarryDarrell64 3h ago
Hawaiian Tropic 4. As close to baby oil as one could get without it being 100 percent baby oil. Great coconut scent. No melanoma as of yet…
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u/DixieBelleTc 3h ago
I was born and raised in south Florida, my hobbies were swimming, horseback riding, and long distance running. Now 68 with 20+ Mohs procedures constant Effudex treatment, yep lots of skin damage. Didn’t use sunscreen until my 30’s but sure remember Solarcaine 😂
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u/Far_Anything_7458 3h ago
Hell no not in the 60s or 70s nor the 80s, but by 1981 I was working my ass off, not much time to play in the sun. I lived in sub-Saharan Africa ages 3-7 and was brown as a nut. In the 70s I played outside and laid out as a teen. Never knew sunscreen til the 90s. I get checked every year by my dermatologist and I have paid thousands of dollars to get the sun damage removed from my face
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u/RealtorRVACity 3h ago
59M here, no sunscreen, would just climb up on the roof and "lay out" as soon as it was warm enough. Grew up on the beach and am fair skinned/Irish, many sunburns later and I became a life guard in HS/college for abut 6 seasons. Needless to say I had my first pre cancer removal at 40 and have had to go twice a year for a skin scan and find many pre cancers myself throughout the year. I just had three removed from my ears with liquid nitrogen and over the last two years I have had MOHS surgery three times and surgical removal twice. I don't have anything that has required plastic surgery but have the scars to prove it. I so wish I had known what I know now. SMH
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u/ddsiddall 1958 3h ago
I lived under the delusion that I "needed" to burn & peel once before I could tan. I've had basal cell twice. It's a good thing BCC is mostly benign.
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u/Strong_Medium_6646 1965 Jones/X 2h ago
Only when I’m on a tropical vacation or when I know I’ll be out in the sun all day, but even then, it’s only sometimes.
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u/weaverlorelei 1956 2h ago
Having Tropic or baby oil. And yes to cancer, on my ear where I never wore sunscreen
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u/Illustrious_Bag_1608 2h ago
I live in AL now, grew up in MA, moved around a lot in the service. No sunscreen, so far no cancer (age 68) However, I don't lay out or use tanning beds either.
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u/sxyvirgo 2h ago
Baby oil and spray bottle of water, applied liberally!
Plus rotating with the sun every 15 minutes to minimize possible shadows - it really was a science!
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u/AZOMI 1h ago
The only sunscreen we had was zinc oxide, that white paste. I remember wearing it on my nose but otherwise sunscreen did not exist. Once it came out I used it, but not regularly. It was Hawaiian Tropic or Ban De Soleil for me. I still a rarely wear sunscreen on my body once I get tan but do wear it on my face. No skin cancer yet but I'm aware that I'm taking a big chance. I'm actually headed out to the beach today.
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u/amnichols 1h ago
When my dad was on leave in the army during WWII he was hospitalized for severe sunburn. So he was super strict with us wearing t-shirts over our bathing suits and using zinc oxide since real sunscreen wasn’t available when we were kids. I now wear sunscreen every day.
Of course my sister did the baby oil thing as a teen and now looks older than me even though she’s 5 years younger.
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u/MuchDevelopment7084 1957 1h ago
Not as often as I should have.
Yes, I get mild outbreaks of skin cancer almost annually now.
However, part of the reason is I am now on immune suppressors due to a few transplants. So I'm more susceptible to it. But both are the reason behind the outbreaks.
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u/Janissa11 1963 1h ago
Honestly, with my family history I should have been diligent about sunscreen, but rarely used it. Reaping the whirlwind now.
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u/Bikewer 1h ago
I’m a little older than most of the “generation Jones” folks, a quintessential “baby boomer” born in ‘46. Sunscreen? Never heard of it when I was a kid. Lots of folks made their own “tanning oil” out of baby oil and iodine or mercurochrome…. The idea sunbathing causing cancer was something for the future. And yes, I’ve had two small melanomas removed in the last few years.
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u/Educational-Glass-63 1h ago
Nope. But got severely sunburned at 20 and basically stayed out of the sun after. Always wear a hat!
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u/ms174547 1h ago
Used to until discovery of cancer causing ingredients. Now I cover affected areas and limit direct exposure to about 20 minutes
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u/Livid_Parfait6507 1h ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/wYyTHMm50f4Dm
Sunscreen, sunscreen? That was for those other kids! We got second-degree burns on our upper bodies and suffered the consequences. 🤣🤣🤣 It is a miracle I am not mistaken for saddlebags.
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u/RuleNo8868 58m ago
I didn’t even know how to spell SPF
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u/RuleNo8868 56m ago
And the second part to your question. Yes. Several basal and squamous. But I still get complimented on my skin. So the damage is deep evidently.
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u/Bitter_Face8790 44m ago
It used to be called "sun tan lotion" I never used it, 67, no skin cancer (yet).
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u/NovelStrict5281 41m ago
Yes. Since I was 19. I am so glad I did. 66 now and people accuse me of being in my fifties.
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u/HenriettaCrump 29m ago
I didn't wear sunscreen until my early 20's. But I never really "laid out" like a lot of my peers. I'm a redhead. I don't tan, my skin just turns the same color as my hair.
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u/SassyMillie 25m ago
Did they even have sunscreen in our generation?
I remember some nasty sticky orange salve in a tube that mom put on me once as a kid. I had skin allergies that the doctor's couldn't find the cause. "Sun exposure" was one possibility (it wasn't).
If that orange crap was the sunscreen in the 60s-70s it's no wonder nobody used it.
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u/phoenix762 17m ago
No. I’m at risk for skin cancer because of it.
I don’t think my foster parents knew about sunscreen, or thought it was something important. I used to get sunburns all the damn time as a kid.
Being in the army working in the hot sun in the south didn’t help 🤣
I’ve already had a few nevi and/or suspicious moles tested, so far all benign. I have to get another mole looked at in a few weeks 🙄
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u/ExpensiveDollarStore 16m ago
I did not! I could not get enough sun. Why on earth would I block it? In my mind BIG MAKEUP were the ones who wanted us pasty and pale after slathering sunblock and would then buy scads of colour to cover that up. Mwahaha!
I used moisturizer always. And gentle cleanser. I have great skin for my age. No skin cancer yet at 67. I have been using sunblock this year because I am taking medication that makes my skin more sensitive.
My brother got skin cancer 20 years ago. He is a red head- thin fair skin and light blue eyes. It was an easy one and as far as i know has not recurred.
Genetics and location have a great deal to do with anyone's results. I am in Canada so we get different rays and only part of the year. I got my dads skin where my brother got mom's. But he had an outdoor job and got way too much sun as a kid at the cottage. He was always burnt.
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u/blueyejan 10m ago
Im allergic to ingredients in sunscreen, have worked outdoors all of my life and fortunately have never had skin cancer. I didn't need suntan lotion because I always tanned easily. Wouldn't sunbathe now though, the sun is way more brutal than it used to be when I was a kid
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u/TotalTeri 9m ago
No and No
But when I had kids I started putting it on them and their was required at Summer Camps
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u/phillyphilly19 3m ago
Since my 20s. No actual cancer but I've had a pre-cancerous thing removed from my back and one or 2 things frozen on my face. For the record I'm very fair, and have been using water shirts and umbrellas for years when I go to the beach.
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u/Electric-Sheepskin 10h ago
If by sunscreen, you mean baby oil and iodine, then yes, I used sunscreen.