The Brown Girl’s Guide To Sun Protection
Everything (almost), you need to know about protecting your skin from photo-aging, hyper-pigmentation and skin cancer.
Sunscreen is the one element in skincare, us brown girls just don’t pay attention to. Which is silly, seeing as hyper-pigmentation is such a huge concern for us and can largely be attributed to sun damage, amongst other things.
We’ve been told that the melanin content of our skin is a natural sunscreen but the truth is, we still need help protecting our skin from harmful effects of the sun.
First things first, what are we actually protecting our skin from?
The skin emits two types of harmful rays, UVA and UVB.
UVB is visible sunlight. This is what we see when its sunny. UVB rays are the Sun’s shortwave rays, and are responsible for tanning/burning.
Fun Fact: UVB rays do not penetrate glass.
UVA rays are invisible and are present as long as there is daylight. This means even when it is cloudy and overcast. UVA rays are present throughout the year. These are the Sun’s longwave rays that are responsible for signs of aging.
How does Sunscreen work?
There are a couple of types of Sunscreen, mineral and synthetic formulations. Mineral sunscreen reflects UVA rays away from the skin while Synthetic sunscreen changes UVA rays into a harmless heat shield.
What is SPF?
SPF stands for Sun Protection Factor. This is an industry standard measure for how long you can stay in the sun without burning. It typically measures protection against UVB rays.
What does “broad spectrum” mean?
Broad Spectrum Sun Protection means protection against UVA/UVB rays.
How often should I be wearing sunscreen?
A broad spectrum sunscreen of SPF30+ should be worn daily. This can prove a bit of an issue for brown girls because a lot of sun protection products contain ingredients that leave us looking ashy grey or an oxygen-deprived blue.
Sun Protection for Brown girls
When, in my routine, shall I apply Sunscreen?
Sunscreen should be the last product you apply before makeup/foundation. so that is after moisturiser and before primer/foundation.
Do you wear Sunscreen? What brands do you wear and how often?
