With all the confusion on how best to protect your skin from the damaging rays of the sun, here’s a quick “How To“ for determining your correct SPF!
- Decide on the number of minutes you plan on being in the sun.
- Divide the above number by the number of minutes your skin can tolerate the sun before burning.
The result is the minimum SPF you need in a sun block to protect your skin.
Example: 300 minutes (5 hrs) % 15= an SPF 20
**Also know that current SPF only measures UVB protection, so the higher the SPF number, the longer you can be in the sun w/o burning or reapplying. However UVA rays are the ones that deeply penetrate and contribute to accelerated skin aging while also increasing your risk of cancer. With that being said, under new FDA guidelines– no matter what the SPF is, if it doesn’t say “broad spectrum“ on the bottle you are not fully protected.**
See also TMR’s Sunburn – “How To“ for the mistakes that are bound to happen!
