This short video popped up on my Facebook timeline yesterday, so odds are, you’ve probably seen it too… it wasn’t the first time I’ve seen photos of sun damaged skin under ultraviolet light, but it was the first time I watched how sunscreen applied literally blocks out UV rays… was I a skeptic before? Maybe.
As far as I know {since my mom is adopted and we have no legit genealogy} I’m mostly Irish/German, but I tan pretty well, and spent much of my youth in the sun without sunscreen, ending each summer with deep golden glowing skin and green hair from the chlorine in pools. I’ve probably burnt my skin to a red crisp at least once a summer my entire life and even as I aged and understood the damage that the sun could cause, I still tanned with very little protection from it.
I love the sun. I love summer, and even now, if it’s late in the day and/or not too sunny, I’ll go out with bare skin. Though my base makeup and face lotions all have SPF in them, I rarely wear makeup to be honest. So unless I’m headed out to the lake for paddle boarding, or for some serious sun time, I’m kind of lazy when it comes to all the other hours I’m out in the sun. I’ve also learned recently that all those eco CFL light bulbs I’ve switched to in my house to lessen my carbon footprint actually emit some UV radiation causing skin damage as well {if they’re not covered by a lamp shade}. Which means, I should probably be wearing sunscreen all the time.
Yesterday I looked in the mirror and thought Oh I got a little color, I look so much better.
To make matters worse, my father died at age 54 from skin cancer. Though I worry about it often, my justification is that my dad spent time in Vietnam, in the Navy, on the water with the glare of the sun reflecting and burning his Irish skin… compounded by exposure to Agent Orange, his lifelong smoking habit and all his other vices, as well as his inability to have it addressed by a doctor in a timely fashion and have it cut out – to be the cause of it, rather than being overly protective of my own fragile skin.
Clearly I am in some sort of denial and somehow find rebellion to be a suitable defense. Dumb.
Sometimes certain things just hit a nerve. Sometimes it takes being hit over the head by the obvious for it to finally sink in. Even though there are links to SFP lotion being somewhat hazardous to our health, I think it is still obvious that for the minimal amount of time I am out in the sun instead of inside working {hiding from my CFL bulbs}, slathering on a bit of sunscreen would probably be smart. I don’t think I can avoid it any longer… and even if this is just an ad for selling sunscreen, it kind of worked.
Watch it below… it’s 3minutes
If you can’t see the video above by Thomas Leveritt, click here: How the Sun Sees You
* Photos are screen caps from the video
