The Importance of Sunscreen on Vacation (Part 1)
Updated: Dec 14, 2022
Sunscreen can save your life and your youth as well as just your skin…and let me tell you why!
Sunscreen is undoubtedly the most significant factor in both gaining and maintaining healthy, moisturised and flourishing skin. It's a staple ingredient and therefore an essential part of our everyday skin & body care routines.
The main, yet obvious purpose of sunscreen as you may already be aware, is to protect our skin from the harsh heat and exposure of UV rays that are emitted from the sun. Sunscreen acts as a barrier from this and without it, can result in serious harm including effects such as sun damage/burn, skin cancer, skin discoloration and wrinkles.
In today’s modern day and age, everyone is consumed by beauty standards and it’s become their ultimate priority - so to the younger audience reading this, I’m sure the skin cancer won’t scare you but the wrinkles will!
It’s important to note that not everyone has the same skin type & the type of skin you have will determine many factors such as:
Level of risk you have being exposed to skin cancer
The level of protection that is required for you (strength of SPF factors)
The type of skin state you have (oily, dry, combination)
Your skin sensitivity (naturally sensitive, environmentally sensitive, reactive, thin)
A few common myths debunked:
"Black people don’t need to wear sunscreen"
This is false because although dark skinned people do not get sunburnt as easily, they still need to ensure they’re protecting their skin as nobody is immune to the effects.
As stated by Winchester Hospital: Just because the sunburn may not be as visible, it doesn't mean that it isn’t harmful.
"Sunscreen is only required when I’m out in the sun, at the beach or pool"
WRONG! As already mentioned, sunscreen contributes to many positive factors other than just protecting your skin from the sun such as:
Prevents premature ageing & wrinkles
Keeps skin healthy & moisturised
Prevents skin discoloration and promotes clearer, brighter skin
Evens out complexion
Prevents illnesses like skin cancer
And many more!
"My sunscreen is waterproof so I don’t need to keep applying more layers throughout the day."
FALSE! The general rule is that SPF should be reapplied every two hours or after swimming/sweating. The purpose of reapplication is so that your skin maintains the protective barrier that SPF provides because the moment you put it on, the active ingredients in the SPF that give you this protection, begin to break down and by putting more on you’re essentially ensuring it penetrates your skin at a deeper level and retains the moisture.
The reality
According to Hopkins Medicine, the truth is that not everyone wears SPF as much as they should, therefore for some people, choosing a higher SPF level such as SPF 50+ makes up for the reduced usage.
How can I protect myself?
Making sure you know your skin well enough to know the above question is a starting point. Once you’re aware of it all then it will be much easier to find the right SPF for you and from that point forward it’s essential to prioritise consistency by ensuring you’re incorporating SPF into your daily routine and wearing it everyday no matter the weather; this came as a shock to me at first but SPF is not something to restrict yourself to wearing only in the summer as it helps with many other beneficial impacts.
It’s also important to ingrain the fact into your mind that sunscreen is not optional, but a requirement as with this mindset you’ll see a clear difference.
Always remember: consistency is key and with consistency comes results!
Read part 2 to see my recommendations on the best, affordable SPF’s to use.
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