From an Australian, were you guys allowed to go outside without a hat?

32 comments

1. Nope it’s illegal to outside without a hat.

2. >Slip Slop Slap Seek Slide

   sounds like a line dance

3. Yep, but I grew up in the 80s/90s. Skin cancer wasn’t as much of a concern. 

   Now I don’t go out without sunscreen. 

   And no idea what the other thing is. Some kind of game? 

4. I’m a Gen Xer and as a kid I was outside in the sun all day with no hat or sunscreen. I’m also very fair. I don’t know what the slip slop slap is

5. I haven’t heard “Slip Slop Slap Seek Slide” until I looked it up just now.

   I wear a hat when it’s seasonally appropriate or when my hair’s out of control.

6. yes. no idea what that is.

7. What

8. Didn’t need a hat when young, I had hair. I am a redhead, which means I am basically a vampire in terms of skin tone. Even now my wife tells me to be sure I have gotten my ears – honey, I’ve been pale my whole life, I am way more motivated than you are about sunburns. She can’t get burned. Light skin but tans easily.

9. We were allowed to, but wearing a hat is strongly encouraged, they also look like [this.](https://www.amazon.com/Carhartt-Acrylic-Watch-Black-Size/dp/B002G9UDYG/ref=asc_df_B002G9UDYG/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312838910537&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9181123348748896658&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9002014&hvtargid=pla-380982493875&psc=1&mcid=47d95ab37f96305b883a03facf22fb06&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhtWvBhD9ARIsAOP0GohD1RFykJhQtWOckNyCv2FJ0iwd4xDKYODMwnRzJ5ErTL7QVnY42tcaAmnhEALw_wcB)

   The sun isn’t as aggressive up here.

10. I was, but I had to wear sunscreen and insect repellent in the summer.

11. My parents never made me wear sunscreen or a hat as a kid. I didn’t own a summer / shade hat as a kid. We didn’t even wear sunglasses most of the time.

    I’ve heard about the slip / slop saying from an Aussie friend recently, it’s not used here as a tool to help people remember sun safety.

12. I’m afraid you guys have a much stronger UV radiation problem than we do here. I spent my youth at swimming pools and farm ponds and bailing hay and we never wore hats or had sunscreen. My mother-in-law was a farm gal and had skin cancer multiple times before passing in her early 80’s. Her husband spent his whole life outdoors farming and at 95 has never had any type of cancer, skin or otherwise. He appears to have won the genetic lottery

13. We did not have to wear hats. We are encouraged to wear sunscreen but that is mostly it.

    When I was a kid people wore much less sun protection and purposefully tried to tan under the sun more.

    Never heard of slip slop slap seek slide before.

14. I’d heard of Slip Slop Slap before, probably later in my teen years. We weren’t so concerned about sun protection when I was a kid, it seems.

15. This might be a Gen-X thing, but isn’t the whole ‘allowed’ thing kinda lost on us?

    Weren’t we just let loose into the world?

16. No. We’re actually all given our favorite baseball team’s hat upon birth along with an AR15.

17. I am almost never found without a ballcap after being arrested in 2009 for being without one.  

    But seriously I always am wearing a hat.

18. It’s pretty cold where I live, so my family never really made me wear sunscreen or a hat outside, unless we were going to the beach. I know what Slip Slop Slap Seek Slide means, but I’ve never heard it said in the US.

19. I live in upstate NY and I was the only one of my siblings allowed to go without sunscreen on hot days in the summer because I have tan skin that doesn’t burn. It would probably burn in Australia.

20. One thing I’ve learned in this sub is that Aussies exposure to the sun is way, way higher than the typical American.

21. It took me a couple minutes to figure out why the hell anyone wouldn’t be allowed to go outside without a hat. That’s not a thing here.

    I’ve used sunscreen when I go to the beach occasionally, but otherwise no.

22. I wear a shirt. That’s the only thing from your list, and I don’t even wear that when “soaking up the rays” at the beach. I’m silent generation, meaning really old, and bright white, but so far I’ve never had skin cancer.

23. By the time I got to high school it was no longer a rule… but in Primary School (90s) we weren’t allowed to play at lunch or participate in PE without a hat.

24. My parents would’ve had to super glue the hat to my head to keep it there. I was not (and still am not) a fan of the way hats feel, like they’re compressing my brain and not letting me vent heat properly.

    Probably helps that I don’t live three quarters of a mile from the surface of the sun like you do.

25. My father had a pre-cancerous skin cancer when I was about 12 and he urged me to be careful with my skin so I always used sunblock, wore a hat, and tried to meditate my sun exposure.

26. I almost never wear a hat

27. I typically only wear a hat in the winter to keep warm. I don’t even own a non winter hat.

    I always wear sunglasses when I go outside. If I’m gonna be outside all day, I’ll put on some sunscreen. Not if it’s just gonna be a couple of hours.

28. Here in Pennsylvania we finally ended our streak of days where the UV index never went above 3. I think it lasted 4 months. 

    Needless to say most of the US doesn’t get anywhere close to as much sun as Australia, unless you live somewhere like Arizona or South Texas.

29. Why not bring our own sunscreen? Do you have higher spf rates down under?

30. I grew up in Australia and moved to the US as a teenager. There are no rules about outdoor time/sun protection in schools. In fact, in high school most people don’t even go outside for lunch. It was weird.

31. >Slip slop slap seek slide

    This is amazing, but is it really a mnemonic device if it also feels like a tongue twister memory test? No we don’t have that.

32. I know what you mean, only because I’m a skincare fanatic. I wear sunscreen and hats any time I’m outside for more than a couple of minutes, due to a family history of skin cancer.