h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well, you can get an Amen from me too Sellers. It sounded quite interesting what you said.

What about that whole heroine chick thing? To me it seems it has some things in common with TB-chick from the 18th century. But it doesn't seem paleness would be a trait considered beautiful today. I guess this all makes for another thread.

I have a lot of thirty-something female friends who never go out in the sun and wear make-up with SPF 15 all the time. They basically say they don't want to get sun-damaged skin (i.e. wrinkles), but the fact is that most people look better with a tan. So surely one needs to weigh up whether it's better to have an attractive, healthly looking skin (but with maybe the odd wrinkle) or to have pale and pasty, less attractive, wrinkle-free skin.

I go for the compromise - a bit of a tan in the Summer, and the odd wrinkle!!

I wonder how all the skin cancer will affect all our view on beauty then. But a lot of people don't look good with a tan, because it just doesn't look natural. People with blond hair and such shouldn't get tanned, it just doesn't look right. And it looks better with pale skin than with tanned skin with pale spots.

i used to sometimes wish i had a tan as it goes better with some clothes but having an archetyple english rose complexion i've given up trying to get one as all i do is burn, go red and then it goes white again. Also quite prone to sunstroke so another good reason not to go out in the sun.

I have blonde hair and very fair skin, but it does go brown. People always say I look much better with a bit of a tan - I'm not so sure about the wrinkles!!

Skin cancer is always a consideration when going out in the sun, expecially if you live down under. However, my 15 yr old son had a malignant melanoma removed from his back last year, and as his back had virtually never seen the light of day, the doctors said it was a good example of how skin cancer can occur without any obvious cause. So sometimes you just can't win.

When you've lived in places with perpetual or near perpetual sunshine like I have (Hawaii and California, respectively), you get a new perspective on suntanning. After you've seen enough women wearing low-cut t-shirts with a hideous, red, leathery patch of skin just above their breasts, you start to wonder why they spend any time in the sun at all.

Of course, I haven't always taken perfect care of my own skin, and I've burned enough times that I have sun freckles on my shoulders...

I think that English rose thing is more a result of environment than genetics. People from the northern states in the US seem to share it, and I think it has to do with freezing wind and snow... windburn. It can probably be just as bad for the skin as excess sun.

No, I'm a Brit living in California, it is definitely a genetic thing. With some of the environment thrown in as always, but not much.

But you've been displaced since childhood, right?

My own mother and father were very pale, because they came from New York and Illinois, respectively. My mother is incredibly sensitive to the sun, and has even had sun poisoning, so that now a sunburn could kill her.

Strangely, none of her four boys (all born in California and raised there) inherited this condition...

Just food for thought.

So what makes a woman with sun allergy go to California?

Shopping!!???

that is a very, very good question.

I would like to hear what sunpoisoning is though.

Do you know anything about Porphyria??? that I can't find mysel on the Net. Tried all the foundations etc....not much about the cure is there??

A propos sun and wrinkles, about a year ago I read an article on factors contributing to looking older. Among the things that were suggested to keep your skin looking young were: use moisturiser, eat plenty of fruit and veg and stop smoking (it releases an enzyme that destroys collagen). Inheriting good genes from one or more of your parents also helps. But the primary contributing factor to skin aging is sun. Apparently it is reckoned that if somebody stayed indoors as much as possible, they wouldn't show visible signs of aging until they were 60!

I'm not an outdoors person - my favourite place to be is a comfortable chair with a good book. I'd always assumed my youthful looks (I've been told I look 10 years younger than I am) were down to my genes. Now I know there's another factor at work. I'd always felt a bit guilty about not getting out more, but it's not something I care about now.

Oh, and for information on this porphyria, try this site (found via a Google search - best search engine going!)

http://www.porphyriafoundation.com/overview.html

Well, it's a good thing this forum was reawakened... I didn't realize I'd left questions unanswered.

Sun poisoning is basically an allergy to UV light. It can cause anything from a skin rash and blisters to intense sickness. My mother acquired the latter after falling asleep at the beach, on an overcast day (when UV radiation is usually higher). Once you've acquired sun poisoning once, it dramatically increases your chances of getting again.

While we did not fall asleep, my brothers and I were at the beach on the same day and for the same amount of time, with a whole lot more exposed skin than she had. We didn't go anywhere shady.