tanning

[Karen]

I guess I was lucky I didn't get skin cancer.

You likely owe it more to genetics than luck, David! Those italian genes have served you well in that regard!

[pomtzu]

You likely owe it more to genetics than luck, David! Those italian genes have served you well in that regard!

LOL - but that doesn't always work that way. My dad was full blooded Italian, thus making me and my sibs half the same. My older brother has had skin cancers removed from his back, as did Dad. But they both spent a lot of time outside - shirtless - working in the sun in the yard, as well as spending a LOT of time on the ocean in their boats. And my brother lived in FL too, where the rays are much stronger than around this area. I tan very easy, but still choose not to bake myself anymore, and get a nice tan (except for my legs ) just being outside with the pups a few times each day.

[Asiel]

I've always been an outdoor person and would get a tan regardless, and I did stretch out in the sun with baby oil slathered on. I think it was a phase people were going through at the time. I started reading so much about skin cancer that I stopped the tanning but spending hours in the sun every day I would tan anyway. I've never had a burn though although I am as fair skinned as can be and blond. After realizing the dangers of too much sun I tried to avoid long exposures. Today I can't go in the sun even 5 minutes without getting too weak to move.
Just this year our city has banned tanning salons for any person under the age of 18, I thought it was a great move as most teens don't give skin cancer a second thought. I would never use those tanning beds myself but have friends who go every week in winter before they leave for warmer destinations. I do know a few who have had suspicious moles and lesions removed but they still tan and use tanning beds...
Glad I stopped getting all that sun yrs ago, who knows how things could have turned out.

[david p]

Would sweating a lot prevent skin cancer? I used to sweat a ton mowing all of that grass and I wonder if a coating of sweat might have prevented it?

[Karen]

Would sweating a lot prevent skin cancer? I used to sweat a ton mowing all of that grass and I wonder if a coating of sweat might have prevented it?

Hee hee - dunno about that, but I know that olive-skinned people are less likely to get it than we pasty white folks, but there are myriad factors involved. I'm just one of those people whose general description matches the list on all those posters:

fairskinned? - check
blonde or red hair as a child? - check
pale or blue eyes? - check
burn easily? - check
freckles? - check
Frequent sunburns as a child? - check - despite the best efforts of parents and sunscreen!

And Paul, despite having dark hair, matches all the rest of these, plus has a history of skin cancer in the family.

[david p]

Hee hee - dunno about that, but I know that olive-skinned people are less likely to get it than we pasty white folks, but there are myriad factors involved. I'm just one of those people whose general description matches the list on all those posters:

fairskinned? - check
blonde or red hair as a child? - check
pale or blue eyes? - check
burn easily? - check
freckles? - check
Frequent sunburns as a child? - check - despite the best efforts of parents and sunscreen!

And Paul, despite having dark hair, matches all the rest of these, plus has a history of skin cancer in the family.

Guess what, Karen. When I was a kid, I was blonde which turned dark brown, (now grey!)

[Karen]

Guess what, Karen. When I was a kid, I was blonde which turned dark brown, (now grey!)

Yes, but you got your Dad's olive skin tone - which counts a LOT, apparently!

My hair is what we call jokingly "the transmogrifying Peterson hair" - When I was little I had blonde curls, bright strawberryish blonde, big curls, Between Christmas and Easter when I was four, it not only turned darker - brown, to be precise, it went straight. It stayed straight for a long time, but would always get reddish or blonde streaks in the summer, and by the end of summer the ends of my hair were pretty light, especially compared to the color it was when it started out! Then it got to be kind of wavy, and now, after years, it is fairly curly if I don't blow it dry. It still gets streaks, if I am out in the sun much. My nieces have been warned this could, indeed, happen to them! Niece #3 actually straightens her hair at the present time - trying to delay the inevitable I guess!