The struggles of ginger skin in summer

As if life wasn’t tough enough already for us gingers, summer brings a whole new load of struggles for those of us with ginger skin. We just have to look at the sun and we’re basically already burnt. Having a bottle of factor 50 on us at all times is very much a necessity, forget that and there’s no hope of survival. People seem to take the piss that we’re always prepared with sun cream, but you can bet, within half an hour, your bottle will be being passed round the whole group. Not so funny being prepared for sun now is it?!

forget the scouts, a ginger’s motto should be ‘be prepared’

Those of us with ginger skin can probably last about 10 minutes in the sun without fearing for our un-burnt lives. After this, it’s an endless cycle of sun cream application. Start at the face and work down to the feet and by the time you’ve got there, it’s time to re-apply to the face again. It’s a cruel world for the gingers, even with the questionable English weather. Cloudy outside? Raining? Don’t be fooled, the ginger skin will still manage to burn, even with sun cream on.

So don’t be surprised when I burn.

Planning the days spent in the quad is all well and good until people start saying how excited they are to get a tan. Yeah, same… We could spend all day every day out in the sun and still, by the end of term, resemble Caspar the friendly ghost. Trying to get nice group photos with your bronzed friends is a nightmare. You stick out like a sore thumb. The camera exposure teamed with the brightness of the sun steals all of your facial features and you’re left with just eyes and a big white circle for a face. Never mind people needing sunglasses because of the weather, they’ll need them just to look at your blindingly pale skin.

It’s even worse when you’re best mate’s Egyptian.

Clothing is also a problem for ginger skin when it comes to summer. Don’t even think about wearing a low cut or off the shoulder top and also trying to wear make-up. The paleness of your chest will make your face look about 10X more orange than it actually is, but if we use a foundation any lighter, we look dead. Tough times, tough times. Finding an outfit for summer ball is also proving an absolute nightmare. Why is everything pastel pink? Does no one think of the gingers when they design clothes anymore?! Pastel pink is just not a colour we can wear unless our aim is to look naked.

We all had 2 weeks in Greece but let’s spot the ginger skin in the family.

So spare a thought for those of us with ginger skin while you’re sat out there, catching a tan, wearing head to toe pastel pink, thinking nothing of it. It’s a real tough season for some of us.