Lotioning and Oiling, Oiling and Lotioning[I can't take this no more!]

Biggest lifeguard stereotype? Come on. Sunscreen (or zinc oxide, rather) on the nose, everyone knows that hahaha no pun intended. Little known fact: I have not met one lifeguard that actually does that. I probably should, however. Between the months of May and September, I permanently look like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

But let’s get serious. As a lifeguard, you are putting yourself at high-risk for developing skin cancer whether you like or not (one of the not-so-glamorous sides of lifeguarding, I’d say). I remember when my sister and I told our dermatologist that we got seasonal jobs as lifeguards. She looked as if she had seen a ghost and gravely warned us that she didn’t think that was a good idea. Did that stop us though? Nope. It doesn’t stop most people these days, either. Out of our staff of about 30 lifeguards, a few have already had bouts of skin cancer, which is scary considering most of us are between the ages of 19 and 24. And sad, quite frankly, with the amount of sunscreen stored in our guard room. Tanning oils, SPF 15, SPF80, baby sunscreen, a big jumbo pumper of sunscreen (that never seems to run out, come to think of it) and even lip sunscreen. Full protection is definitely provided to all. So why the dislike of sunscreen? Smelly? Greasy? Oily? Yes. Definitely. We’ve all had those moments where someone bursts into the room, only to ask the most dreaded of all favors… “Will someone put sunscreen on my back?” All of a sudden, three people are on the phone, two need to go talk to the supervisor and one needs to desperately go to the bathroom, and who’s left? That one loner in the corner who never pays attention….sucker. It gets worse if you had already put on sunscreen earlier and your hands are sparkly clean and dry… oh man, what a bummer. But the worst? Applying sunscreen to bacne. Yep, I said it. Back + Acne = Bacne. I won’t even go there.

Moral of this post? Wear sunscreen. I’m sure a lot of you out there have seen the recent Grey’s Anatomy episodes where Izzy has/had Stage IV Melanoma (Btw did she die? They left us hanging!) - Either way, sure did scare me into wearing sunscreen more often. I think we can all agree the greasy, smelly annoyance of good ole’ coppertone is probably worth the trouble you’d go through without it.