How Much Sunscreen do You Really Need to be Protected?
Tomorrow is the first official day of summer....and you know you need sunscreen. Right? Do you know just how much sunscreen is enough to protect your skin?
We have always heard that super-high SPFs were kind of pointless. Maybe you heard that there's not much difference between SPF 50 and SPF 100, Of course there was a recent study and that's not actually the case.
They did a study where people put 50 SPF on one side of face and 100 on the other side. The side with SPF 50 was more likely to end up with sun damage. The study found 2 reasons it happened......
First, that extra SPF does protect your skin a little better. SPF 50 blocks about 98% of UV-B rays, compared to 99% with SPF 100.
BUT the main reason is most of us don't apply as much sunscreen as we're supposed to, and don't re-apply it enough. The higher SPFs offer a little more leeway in that regard. So you're more likely to be protected, even if you don't put on enough.
So the key is that SPF 30 is good enough.....BUT only if you put it on thick....and if you re-apply it every two hours.