Question/commiseration for the pale ladies

leighann1

So I know pregnancy makes everyone more sensitive to the sun in general, but holy cow!!

I'm super pale (red hair, blue eyes), so I know a thing or two about how to not get burned. We've been at the beach for two days now. I've used all my tricks and I still got a burn on my shoulders!!! Copious amounts of sunscreen, big hat, sitting under an umbrella all day. Still burned.

I broke down and bought a light long-sleeved shirt this afternoon. I guess I'll be the pale (now red) chick dressed in layers at the beach tomorrow.

Any other pale ladies have tips or similar experiences??

Amberena

I'm a fellow red-haired blue-eyed fair-skinned person. Luckily I live in the Pacific northwest so I don't get burnt too often. Maybe invest in some of those shirts and things with UPF built in. Those prevented me from getting burnt to a crisp when I was in Honduras for a week a few years ago. Other than that just drink water, frequently apply sunscreen, and hide in the shade.

leah665

I went to an outside all day music festival and wore a hat and kept reapplying sunscreen. I ended up getting burned through my shirt...

I'm also pale and freckled. I suggest just keep slathering on the sunscreen, like every hour on the hour and more often if you're going in the water.

nbpa3027

I'm another fair skinned redhead and here are a couple of things I have learned (sorry about the novel):

There are two different kinds of sunscreen. They used to be easy to tell apart because one was called sun screen and the other was sun block, but not so much anymore. If you look at the active ingredients, one type has 4 and the other type has 2. The one that is better for you and I think is more effective is the one with two (zinc oxide and titanium). These are a little harder to find, and don't have as high of an SPF-50 is I think the highest-- but because of the ingredients they work much better than even the higher SPF chemicals. If you can't find it with the adult sunscreen, check with the baby/kids. Banana Boat makes one that we really like and neutragena makes one that comes in a pink bottle. Me and my equally pale husband and kiddos have survived many beach trips without the slightest burn once we started paying a bit more attention to the ingredients.

Most sunscreens also recommend letting it sit on your skin for 15-20 minutes before going out in the sun even though most usually jut put it on when they get out in the sun.

The sun and the uv Rays can also reflect off of a lot of things and still get you, even if you are in the shade. Being close to the water or light sand at the beach or being in a pool, but in the shade can also get you burned.

Lastly, in newer cars, the front windshield protects against UV Rays, but the side windows do not. Even if your windows are tinted you can still get burned ( we learned this the hard way with my son).