An illustrative picture: Leighton Meester at 17 (left) and 40 (right).
this post was submitted on 27 Oct 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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In addition to the smoking and decrease in alcohol consumption, I also think a ton of people are underestimating just how brutal the sun is on your skin and how much pushback there was against sun screen. It was viewed as a military product and the attitude from the 40s up until the 90s or so was basically that the more tan, the better.
A huge amount of people refused to use sunscreen, pretty much ever, until the late 80s/early 90s and then they'd go out and roast themselves.
There are pictures that have gone around recently of people who show the effects of a lifetime of sun vs skin care. One is a trucker who spent decades in a truck with the window down. His left arm and the left side of his face look slightly melted compared with the right. Another is a lady who only motioned her face for decades. She has a very young for her age looking face but her neck and shoulders look like a Galapagos tortoise.
I'm a young-ish looking millennial who refuses to use sunscreen because of how it feels, smells, and requires rinsing off later.The secret is never going outside during the day.
I hate sunscreen, I just cover myself all the time. Even when the heat is unbearable. I look like an idiot with the neck flap on my hat but at least I'm not getting burnt.
Or cancer. It only takes getting a chunk cut out of your back because the biopsy didn't have clean edges to make you take sun protection seriously.
have you tried different kinds of sunscreen? The stuff i use is just an oil (well, it's oily at least) that you spray on and rub in, it says nothing about needing to be rinsed off and i've never felt a need to do so, and it doesn't really have a smell nor does it feel any weirder than being slightly sweaty.
Nah my face easily gets pimples if I rub anything harsher than water on it. Even specially formulated cleansers messes with whatever carefully balanced chemistry I have going on there.
A hat helps too, every inch of hat brim helps.
I was allergic to every sunscreen on the market from when I was 12 and got a bad allergic reaction to one (face swelled, such a rash) but then the mineral ones eventually got better (that's what I mostly use) and the Korean ones got available here (those are amazing, gentle and effective) so for the last 30 years I have been able to screen and my skin is good enough people comment & ask for my routine. In my early 20s, like you, there was a period I could only use water, or a little pure jojoba.
So I think to some extent you can recover it. Retin-A and sunblock every day.
That wear sunscreen song that came out in the late 90s probably helped the cause.
There was a pretty catchy one that came out in 1981 in Australia.
My friend says sunscreen causes cancer and refuses to wear it. Yeah hes not intelligent. Also loves llms so ... Take it for what you will.
There are sunscreens with oxybenzone that have been linked to various health issues (namely hormone disruption iirc), so your friend isn't entirely off the mark.
However there are plenty of mineral sunscreens that use zinc or titanium oxides (literally rocks), and those are perfectly safe as far as science can tell.
Oh i know its a partial truth, but its a dumb take IMO. Pretty sure he got it from RFK jr. They love to spout half truths that seem legit while undermining real health.
There's one brand from China that caused cancer once, so Nivea and Neutrogena are obviously out of the question.
I'm a weirdo who likes the smell of sunscreen so I use it all summer long when I'm going outside. I'm 31 but when I shave my beard off people think I'm barely 20.
You LIKE the smell‽
I'm closer to be 40, and I despise putting it on, but I still do every day it's sunny.
About your look: do you have kids? People think I'm 30, maybe because I don't have any, so I've been able to sleep every night.
I have a funny experience with kids and people guessing my age. I had one set in my early 20s, and another set in my late 30s. People who knew me from my first kids thought I was the age I am, people who sawe with my second kids thought I was much younger than I am, and people who saw me with all of them thought I was older than I am because they thought I was the grandma. Except occasionally my oldest complained, she said people thought we were a lesbian couple with kids, that people thought she was a lot older than she was.
Which taught me, people don't really look at you much, they make assumptions based on your situation, and that colors how they see you.
There’s whole fragrances based on that smell lol. People like it (i do too)
No kids!
My theory still stands!
People think I’m in my late 20s. I’m in my 40s. So add another no kids to the pile of proof that kids age you because I have none. I sleep everyday until I wake up, I protect my skin from the sun, I don’t drink or smoke.