The weather is getting warmer and the UV index is slowly starting to rise. However, I never thought in a million years that the temperatures would spike to 80 degrees towards the end of March, especially in Virginia. Due to the warm temperatures, I decided to do what everyone else and their mother was doing: go to the beach. With such a relaxing day ahead, what could go wrong? Spoiler alert: a crippling sunburn.
You may be asking yourself, Claire, why didn’t you use sunscreen? I, in fact, did use sunscreen. However, it was spray sunscreen. Now, our parents are always telling us to use sunscreen, and for good reason too. Who wants to be feeling like they are burning alive? The day before my trip, I went to Target to get some sunscreen, and chose a cheaper option: Neutrogena Spray Sunscreen. When we went to the beach, I sprayed that stuff EVERYWHERE. We are talking layers and layers. Half the bottle was gone. Afterwards, I did what everyone else would do: take a dip in the water and then tan on the sand. Well, those four hours of being on the oceanfront didn’t do me any favors. At first, when we packed up our stuff, I was feeling great. I felt like a supermodel, all tan and sunkissed. I didn’t expect what happened next.
Who am I kidding, I did see this coming. After all, we were at the beach for hours and hours on end. When my friends and I walked on the boardwalk, we got a bunch of stares. It wasn’t until I looked down that I saw that I was covered in a massive sunburn. I looked like a tourist that’s never been anywhere near the beach before. Throughout the day, it got worse and worse. Everything started to hurt and my tan lines were so bad that I just wanted to hide.
It’s safe to say that spray sunscreen is not your best friend when it comes to going to the beach. I am 99% certain that the sunscreen never hit my skin and instead blew away in the wind. Now, you can claim that was a user error. Either way, do not trust spray sunscreen. It doesn’t work in my opinion and you’ll have to be reapplying consistently. Not to mention, the wind is a deciding factor in how bad your sunburn will be. Please just stick to the good ol’ Banana Boat sunscreen with that awful white cast, because at the end of the day, you’ll be walking freely without being in debilitating pain. One of my friends ended up using an expired sunscreen from Banana Boat and didn’t even get burned that bad at all. That goes to show you that lotion sunscreen is your best option here. If you still don’t believe me, I’ll be happy to show you my awful sunburn. With that being said, stay safe in that dang UV index.
