The Importance of Sun Screen

It’s come to my attention that almost everyone I know has a personal vendetta against wearing sunscreen. No matter how many times I attempt to convince them that it’s actually really important to have and use religiously, they brush me off. 

Sunscreen, also known as SPF, or sun protection factor is one of THE most important parts of a skincare routine. Reflecting on my latest SPF conversation, I got, “But who uses that shit anyway?” Umm, YOU should. “But I want to tan!” You can still tan with SPF on! It was a battle. And I still failed to convince the person to use sunscreen, and therefore decided to take it to the internet.

Did you know that the sun is one of the main factors of aging? All those wrinkles you don’t want to have are mostly caused by sun exposure. And of course we can’t forget about good old skin cancer. The acne scars that won’t go away? The sun makes them worse! 

The sun is your enemy! RAWR! No really, it is.

SPF is your liberator, and comes it in all sorts of different numbers, from 15 to 100. But what do the numbers signify? Let’s say it takes your skin around 20 minutes to get burned, then wearing SPF 15 should be able to increase that time (multiplied by 15) to five hours (just an estimate, not a set number). There are also percentages to how much SPF (15-100) filter out the UVB rays. If SPF 15 can do 93%, then 30 can do 97%, and 50 can do 98% and so on.

“So I can wear SPF 15 and be fine the whole time I’m out, right?” No. The downfall of this is that SPF doesn’t hold up more than two hours before you would need to reapply it. Sweat and heat will probably melt it off your face in less than two hours.

“So what should I do?” I believe that anything higher than SPF 50 is full of shit because you can never get to 100% filtration, and it’s also the last number on the scale that won’t make you whiter than Casper the ghost himself, so using that on your face and neck at least every morning before you go out will efficiently protect you.

As an ending note, the following list debunks the bullshit everyone believes about sunscreen.

1.   Wearing sunscreen won’t cause vitamin D deficiency.

2.   It’s cloudy, I don’t need to wear sunscreen - Yes you do!

3.  It’s too late to do anything about sunscreen now - well, better late than never.

Good Luck!