As someone who is very pale I know how important it is to use sunscreen, but what did people used to use, if anything at all? Did they use some kind of cream or something else? Did anyone even know the damage sun burn could do (I mean like 150+ years ago)?
Light clothing and scarves/shawls were the most effective. Natural extracts could provide minimal protection, such as olive oil in the Mediterranean which has an SPF around 7, or poplar dust (touch the bark of a poplar tree and you’ll get a light white dusting on your hands) in North American woodlands areas which has an SPF of around 5, and paste from hemlock trees was used to treat bad sunburns. Zinc oxide has been used for at least 2500 years for various medical purposes. The Egyptians used jasmine and rice since rice bran absorbs UV rays. The Inuit made the first sunglasses/goggles to protect from snow blindness out of wood, leather, bone, etc., while the Vikings took a page from the Egyptians’ books and utilized eyeliner.
It’s also important to remember that our natural skin tones protected us fairly adequately in our natural habitats. Northern and Central European people had lighter skin because the sun was not as harsh and we needed to more easily absorb vitamin D. The further south you go, the more melanin is found in the skin providing better protection from the sun.