Seriously though, I can sunburn in 10 minutes flat. That’s all it takes. Does anyone else possess this strange power? My brother does not have this problem. He can sit in the sun all day and he might get a little rosy. Do you have a sibling? Do they have a particular (in)tolerance for sun? Any gruesome sunburn stories? I once fell asleep on a beach in Florida and woke up purple-- one of the more unpleasant experiences of my
life.
Generally, I have a high tolerance. I go pink, then I go brown.
However, once upon a time, I sat under a sunshade on Corfu in July. Ha, thought I, no burning for me. But the sun had other ideas and cunning reflected of the sea onto my chest and arms. Result, one day of agony and puking, then two more just of torture and being unable to wear a seat belt when driving. I now have new, permanent freckles on my upper arms and my wife does a mole watch on me.
Stereotypical white girl here. I am so white that I glow in the dark.
If I’m out in the sun for more than 20 minutes, I also burn. Right now, I have a slight tan on my arms, but it’s only because I got horribly burnt a few weeks back. I was at the beach for about an hour, slathered with sunblock every twenty minutes, all to no avail. There’s got to be something in my skin that rejects sunblock, or maybe converts it to Crisco. I get burned no matter what I do.
When I was in eighth grade, I spent 9 hours on the beach with no suntan lotion, sunblock, or zinc oxide. I almost had to go to the hospital, because my mother thought I had sun-poisoning. (Which, in retrospect, I probably did.) I, too, have the freckles, but I have regular appointments with a dermatologist who monitors everything. (Skin cancer runs rampant in my family.)
My sister, on the other hand, can go outside for 5 minutes and end up with a great tan. I swear, sometimes I think I am the milkman’s child.
Don’t even talk to me about the sun. I have SPF 45 sunscreen, which I understand is just slightly below having myself wallpapered, and I still have to be SUPER careful. I am much, much too white. (Where are those Korean genes when you need them!)
Scotsmen should not live below the 50th parallel.
I am irish. I rest my case.
I have heard that the typical irish look (dark hair blue eyes) is a much more risky combo for burning than blond and blue-eyed, and my experiences here in Sweden confirm that. I have heard as well that you even have a greater chance of burning than red-heads, but I have a hard time believing that one…
Anyhow, I just went out and ate my lunch in the sun here in Sweden, and and part of my that was facing the sun is now bright red. I musta been out a half hour. So here I sit, aloed and downhearted.
Best burn yet? Home in ireland, burnt the tops of my feet and the backs of my knees so that the skin blistered and stretched. I often get sun blisters tho so thats not too odd. Major pain in the ass is that I am equally allergic to cold, I get really bad rashes from the cold here in the winters. Its called “cold eczema” they say here…
I had a few nasty sunburns as a kid; while going through the peeling stages of one of them I took off my shirt, flung myself onto the shag carpet, and writhed around like a snake. It was the best itch I’d ever scratched. Then when I had my mom slather refrigerator-chilled aloe lotion on my back . . . ummmmmm. I shun the sun as it has shunned me in the past, applying and reapplying sunblock obsessively and walking on the shady side of the street.
I’m Irish and German. We’re pink indoors, let alone out.
“The sun needs skin for what it burns to shine on, for Coppertone’s sweet sake.” 
I go outside in the evenings, when there’s plenty of filtering atmosphere for the death-rays to penetrate at an oblique angle.
I remember a horrible Cabo San Lucas vacation that left me with something resembling “hot wings” from a shabby pub to amble around on. I was okay after three or four months.
I seem to be developing something of a tolerance to sun…either that or I’ve finally hit on a sun screen that really works. Banana boat sport 30+. I haven’t gotten a bad burn since my mid-teens, and I am a very fair-skinned redhead, so I grew up burning terribly. That disclaimer or whatever on the Weather Channel worries me. " Your risk of skin cancer increases with just one blistering sun burn." I had three or four between the ages of 1 and 15, this doesn’t make me happy to hear constantly.
I’m a half Scottish, half English redhead. I burn, then immediately go back to white again. Thankfully I married someone with a serious “tan” - at least the kidlets can turn a beautiful shade of brown.
Ditto. About marrying someone with a tan and the kidlets, anyway.
My grandfather was English and moved to Australia when he was three. When he was courting my grandmother (in the 1940’s) she was in a lot of trouble with the rellies because they thought she was dating an Aboriginal guy.
My brother inherited that ability to tan well. Unfortunately, I didn’t.
I’ve never been burned REALLY badly, but one time I went with Mr. to a nudist beach. Never having gone nude in the sun before, I missed some areas with the sunblock.
A sunburn right between the breasts isn’t terribly pleasant.
You know those people you see at the beach in long jeans and turtlenecks, with a huge umbrella, towels wrapped around their bodies, and 500 sunblock? That’s me. It’s good to know I’m not alone. I’m your basic Scotch-Irish, but my entire family (besides me) grew up on an island near Puerto Rico (a navy base is there). They have no pity and find my predicament hilarious.
I guess I’ve had the average experiences - the month of cold showers as you can’t stand the pain, the chunks of flesh falling from your body, the bathtubs full of aloe.
However, one time I did fall asleep on a barge going down the east coast of the US and my arms are still scarred purple to this day. It’s always a great conversation starter.
Sunshine is your friend, or something.
I am now suffering the consequences of 3 hours in the sun last Friday. Just call me lobster.
My arms have built a slight tolerance to the sun from bike-riding, but the rest of me is vulnerable to the sun. Blame being German, Polish and red-haired at the same time.