I used to love the sun, as a child I lived for summers. Best time in the world, no school, no rules, just me, my bike, friends and lots of sunshine.
Growing up I had this idea in my head that I can't get a sunburn, I have dark hair and olive skin tone, so I can quickly get a suntan but not sunburn. And it was this way until my early twenties when, as usual, I was completely ignoring the existence of sunblock, and finally it hit me. Few hours on the beach turned into a lot of "ouches" afterward. Aloe Vera was my best friend at the moment and also my grandma's solution - the sour cream. It didn't smell too good but believe it or not, worked magic on the blisters all over my shoulders, somehow the sour cream soothed the damages skin. Since then I learned my lesson, I used sunblock every time I was out at the beach.
A few years later, I was already living in China, Shanghai and with my boyfriend at that time, we decided to go to Thailand and spend Chinese New Year there.
The whole trip was one big catastrophe. Even though Thailand is in Asia, and basically just a few hours away from China, we couldn't get the direct flight from Shanghai. We stopped in Shenzhen, then in Singapore, and finally, Krabi; and if you have been in Thai before, you probably know that Krabi is not the place you want to be for more than a couple of days, there are plenty of other islands that will take your breath away, like Ko Samui, Ko Lanta, Ko Tao, Ko Samet, Ko Phi Phi and etc. That was our plan, to visit them all, moving from place to place by boat, ferry or plane if necessary...
So, after all those layovers, when we finally arrived in Ko Samui, my boyfriend realized that he forgot his carryon with all the documents, electronics and money on one of the multiple boats we took from Krabi.
And from that moment on the events just escalated turning into a horror movie with me starring in it.
Next morning, around 7.00 a.m. we decided to explore the beautiful island and took a kayak to do so. Little disclaimer I didn't apply the sunscreen just yet, because I didn't have one and the plan was to buy it first thing when we were done kayaking.
Literally, in 50 minutes on a kayak, I turned burgundy (I am dramatic, but yeah, I was genuinely "Chinese red"), and I'll repeat myself, it all happened from 7.00 am to 7.50 am.
By the time we reached the ground, I was thirsty, shaky, red and pain was my middle name.
I ran to the nearest convenience store, got myself some water and sunblock with spf50. Well, it was too little and too late. A few hours later first my forehead, my eyes, my nose and then my throat starting to swell out. I looked like I was bitten by a hive. Outside I played it cool, remember it was my romantic vacation, but my insides had a panic attack!
Finally, I couldn't just sit and wait till the whole thing just magically went away, I had to do something. So I went to the doctors.
Lovely Thai lady doctor told me not to worry and that I was not the first one and probably wouldn't be the last one who developed the sun allergy in Thailand.
What, the sun allergy or in medical language "angioedema" (please, don't Google the pictures, they are not pretty. Believe me, I've been there). How? Why? Why me? Not possible. My skin loved the sun, at least tolerated it nicely, but apparently "enough is enough."
The doctor prescribed me some antihistamines and an ointment with silver extract to cover my face and whole body, and the main recommendation was at all costs stay away from the sun. I had to wear a cap, long sleeve, pants, and sneakers. And that was just my 1st day of two weeks vacation. Sorry, the romantic holiday. The symptoms should have gone better in 24 hours, but it took me exactly 2 weeks until my face went back to normal. Of course, I was following doctor's recommendations, but when you are in a place like Thailand, it's almost impossible to avoid sun exposure.
When we finally got back to cold, cloudy Shanghai, my skin started to peel off. I was literally like a snake, saying goodbye to my old skin and welcoming new one to this world. But my newborn skin was not the way I imagined it would be, it wasn't a "baby butt" pink skin, it was skin covered with millions of freckles. And to be quite honest it looks kind of cool, I like it, and I think of it as a sun-kissed, sun-blessed skin, but between you and me those baby freckles actually called sun damage.
Anyway, long story short. Sunshine is beautiful but very dangerous. Right now during beach vacations I am using SPF70, 80 or even 100 and also all my bikinis have SPF30 in them. And for the days when I know that I'm going to be exposed to the sun for the entire day, I will also wear a long sleeve T-shirt with SPF30 at least, on top of my SPF bikinis. I look like a Korean/Japanese tourist, but I genuinely don't care.
I know, I am a drama queen. But you know what, better safe than sorry, this time I really have learned my lesson, you've heard that before, haven't you?:) No joking around. And the funny part, despite all those layers of SPF creams and clothes, I still come back home chocolaty brown.
We don't really think about photoaging, sun damage or even skin cancer, well, at least I didn't in my early 20s, but now I think we all, despite the age, should keep those things in the back of our head and be more responsible and more careful.
Stay healthy and learn from my mistakes. Tons of love. xx
Photo by Patrick Fore
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