Classes have finally come to an end, exams are over and you can practically hear the ocean calling your name. It's finally that time of year when it's socially acceptable to lie on the beach all day, soaking up the sun with your toes in the sand for the next three months. However, if you naturally have fair skin, the beginning of summer can be a dangerous time for us. Here are six struggles that all pale people deal with in the summer.
1. No matter how much sunscreen you apply your first day on the beach, a sunburn seems to be unavoidable.
You feel as if you could apply SPF 100 every 10 minutes and you would STILL have a nasty burn at the end of the day. Yes, there are ways of being responsible with your sunscreen application that will help, but when you're extremely fair skinned and exposed to the strong sun for the first time in a while, your skin will most likely hate you afterward.
2. The "it will fade into a tan" myth.
I fall victim to this cruel myth too. After I get a bad burn, I try to make myself feel better by saying it will just turn into a nice tan. But for most pale people, it just peels and then fades into the same old pasty color.
3. It takes the entire summer to develop a real tan.
For some of us "lucky" fair skinned people, by the end of August, you may have a legitimate tan. You won't be as bronze as some of your friends that get tan after one hour in the sun, but you'll end up with a respectable tan (and actual tan lines!). However, the struggle is that by the time you're actually tan, summer is over and it's time to head back to the classroom and off the beach, so there's no real time to show off the fact that you did actually get tan.
4. Always being the pale one out of your friend group.
This may be the worst of them all. When you spend some time at the beach or the pool with your friends, you can't hide your jealousy when they're either already tan or become tan after just a few hours in the sun. It's so easy for them to look bronzed and beachy while you're sitting in the chair next to them practically reflecting the sun off your stomach because you're so pasty. Ugh.
5. Going into every summer forgetting all these things and thinking this will be the summer you actually get tan.
It's finally May and you can't wait to spend hours every day in the sun getting tan. Somehow you forgot you don't get tan after an hour and end up extremely disappointed when you check for visible tan lines. Then a few hours later, you realize you're fried and get angry at yourself for thinking you wouldn't get horribly burnt. Of course you got burnt. Then you probably try to justify it by saying it'll turn into tan, and the vicious cycle continues.
6. Sunburns are actually very dangerous for your fair skin and we need to be careful!
As nice as it would be to have a glowing tan and skin that doesn't burn, we don't and we need to accept that so we can take the proper precautions against the sun. Sunburns are very bad for your fair skin, especially if you're like me and skin cancer runs in your family. But we can still get a healthy sun-kissed glow by embracing our light skin and treating it well with lots of sunscreen and care!
