Ow!

[hrj]

Oh, and that bit about bicycling around in the noonday sun looking for my lost security badge ... while wearing a tank top for one of the first times in the season?

Not such a good idea.



(Taken later at the gym.)

Comments

[kareina.livejournal.com]

What colour & thickness was the shirt? I've never managed to burn through silk, but I wear only dark colours (navy blue, black, or burgundy). The silk shirts I've used to keep the sun off of me have been of a thick enough fabric/tight enough weave that even the huge swarms of mosquitoes in the Brooks Range*, Alaska don't bite through the fabric.

Your experience has me wondering if the difference between our experience is attributable more to A) differences in the shirts such that mine gave better protection than yours B) differences in body chemistry such that I am sufficiently harder to burn that I require less protection C) differences in local sun intensity/length of time out in it when the shirts were worn?

*Ever stand in a popcorn popper? There so many mosquitoes in the Brooks Range in the summer that they are constantly colliding with geologists as they go about their mapping. Face netting is strongly recommended!

[sue-n-julia.livejournal.com]

I think it was mostly A and C. The shirt was a dress-shirt weight -- on the thinnish side. It was also bright red (we originally thought I might have sweated the dye out of it as it was not terribly colorfast).

I had been beachcombing in Costa Rica for a month or so at that point, so I shouldn't have burned, but the tropical sun can get you at any time (except night).

S

[hrj.livejournal.com]

(Replying to the thread in general)

One of things going on here ... you know how I've been whining about how cold it's been here and where was my summer? Well, that's meant that I've been wearing long-sleeved shirts to work (and therefore, on my lunchtime ride) until just this week. Normally I'd transition gradually into tanning as the sleeves shortened and the sun brightened. This time, it all conspired to make me forget that I hadn't laid down a good foundation.

But also, normally I'm only out there for an hour. If I'd only been out for an hour, even with the pasty-white skin showing on my shoulders, I wouldn't have burned. I assure everyone that when I'm planning to be outdoors with exposed skin for an extended period of time, I apply the SPF 1,000,000 liberally.

[wulfsdottir.livejournal.com]

Different clothes have a different SPF -- most T-shirts have an SPF of about 4, for example. Red clothes are reported to let more UV through than blue clothes, meaning you're more likely to burn through a red shirt than a blue shirt. Sadly, I can't find the article I read that claimed that the color made a difference to give you a citation. A quick stroll through .edu sites for "sun protective clothing" turns up several comments that dark colors are best (along with tightness of weave and fabric thickness), but nothing specifically blue vs. red.

[vesilehti.livejournal.com]

So a red shirt actually *is* bad for your health?

[wulfsdottir.livejournal.com]

Hee! So it would seem!