Cade Huckabay, a 21-year-old man from Texas, has gone viral in recent days after posting photos of himself having gotten so severely sunburned that the right side of his forehead appeared to have been dented after he pressed on it.
Huckabay took to Twitter on Monday to share a series of photos of himself that were taken after he shaved his head, got “severely” sunburned, and experienced “just a little bit” of swelling in the forehead area. The photos seemed to detail the four stages of swelling that took place, with the third image showing him pressing on the right side of his forehead, and the fourth showing what appears to be an indentation on the same spot he was pressing against.
Speaking to Mashable, Cade Huckabay explained that he thought the sunburn-related denting was a “hilarious” situation, even if the swelling caused a lot of pain and discomfort, and took about three to four days before it finally went down. A separate interview Cade had with Refinery29 suggests that his recovery took a bit longer, at four to five days.
“I personally thought the sunburn was hilarious,” Huckabay told Mashable.
“I mean, it isn’t often you can put a dent in your head like that.”
In the four days or so since he tweeted the photos, Cade Huckabay’s post has gotten more than 100,000 retweets and 315,000 likes. And he appears to be enjoying his ongoing brush with internet fame, as he was quoted by Mashable as saying it’s important to know how to laugh at oneself and to share that laughter with other people.
“I’m glad we can all laugh at my pain together. Some people are making me laugh harder than ever before with the comparisons and jokes they’re making. You gotta be able to laugh at yourself, ya know?”
This man's sunburn was so severe it caused a dent in his headhttps://t.co/h25cFeEzLA#JoySMS pic.twitter.com/RRq5fRsPHa
— Joy 99.7 FM (@Joy997FM) December 8, 2017
Although Huckabay was able to find a lot of humor in his situation, Refinery29 explained that it is possible for swelling to take place as a consequence of a severe sunburn. But the publication also cited information from the Mayo Clinic, warning that anyone who suffers from such swelling may need to see a doctor, especially if there are other symptoms accompanying the swelling, such as yellow pus or red streaks emerging from a blister, or an increase in pain and tenderness.
Months prior to Cade Huckabay and the photos of his forehead dent, another young man went viral on social media after posting photos of what happened after a severe sunburn. Yet it was no laughing matter for Scottish gardener Greg Binnie, 20, who reportedly spent seven hours in June cutting grass while exposed to extreme sunlight and got second-degree burns on his shoulders as a result. As noted by BBC Newsbeat (WARNING: Article includes graphic photos), Binnie’s sunburns got worse after he spent a second day working outside, causing extreme pain and blistering and forcing him out of work for several days.
Though Cade Huckabay has since recovered from his unfortunate head dent, and gotten a few chuckles with the thousands of people who commented on or retweeted his post, he told Refinery29 that there is one important take-home thought from the photos he shared — make sure to put on some sunscreen to avoid “following in [his] footsteps.”