Ten Sunscreen Delusions

Just about everybody knows the important of sun protection and that it is essential to prevent serious sun damage like skin cancer, dry skin, wrinkled skin, and age spots. Though we all know that protecting ourselves again the sun is important,  most of us at one time or another — including the author of this article — have suffered  some misconceptions about how to use sunscreen and sunblock. Looking to find out fact from myth?

Here's a list of the ten most common misconceptions about sunscreen — some of which you've surely heard before.

1. Sunscreen, fuggetaboutit. I don't really need sunscreen.

The fact is that many people don't actually  get sunburnt even if they don't use sunscreen at all. But in reality it's really rare for people to have skin dark enough that they don't experience some solar damage when their skins are exposed to the damaging UV-rays of the sun. The fairer your skin, the more you'll need sunscreen to protect yourself against the sun. But even if you do have dark skin, you'll still need sun protection when your skin has been injured.

One of the ways the skin repairs itself after infection (for instance, after acne heals) or after injury (for instance, after a scrape or a scratch) is to make an antioxidant pigment called melanin. When the infection or injury is gone, the melanin your body uses is left behind. If you don't use sun protection while your skin heals, you will accumulate spots on your skin.

Just because many people don't get sunburnt doesn't mean you should be reckless when it comes to your safety. It doesn't take much effort to put on sunscreen and it could really help you out in the long run.

2. When it comes to sunscreen, a little dab'll do you.

When most of us decide to use sunscreen or sunblock, we often squeeze out just a tiny dot of the protective agent and try to spread it just as far as it will go across our faces, arms, shoulders, and legs. The problem with trying to economize on your sunscreen is that when it comes to sunscreen, more is better. If you're only using the tiniest amount you possibly can, you won't actually be protecting yourself from the sun properly.

Just how much sunscreen is enough? Well, if you weigh 400 pounds, you'll need more sunscreen than if you weigh 72, meaning it depends on the person. The greater your skin's surface area, the more sunscreen you will need. As a general rule, at least one teaspoon (about 5 grams) and maybe 2 teaspoons (about 10 grams) is typically enough to completely cover the face, neck, arms, and hands. About 1 ounce (about 40 grams) or up to 2 ounces (about 60 grams) is usually enough to cover the entire body.

3. If you wear makeup that includes sunscreen, you don't need a separate application of sun protection.

Many foundation makeups include a small amount of chemicals that protect against injury from the sun. Typically, makeup is SPF 8 to SPF 15, that is, when you wear it, you can stay safely in the sun 8 to 15 times longer than if you didn't wear the makeup at all. If you live in a sunny, blast furnace climate like Arizona or Texas or northern Australia or the Middle East, however, that just isn't enough. In these parts of the world, your skin may need SPF 30 protection.

And if you wear light makeup, that is, you don't clump it across your face (and you don't, do you?) you may not get enough of the skin-protective avobenzone, octocrylene, OM-cinnamate, oxybenzone, titanium dioxide, and other useful chemicals that cosmetics makers add to their products for skin protection. Usually, it's best to put on sunscreen first and then apply makeup over it. However, if you use makeup that includes both foundation and moisturizer, and especially if you use makeup that also includes "skin repair" or "skin restorative" ingredients like Niacinamide, it's OK to skip the sunscreen step.

Seven More Common Misconceptions About Sun Protection

Unless you live at the ground level of a dense tropical rainforest or in a cold, cloudy climate like the Aleutian Islands, you need to use sunscreen during the summer. But how you use sunscreen also makes a difference. Here are seven more common sunscreen mistakes.

4. It's OK, many people believe, to put on sunscreen first thing in the morning and forget about it the rest of the day.

Even the best sunscreen products only last about two hours. If you perspire, if you get a spritz from an overhead mister, or if the sunscreen rubs off, you may need to reapply sun protection even sooner than that. Your skin uses some of the chemicals in sunscreen to stop the creation of free radicals of oxygen that trigger inflammation and cell damage. The more you are in the sun, the faster these chemicals are used up.

5. It's OK to rely on water-proof sunscreen.

"I don't need to put on more sunscreen when I get out of the water," you might say, "because I use a water-proof skin care product." Sorry, "water-proof" sun protection products usually don't live up to their name. In fact, the Food and Drug Administration doesn't even allow the manufacturers of sunscreen to use the term "water-resistant" any more. The best products seem to stand up to splashing water or perspiration for 40 to 80 minutes. But after 80 minutes of exposure to moisture, there isn't any product that continues to work.

6. I'm wearing clothes. I can't get sunburn.

According to measurements made on volunteers at Australia's University of Southern Queensland at Toowoomba, actually wearing clothes isn't enough to offer complete protection against the sun, at least in the bright, sunny regions of the world like Australia, Africa, and the southwestern United States. However, wearing a broad-rimmed hat, long sleeves, pants that reach to the ankles, and gloves is more protective than not. Garments are more protective against UV radiation, especially cotton garments, after the first time they have been washed. The more often you wash your clothes, the more sun-protective they become as holes between threads shrink.

7. You only need to put on sunscreen when it's hot.

In Texas, where I live, the most severe sunburns usually occur on the first really nice day in March, when the temperature might reach 72 degrees F (22 degrees C). Sunburn is caused by sunlight, not heat. It's possible even to get sunburn when snow skiing, if you don't use appropriate protection.

8. You always need to shell out the big bucks to get the highest SPF protection possible.

SPF 30 sunscreens block out about 96% of the sun's harmful UV rays. SPF 70 sunscreens block out about 99% of the sun's harmful UV rays. It's not possible to block 100% of the sun's rays (although titanium dioxide, the sunscreen associated with white noses on lifeguards, comes closest). You are likely not to need higher-SPF sunscreen, just to use lower-SPF sunscreen more often.

9. I don't need sunscreen. I just need aloe vera (or shaving cream, vitamin C, vitamin E, vinegar, ice, cold showers, baking soda, green tea, honey, or oatmeal) to treat sunburn when it happens.

All of these natural remedies help you get over sunburn--but once the skin is burned, DNA damage is done. Prevention is better than treatment for sunburn, and preventing burned skin also prevents skin cancer.

10. What's going on inside my body doesn't have anything to do with how I react to the sun.

There are a variety of foods and medications that can make your skin a lot more sensitive to the sun. The common blood pressure medication lisinopril (and just about any antihypertensive medication in the ACE-inhibitor class, their generic names ending in -il) can make you more sensitive to the sun. Eating too much celeriac or parsley or taking St. John's wort can increase your risk of sunburn.

On the other hand, eating carrots on a regular basis can help prevent sunburn and solar skin damage. One or two carrots a day, however, is enough. Eating more than a kilo of carrots per week prevents sunburn, but can turn your skin orange.