Health Envoy's Blog
Even the best sunscreen won't protect you well if you don't apply it right. Follow these tips to be sure you're covered.
By Karyn Repinski
Wearing
sunscreen is one of the healthiest things you can for your skin. A good
sunscreen with potent UVA and UVB protection can keep you from getting burned,
minimize the development of wrinkles and brown spots, and can reduce your risk
of skin cancer (3.5 million new cases of nonmelanoma skin cancer will be
diagnosed this year alone).
But too many people still manage to mess up the application process — slathering on too little, skipping vulnerable spots, and more. Here, dermatologists share the biggest sunscreen slip-ups we tend to make, and how to outsmart them.
Mistake No. 1: You wait until you’re already at the beach to apply sunscreen. If you’re ankle deep in sand when you slather on sunscreen, you’re asking to come home looking like a lobster. Apply sunscreen at least 20 minutes before you step outdoors because it takes that long for your skin to absorb the protective ingredients, says Leslie Baumann, MD, a dermatologist in Miami. Smooth it on as evenly as possible before getting dressed to avoid missing spots.
Mistake No. 2: You’re stingy with the application. To get the advertised SPF, a little dab won’t do. On beach days, coat your body fully with one ounce (a shot glass full) of sunscreen. Save a teaspoon of that ounce for your face, ears, and neck. Think of it this way: If you spend a day (six hours) at the beach and go into the water twice, you would have used at least five ounces, or more than half an eight-ounce bottle.
Mistake No. 3: You skip your lips. A recent study found that 63 percent of sunscreen users don’t protect their lips — another common spot for skin cancer. Give this delicate skin more protection by applying an SPF 30 lip balm or lip sunscreen alone or under your usual lipstick or gloss. Wearing lip gloss without any coverage is a big no-no, says Doris Day, MD, clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the New York University Langone Medical Center. “The more hydrated your lips are, the easier it is for UV rays to penetrate deeper into unprotected skin.”
Mistake No. 4: You don’t bother to reapply. You can’t put on sunscreen once and be done with it for the day. “It’s not a magic potion that protects you forever,” says Andrew Kaufman, MD, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA School of Medicine and a skin cancer expert in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The golden rule: Reapply sunscreen at least every two hours, more often if you perspire heavily or go swimming.
Per FDA guidelines, even lotions labeled “very water resistant” only have to maintain their SPF for up to 80 minutes. (Water-resistant sunscreens stay put for about 40 minutes in water.) Plus, even if sunscreen doesn't rinse off in the water, it usually rubs off when you towel dry.
Be sure to towel off thoroughly after swimming; not only do more of the sun’s rays penetrate wet skin than dry skin, but applying most sunscreens to wet skin can dilute the SPF.
Need a reminder to reapply? Download UV Alert, a free iPhone app from Coppertone.
Mistake No. 5: You don’t smooth sunscreen on gently: Rubbing sunscreen vigorously into the skin reduces its effectiveness by nearly 25 percent, says Memphis biophysicist Robert Sayre, PhD. When in doubt, count: When Sayre compared application methods, he found that about six passes across the skin delivered the protection promised on the label. Spray sunscreens that don’t require any rubbing can alleviate the problem entirely — especially the new continuous sprays, which emit a fine mist that provides even coverage on skin.
Mistake No. 6: You forgo sunscreen when it’s cloudy. Even when the sun is nowhere to be seen, 80 percent of its UV rays still hit your skin. Windows block UVB rays but most let UVA rays through, so much so that dermatologists can tell if you’re usually the driver or a passenger in a car by how spotty and wrinkled your skin looks on each side of your face.
“People have a misconception about how much sun they get. They don’t realize that you don’t have to lie on the beach to soak up the sun,” says Dr. Kaufman, who advises placing your sunscreen right next to your toothpaste as reminder to apply it every day.
Read Also - 10 Beauty Mistakes That Age You
But too many people still manage to mess up the application process — slathering on too little, skipping vulnerable spots, and more. Here, dermatologists share the biggest sunscreen slip-ups we tend to make, and how to outsmart them.
Mistake No. 1: You wait until you’re already at the beach to apply sunscreen. If you’re ankle deep in sand when you slather on sunscreen, you’re asking to come home looking like a lobster. Apply sunscreen at least 20 minutes before you step outdoors because it takes that long for your skin to absorb the protective ingredients, says Leslie Baumann, MD, a dermatologist in Miami. Smooth it on as evenly as possible before getting dressed to avoid missing spots.
Mistake No. 2: You’re stingy with the application. To get the advertised SPF, a little dab won’t do. On beach days, coat your body fully with one ounce (a shot glass full) of sunscreen. Save a teaspoon of that ounce for your face, ears, and neck. Think of it this way: If you spend a day (six hours) at the beach and go into the water twice, you would have used at least five ounces, or more than half an eight-ounce bottle.
Mistake No. 3: You skip your lips. A recent study found that 63 percent of sunscreen users don’t protect their lips — another common spot for skin cancer. Give this delicate skin more protection by applying an SPF 30 lip balm or lip sunscreen alone or under your usual lipstick or gloss. Wearing lip gloss without any coverage is a big no-no, says Doris Day, MD, clinical assistant professor of dermatology at the New York University Langone Medical Center. “The more hydrated your lips are, the easier it is for UV rays to penetrate deeper into unprotected skin.”
Mistake No. 4: You don’t bother to reapply. You can’t put on sunscreen once and be done with it for the day. “It’s not a magic potion that protects you forever,” says Andrew Kaufman, MD, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at UCLA School of Medicine and a skin cancer expert in Thousand Oaks, Calif. The golden rule: Reapply sunscreen at least every two hours, more often if you perspire heavily or go swimming.
Per FDA guidelines, even lotions labeled “very water resistant” only have to maintain their SPF for up to 80 minutes. (Water-resistant sunscreens stay put for about 40 minutes in water.) Plus, even if sunscreen doesn't rinse off in the water, it usually rubs off when you towel dry.
Be sure to towel off thoroughly after swimming; not only do more of the sun’s rays penetrate wet skin than dry skin, but applying most sunscreens to wet skin can dilute the SPF.
Need a reminder to reapply? Download UV Alert, a free iPhone app from Coppertone.
Mistake No. 5: You don’t smooth sunscreen on gently: Rubbing sunscreen vigorously into the skin reduces its effectiveness by nearly 25 percent, says Memphis biophysicist Robert Sayre, PhD. When in doubt, count: When Sayre compared application methods, he found that about six passes across the skin delivered the protection promised on the label. Spray sunscreens that don’t require any rubbing can alleviate the problem entirely — especially the new continuous sprays, which emit a fine mist that provides even coverage on skin.
Mistake No. 6: You forgo sunscreen when it’s cloudy. Even when the sun is nowhere to be seen, 80 percent of its UV rays still hit your skin. Windows block UVB rays but most let UVA rays through, so much so that dermatologists can tell if you’re usually the driver or a passenger in a car by how spotty and wrinkled your skin looks on each side of your face.
“People have a misconception about how much sun they get. They don’t realize that you don’t have to lie on the beach to soak up the sun,” says Dr. Kaufman, who advises placing your sunscreen right next to your toothpaste as reminder to apply it every day.
Read Also - 10 Beauty Mistakes That Age You
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