I love being outside. I hate the sun. I also hate sunscreen.

I feel like there’s a weird split between the reality of having this gross white goop on you all the time (most people don’t wear sunscreen all the time, right? Right??) and the reality of the sun basically wanting us all dead.

This sunburn calculator made by a dermatologist will show you how quickly you can actually get burned. Personally, today, I literally can’t stay outside for longer than 14-ish minutes (probably even shorter in my case) without any sunscreen before I’ve had too much sun.

Even on a somewhat cloudy day, I can’t stay out there for more than half an hour. I notice that I’m getting too much sun, too. I feel like my eyes are sunburned practically. I struggle to comprehend how skin like this even evolved. People practically shame me for “not going out enough” when they straight-up just have darker skin than me.

…And yet the idea of always putting sunscreen on is like, some kind of social faux pas on top of me really not wanting to. It smells, people notice that it smells, it feels gross, people notice that I’m even pastier than usual. It’s like wow, you care about skin care enough to deal with that and spend gobs of money sticking a shot glass of sunscreen on yourself every two hours? God forbid if I actually had lip balm of all things as a man, and wearing clothing that would actually keep the sun at bay a little bit, ahhhahahaha. No. /rant

TL;DR what do y’all do about the sun existing?

Edit: I got over myself and started buying decent sunscreen. And decent SPF lip balm because Jesus Christ my lips are somethin’ else. If people think it’s weird to not get skin cancer that’s their problem.

  • latte@beehaw.orgEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    there are two main types of sunscreens, chemical and mineral sunscreens. mineral sunscreens tend to feel less absorbent and will leave you with a white cast, while chemical sunscreens absorb more easily and do not use a white cast as they have different ingredients. they also tend to have very little fragrance. this seems more in line with what you’re looking for from a sunscreen. here is the chemical sunscreen i use - i just buy a huge tub of it so i never run out (and because the big bottle price is actually quite reasonable) and can use it lots without feeling bad and it’s never bothered my sensitive nose or left a white cast no matter how much i sweat! it’s also spf 50 so fairly strong.