Get to Know your Sunscreen!

Sunscreen lotions are touted to be the best way to protect your skin from the sun and can also reverse sun damaged skin to a large extent. This keeps us racing after sunscreens with the highest SPF, which we liberally slather all over our face and body. The overriding aim is to keep our skin protected as we go trekking up a hill, laze on the beach, jog in the park or just do our everyday tasks. Apart from avoiding premature aging and burns from exposure to the sun, skin cancer is a predominant fear for most people.

However, how many of us really know what SPF actually is?

SPF explained

The sun emits two types of ultraviolet (UV) rays – UVA and UVB. The UVB rays can cause sunburn, aging and skin cancer. The UVA rays are equally harmful as they too can accelerate the risk of skin aging and cancer.

SPF is the sun protection factor of a sunscreen and measures the extent to which the lotion, gel or spray will protect you from the UVB rays of the sun. For instance, SPF 15 sunscreen blocks 93% of UVB radiation, SPF 30 sunscreen filters out approximately 97% and SPF 50 sunscreen can provide 98% protection. This can get confusing as the degree of protection is not proportionate – as in SPF 30 will not give double the protection of SPF 15!

You can also consider SPF as the amount of time you can stay in the sun without getting burned. For example - if your skin starts to burn in 20 minutes without any sunscreen, SPF 15 sunscreen will allow you to stay safely in the sun 15 times longer than you could without protection i.e., for 300 minutes.

However, complete protection is not possible. So do not be fooled by an SPF 75 or SPF 100 as totally barring the UVB rays.

Apart from the SPF factor, optimum results are possible only when you apply adequate amounts of sunscreen. Your skin needs 2 mg per square cm of skin, or about one ounce for full body coverage. It should be applied half hour prior to stepping out in the sun with reapplication after 2 hours.

Moreover, sunscreen is not just required to protect you in the summer months or when you step out of the house. You should apply it religiously every day, irrespective of the season or being indoors/outdoors.

What about UVA?

As explained above, SPF provides protection from the UVB rays only. Therefore, you should look for ingredients like zinc oxide or titanium dioxide that can block UVA rays. Such sunscreens are termed as broad spectrum or multi spectrum sunscreens. For proper broad spectrum protection, the UVA protection should be at least 1/3 of the UVB protection.

However, high SPF sunscreens provide much greater UVB protection than from UVA. So, your skin may not burn but will continue to age prematurely. Another reason to avoid unnecessarily high SPF!

Therefore, use an appropriate sunscreen properly and all around the year to not only avoid but also slowly reverse sun damaged skin like wrinkles, brown spots and leathery skin!

The author Christina Mills is an eminent skin care specialist and writer of anti aging facial products. She is well reputed for his writings on skin care products for women.