Sunscreen: STILL A Must in Winter Months!

It seems silly to think that with colder weather and dimmer days that sunscreen would still be a necessity but even though the sun isn't shining as bright, harmful UV rays haven't gone anywhere and are still abundant. According to Skin, Inc. magazine:

-10 hours of winter UV exposure is the equivalent to 1 hour in the summer

-Skin is more sensitive to UV rays in the winter

-UV damage can deplete the skin's immune system

Even though some of us have been blessed by the melanin gods with a little more built-in sun protection, it's absolutely necessary that no matter how light or dark your skin is that you incorporate sunscreen into your daily routine. This can either be through buying skin care and make up products that have an SPF formulated into them or by actually applying the sunscreen as the last part of your morning regimine.

Why is this important? There are three types of UV rays, UVA, UVB & UVC.

-UVA rays age skin cells and can damage their DNA. These rays are linked to long-term skin damage such as wrinkles, but they are also thought to play a role in some skin cancers. Most tanning beds give off large amounts of UVA, which has been found to increase skin cancer risk.

-UVB rays have slightly more energy than UVA rays. They can damage skin cells’ DNA directly, and are the main rays that cause sunburns. They are also thought to cause most skin cancers.

-UVC rays have more energy than the other types of UV rays, but they don’t get through our atmosphere and are not in sunlight. They are not normally a cause of skin cancer.

Foregoing the use of sunscreen and long-term exposure to these rays can also cause early skin aging, wrinkles, loss of skin elasticity, dark patches (lentigos, sometimes called age spots or liver spots), and pre-cancerous skin changes (such as dry, scaly, rough patches called actinic keratosis).

So slather it on -- the last thing you want is someone thinking you're nearing 40 when you haven't even hit your 30th birthday!