2016年05月16日
Sunburn
Hello, All!
One of the things I most often need to explain to my adult students is the difference between a suntan and a sunburn. If you've seen me, you know that I am very pale. (In English, "fair" sounds good, but "pale" sounds bad. "Pale" makes us think of someone who stays inside, never exercises, and might be sick.) This means that I am very prone to sunburn. If I complain to my students that I have a sunburn, they think I mean only that I don't like having darker skin. But that's not true at all!
Today I am going to explain this once and for all.
To understand the problem, here's a picture of a suntan:
Two arms, one tanned, one not tanned.
A suntan happens when your skin is damaged by the sun. The skin responds by producing more melanin, and turning darker. Some tans are only a reaction to the damage; others are your body's attempt to prevent more damage. Suntans aren't good for you, but they don't hurt, either. They only change your appearance.
Here is a sunburn:
AAAAAAAAUUGHHHH ow ow ow ow oh ow
A sunburn is a burn. Your skin has been destroyed. It turns red and hurts for a few days, then itches very badly, then the damaged skin peels off in big white sheets.
The peeling doesn't hurt. In fact, it feels good, because it stops the itching.
Very bad sunburns, like the one in the first picture, also blister. You can see two blisters in the picture—they're the big yellow bubbles. They're full of a nasty liquid, and after about a week, they pop. It's very, very gross.
My worst sunburn happened when I was a teenager, visiting my grandparents in Florida. Even though I wore sunscreen, my shoulders burned so badly I couldn't go outside for two days. I had blisters on each shoulder the size of a loaf of bread—they hung off each side of my shoulder like giant leeches, and my shirts wouldn't even fit over them! The two sunburns in those pictures are actually much more mild than that burn. I've gotten several other burns nearly as bad.
So next time you wish you had lighter skin—don't! Pale-skinned people like me live in constant fear of the sun. If I drown myself in SPF 50+ sunscreen, I get only light burns or tans, but I still have to be careful. Count yourself lucky if you only tan!
—Matthew
One of the things I most often need to explain to my adult students is the difference between a suntan and a sunburn. If you've seen me, you know that I am very pale. (In English, "fair" sounds good, but "pale" sounds bad. "Pale" makes us think of someone who stays inside, never exercises, and might be sick.) This means that I am very prone to sunburn. If I complain to my students that I have a sunburn, they think I mean only that I don't like having darker skin. But that's not true at all!
Today I am going to explain this once and for all.
To understand the problem, here's a picture of a suntan:
Two arms, one tanned, one not tanned.
A suntan happens when your skin is damaged by the sun. The skin responds by producing more melanin, and turning darker. Some tans are only a reaction to the damage; others are your body's attempt to prevent more damage. Suntans aren't good for you, but they don't hurt, either. They only change your appearance.
Here is a sunburn:
AAAAAAAAUUGHHHH ow ow ow ow oh ow
A sunburn is a burn. Your skin has been destroyed. It turns red and hurts for a few days, then itches very badly, then the damaged skin peels off in big white sheets.
The peeling doesn't hurt. In fact, it feels good, because it stops the itching.
Very bad sunburns, like the one in the first picture, also blister. You can see two blisters in the picture—they're the big yellow bubbles. They're full of a nasty liquid, and after about a week, they pop. It's very, very gross.
My worst sunburn happened when I was a teenager, visiting my grandparents in Florida. Even though I wore sunscreen, my shoulders burned so badly I couldn't go outside for two days. I had blisters on each shoulder the size of a loaf of bread—they hung off each side of my shoulder like giant leeches, and my shirts wouldn't even fit over them! The two sunburns in those pictures are actually much more mild than that burn. I've gotten several other burns nearly as bad.
So next time you wish you had lighter skin—don't! Pale-skinned people like me live in constant fear of the sun. If I drown myself in SPF 50+ sunscreen, I get only light burns or tans, but I still have to be careful. Count yourself lucky if you only tan!
—Matthew
