They Say Black Don’t Crack… But it Can Burn!

I am a big fan of using products to protect my skin from the harsh effects of the sun and I have been for years now.

If you follow me on twitter, then you know I tweet about it from time to time and so what happened to me recently is like the last thing that I would ever expect to experience.

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Chicago Pride Parade.

But having attended many a Pride Parade and knowing that it always ends up being a scorcher no matter how dreary the day may start out, I packed a brand new can, of my SPF drug of choice, Neutrogena Wetskin.

And somehow by the time I got there it got punctured in my purse and leaked out and initially I didn’t think much of it.

I was glad that my purse was black and leather so it wasn’t ruined but my sunglasses were totally zapped.

The film started peeling off, so I was left without sunglasses and SPF.

Fast forward a few days and I am looking in the mirror and WTH… my forehead is peeling!

This freaks me out because this never, ever happens to me and because I was just now noticing it.

Well that last part doesn’t freak me out because believe it or not I am not a mirror girl.

I rarely look in it unless I am applying makeup which in the summer is not high on my list because I just end up a sweaty mess anyway, but I digress….

And then I looked at the rest of me…I was obviously a couple of shades darker than normal and I had tan lines from my backpack and the bra straps but my forehead!

Then I realized that my shoulders and upper arms were also peeling.

Not a pretty sight. {I had taken a bunch of pictures of myself showing just how not pretty this was but managed to delete them off my camera!!! sucks!}

So folks, don’t think cuz you got the melanin gift that you are protected from the sun. I was trying to do the right thing and a freak accident in my purse between the can and the prongs of my Blackberry charger blew that and it took just a few hours of standing around in the sun to damage my skin.

And while I did not end up with the blisters that the poor Cubicle Chick ended up with take this PSA to heart and WEAR YOUR SUNBLOCK..burning and peeling aint cute! Not to mention the skin cancer risk!

Learn more about sunburn here