Are you thinking about heading down to the beach to get catch some sun and surf? Well, you might want to reconsider the sun part. Why? This is because of the fact that too much can sun can be harmful to your skin. In fact, you can get more than just a sunburn if you stay under the sun for extended periods of time.

Dangers of Sun Exposure

Short term effects can be anything from red and numerous freckles that often affect those who are light skinned. However, darker skinned people aren’t immune to it either. Sure, some people consider freckles cute but not when they have it all over their body!

Long term effects, on the other hand, it can be quite serious and not to mention quite unsightly as well. Have you ever heard of prematurely aged skin? Well, that’s what you can get if you stay under the sun for far too long. Your skin would get wrinkly and discolored over time. Sure, everybody will eventually get these skin problems, but do you really want them while you’re still in your early twenties? Unfortunately, it doesn’t really end there either. One of the most serious problems that a person can get from sun exposure would be skin cancer. Now, that’s something that you surely wouldn’t want.

Why risk your health for that coveted tan? It really is not worth it. So, what can you do to protect yourself? If you’re going outside, under the sun, then wear sunscreen. Make sure that the SPF is high enough to protect your skin and that you bring along an umbrella with you. Wearing sunglasses is necessary too in order to protect the delicate skin around your eye area. After all, that area receives the most damage since it is the thinnest.

The skin experiences damages due to many factors, such as prolonged exposure to the sun, smoking and extreme weather conditions. These factors primarily target robbing the skin of moisture, thus resulting in an overly dry skin. Solving this problem is how moisturizers help your skin. Skin moisture relies heavily on its ability to retain the water produced in the deep areas of the epidermis.

Unfortunately, as water transports from the inner layers of the epidermis to the outer layers, or the stratum corneum, much is lost due to evaporation. The rate of evaporation speeds up in the presence of the aforementioned factors. The key is to provide skin with a barrier that seals in all the moisture and prevents it from evaporating, which happen to be the main benefits of moisturizers.

Moisturizers perform three main functions: as humectants, as emollients and as an occlusive. As humectants, moisturizers replenish and add to the overall water content of the skin. They also encourage faster water production. As emollients, moisturizer soften and makes the skin smooth by repairing broken lipids and filling in gaps between dead skin cells. They also lubricate the skin, which is perfect for treating itchy and irritated skin. As an occlusive, moisturizers lessen the occurrence of transepidermal water loss. In simpler terms, transepidermal loss is the loss of water as it moves from one layer of the epidermis to another.

Moisturizers hold in moisture and distribute it among the skin cells. As skin care technology progresses, many companies claim to put in additional elements to their formula, which yield additional benefits to the skin. There are now moisturizers with Alpha Hydroxy Acid, sloughing off dead skin cells to give way to new, young cells. There are those loaded heavily with sun protection factor. While moisturizers seem to act internally, a healthy, glowing, soft and smooth skin manifests their effects externally.

Is your skin always flaky and dry? Well, the reason for that could be the lack of proper hydration. Much like our own bodies, the skin needs to be properly hydrated in order to maintain its suppleness and elasticity. This cannot be emphasized enough, actually. Most people tend to forget this and often end up with dry and acne prone skin.

So, what can a person do in order to get their skin aptly hydrated? Well, everybody could sure use a good hydrating cream. Regardless of your gender or your skin type, this is very important to the health of your skin cells. Keep in mind that our body is basically 70% water and as such, hydration is a must. After all, you wouldn’t want to end up looking like a dried up prune, right?

To keep your skin as hydrated as possible, you would need to find the best cream that suits your needs perfectly. There are quite a number of them available out there and such, this wont be an easy task. The best thing to do is to talk to your dermatologist about it as they would be very capable of recommending a good product for you and your skin type.

For women, it is best to use this cream before your apply your make-up. This is because make-up would actually dry your skin. You should also use the cream after make-up removal in order to maximize its effects. For men, these creams should be used after a shave. This is because shaving can leave your skin irritated and harsh thus you would need something that’s capable of restoring is smoothness. A good cream would be able to do just that.

So go on, it is a very small investment compared to the benefits that you will get in return. After all, when it comes to making sure that you have healthy skin, you should take every precaution and protection that’s needed.

When it comes to using sun protection such as sun block, it should be a way of life. Yes, it might sound like a little much but do consider the fact that the sun’s harmful rays can do more than just give you a little sun burn. Unfortunately, not everyone really bothers to do it. In fact, only a small percentage of the population wears sunscreen and even fewer actually know how to choose and apply it correctly. If you are among those who are unconvinced as to the benefits of sunscreen, here’s a quick rundown that should help change your mind.

The Benefits

1. Melanoma in children has been on a continuous rise in recent years. Surely, you wouldn’t want to risk your children’s health just because you feel like putting on sunscreen is too tedious a task. Just imagine them spending all day out in the sun, unprotected from its harmful UV rays. You wouldn’t want that, right?

2. Skin Cancer. Yes, prolonged exposure to the sun’s UV rays can cause skin cancer. This is why people are encouraged to turn to fake tans instead of baking themselves out in the sun. Fake tans may not be the current trend du jour but it would definitely help you lower your chances of getting skin cancer. Now, increase that protection by using sunscreen.

How to choose the right SPF and its proper application

It is important to choose the highest SPF possible regardless of your skin color. Why? Because you would need all the protection you can get. Also, do make sure that your sun block contains UVA protection which is the most important factor here because it helps block out the UV rays of the sun.

It’s about time you started protecting yourselves and your family. After all, when it comes to making sure that they are healthy, you should never take any chances.

There are many different myths when it comes to the use of sun screen. The unfortunate thing is that these myths are often misleading, and as such, make people believe that they are protecting themselves properly when they really aren’t. Now, in order to make sure that every person is aptly protected from the sun’s harmful UV rays, here are two of the most popular sun block myths – debunked!

Myth 1: Sun block would provide you with total protection – Well, the truth is that there is no sun block or screen in existence that is capable of providing you with that kind of protection. The general idea here is that the higher the SPF, the better the protection. Basically, if you’re using SPF 15 then you’re 93% protected, SPF 30 means you’re 97% protected and SPF 50 – 60 means that you’re 98% protected. Now, getting the highest SPF might seem like the best idea here but do note of the fact that the higher the SPF, the higher levels of harsh chemicals it contains.

Myth 2: An SPF 60+ would provide you with double the protection of an SPF 30 sun block – This is certainly false and is also one of the major reasons as to why the FDA has decided to put a cap on the higher SPF’s. Between SPF 30 and SPF 60, there is about 1.6% in terms of difference when it comes to protection. This isn’t much considering the fact that the SPF 60 version can potentially put more toxins into your body.

Now that we have exposed the truth with regards to those sun screen myths, here a good tip when it comes to buying sun block. Always do your research. Sure, it might be just a bottle of lotion or cream but you’re still putting it on your skin and you expect it to protect you from the sun’s UV rays. That is what you’re paying for and as such, you would want to know if it’s genuinely safe for you to use.