Summer is fun! But is it for your skin? Dealing with consequences of sun damage every day, I can assure you: it is not. Most of people do not think about this kind of things by the moment it hits them. And that happens closer to the age of 30-35. All the time before that moment we enjoy the pleasures of being young, including beautiful tanned skin. However, it is only beautiful as long as it’s strong, elastic and thick, ready to protect and easily regenerate.
At the same time it absorbs sun, and starts to produce large amounts of pigment underneath, which is not yet visible. Once we start getting older, our skin starts getting thinner, revealing all the signs of aging – the sun damage our skin has been experiencing and producing for many years before. That’s when we see our first sun spots, enlarged pores and wrinkles.
It looks like it happens overnight and comes out of nowhere, but in fact all of those have been sitting in your skin for a long time. I dedicate a lot of time on educating my younger patients on importance of proper sun protection, as many of younger people like to tan and do confuse protection from tanning with protection of dangerous UV light.
In fact, you may get tan, but at the same time be protected. And it is always easier and more cost effective to prevent rather than fix the problem. Thus, I always recommend all of my clients to make sun protection a part of their daily skin care routine.
First of all, never go out without your sun screen off – ideally get used to using a daily moisturizer containing SPF: 50 in summer, 30-35 during other seasons. Second, in case you are spending more time at the pool or beach, always wear sunblock with SPF 80-100. And don’t believe those, who say that anything higher than 50 SPF doesn’t make difference – it surely does!
Try to spend a whole day at the beach with SPF 50 on and see if you will burn. Then spend another day there wearing SPF 100 – you will see the difference. And never forget to take care of your family and especially little ones, whose skin is much more sensitive to sun, and thus burns easier. Prevention now will make yours skin healthier and your life easier in future.
To learn more about protecting your skin during the summer, schedule an appointment at Prolase Medispa. We are conveniently located in Fairfax, Virginia, Arlington, Virginia and Burke, Virginia.
