Last month, we spent some time writing about why it’s important to protect your skin from the sunshine (especially now that it’s out more and more!) Before reading this post, we encourage you to take some time to catch up by reading the why behind this.
The spectrum of why to protect your skin ranges from preventing minor burns or wrinkles to preventing skin cancer.
Instead of focusing on the why this month, we decided to focus on the how. In other words, what are some of the best methods to protecting your skin from the sun?
Immediate (and simple) things to do to protect your skin
There are a handful of quick things one could do while outside to protect themselves from excessive sunshine. These are meant to be the basic standards for health when outside and exposed to sunshine for extended periods of time. In most cases, doing these five things will prevent a majority of potential issues with your skin.
- Put on sunglasses to protect your eyes (and the skin around them).
- Put on sunscreen.
- Put on a shirt.
- Put on a hat.
- Seek shade.
Let’s take a look at each of these individually.
Put on sunglasses
Contrary to popular belief, sunglasses aren’t only meant for fashion! Believe it or not, they were created with a true purpose in mind. Namely, protecting your eyes from the sun. There is an added benefit here (depending on the type of sunglasses you have) of protecting the skin around your eyes as well.
Put on sunscreen
An addition to this rule should be, “read the labels!” In all seriousness, please pay close attention to the type of sunscreen you are applying to your skin.
As a general rule—no sunscreen will protect you completely.
With that being said, there are specific sunscreens that work more than others. We’ll get into this in another post.
Put on a shirt
Will it be hotter? Yes. Will you have less of a chance to burn (or burn more)? Absolutely. If you feel a burn coming along or if you want to avoid getting burnt on your body simply throw on a shirt.
Put on a hat
Not only will the hat provide shade for your face, it will also protect the top of your head from direct sunlight. Often times wearing a hat can be the difference from getting lightheaded from too much sunshine and not.
Of course the added benefit of protecting the skin on your face isn’t bad either.
Seek shade
Probably the most obvious of these five is simply to get out of the sun! If you’re feeling hot, if you’re starting to get burnt, or if you’re feeling dizzy—get under some shade and cool down.
If any of these seem extremely obvious, it’s because they are. However, sometimes amidst having fun, it’s easy to forget the basics! This is especially true if you’re swimming outside. You might feel cool, but in reality you could be burning up.
