SPF is not just for the beach!

If you’re outside today shoveling or cleaning off your car, please remember to wear your SPF. Having worked in skincare for nearly a decade now, I still see patients that wholeheartedly believe that you only need SPF in the summertime and only if you’re at the beach. I’m here to let you know that if you’re only wearing SPF in the summer or only when you’re at the beach, you’re doing a MAJOR disservice to your skin.  

The sun is the most damaging factor that our skin faces (no pun intended!) daily and we can prevent the damage by simply adding an extra step in our routine. It’s best to start protecting your skin at a young age. Growing up as someone that tanned easily, I never wore sunscreen. I didn’t even wear it at the beach in the summertime. I loved sunbathing and loved the way I looked when I was tan. My parents never grew up putting SPF on and didn’t know the harm that the sun causes down the road, simply because there wasn’t much information out there at that time. When I was in high school as late as the early 2000s, there were tanning salons on every corner. Many high schoolers tanned before prom. Years later, studies proved that skin cancers were becoming more prominent by people who used tanning beds. As more information comes out regarding skin care and the dangers of UV rays, the tanning salon industry has been dying out. When I began  working in dermatology about 10 years ago, I started to understand the importance of sun protection. When I studied aesthetics, I began including SPF in my daily skincare routine. Sun damage is deceiving because if you suffer a really bad sunburn, the damage won’t physically show up on your skin for as long as 10 years after the sunburn. This is why starting SPF at a young age is vital to you preventing damage from popping up years down the road.  

Aside from acne, sun damage and aging are the most common skincare woes that people are concerned about. Most people do not want to feel or look old, but sun damage is a skin problem that ages you sooner than the calendar does. Skin with visible brown spots that start popping up on the face or throughout the body as you age are from the sun. The more you neglect using skincare products with SPF, the more prominent these spots will appear, in addition to fine lines and wrinkles.  

Aging is inevitable. Our bodies will never stop aging, which does not have to be a bad thing. In order to lessen the visible signs of aging, you can apply retinol at night, wash your face twice daily (especially if you wear makeup), get regular facial treatments, take care of yourself with diet, exercise, drink plenty of water and get a healthy amount of sleep. And most importantly, incorporate products with SPF into your daytime skincare routines, no matter the season or the weather.

Now you don’t want to purchase just any run-of-the-mill Sun Protection Factor. You want an SPF that has either titanium dioxide or zinc oxide or both. Those two ingredients will block both the UVA rays which are our aging rays that cause fine lines and wrinkles and the UVB rays which are our burning rays that cause hyper-pigmentation, sun spots, brown spots, etc. If you tend to have oily skin look for a matte formula. Also, please make sure you purchase an SPF that is specifically for the face. A really great option that I love is Image Skincare’s Prevention Plus Daily Matte Moisturizer SPF 32. It’s an SPF that’s also a moisturizer but it’s lightweight and doesn’t feel or smell like your typical SPF.  

Have you ever had a breakout that caused a scar? Aside from picking at blemishes or acne on your face, which will definitely cause scarring, if you have a break out and you’re not applying SPF, you will develop scarring or discoloration. It is so much easier to be proactive by applying SPF now then to have to undergo extensive and expensive treatments in the future in order to try and correct discoloration and scarring on your skin. The UVA/UVB rays are just as strong on a cloudy day as they are on a sunny day. This is why it is important to get into the habit of wearing sunscreen daily, all year round.  

Before signing off, I would like to add that as an aesthetician, I have been seeing many patients who wear SPF outdoors but are still struggling to protect themselves while at home. As many people are still working from home due to COVID-19, they may set their workspace up by a window, but forget to put their SPF on because they are indoors. UV rays are strong enough to do damage through a window as well. Here is a photo of a truck driver that never wore SPF as he drove for 28 years. One-half of his face was hit by the sun all day every day in all the seasons, while the other half was not. This photo alone is proof of how strong the sun is and how diligent we need to be with our skincare routines.  

Do you wear SPF all year round? What’s your favorite one? Share in the comments below!