Bright and early on Sunday morning, we piled into a car with two friends and headed two hours south to float the Black River. In an attempt to avoid head-to-toe sunscreen without getting fried, I pulled out the dive skin I bought for snorkeling (or, in my case, pukeling*) on our trip to Mexico almost two years ago.
What’s the environmental impact of wearing sunscreen vs. wearing sun protective clothing? I’m not sure, though the calculation depends in part on how long the sun protective clothing lasts. If the clothing lasts long enough, it may indeed be better overall (health + environmental impact) than buying and applying chemical-laden lotion from plastic bottles.
Can you spot the problem in the above picture?
Hint 1: The dive skin performed beautifully.
Hint 2: Unfortunately, the dive skin did not cover everything.
I’m kicking myself because I know better. Ouch.
*Snorkel + puke = pukel. Disgusting and entirely possible, though I did manage to remove the snorkel from my mouth before feeding the fish.
Her Green Life 
Oh NOOOOO! I’ve done similar things many times though. I think the worst was when I was a little girl and my mother slathered me with sunscreen before braiding my hair and sending me out for a day in the sun. Unfortunately she forgot about the part in my hair and the tops of my ears. Can you say blisters?
I’ve been butchering our poor aloe vera plant since Sunday night. It does seem to be helping. If only I could undo the long-term damage so easily . . . .