6 Things You Never Knew About Sunscreen
I'll be honest, I never really thought much about sunscreen. I just slapped it on and hoped I didn't get burned (although since I'm not the greatest at re-slapping it on, I often did).
But then I came across this sunscreen trivia and now I'm looking at my bottle of Hawaiian Tropic in a whole new light. See what I mean below:
#1: A lot of sunscreens only protect against UVB rays, unless the bottle specifically says it has UVA protection as well (SPF only refers to UVB).
#2: A study found that people who wait 2.5 hours to reapply sunscreen instead of 2 hours have a five times greater chance of burning. (Source: "Can You Get Hooked on Lip Balm?")
#3: Sunscreens actually do expire after about a year, especially if they've been sitting in your car or beach bag. (So it's not just a ploy to get us to buy more sunscreen.) Click here to see the signs your sunscreen has gone bad.
#4: Sunscreens that are SPF 70 or 90 don't actually increase your protection by all that much more, however you're getting two to three times more chemicals on your skin. So if you have sensitive skin you're actually better off applying a lower SPF more frequently, because you might get some irritation or redness with the higher SPF, according to Annet King, head of The International Dermal Institute
And, OK, these facts aren't technically about sunscreen, but they're in the ballpark and they're pretty crazy:
#5: Each time you peel, your risk for skin cancer increases. If you have five sunburns in your life your risk for melanoma is doubled, King says.
#6: 70 percent of adults do not apply sunscreen regularly and more than one-third of the U.S. population reported experiencing sunburn in the previous year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you're in that 70 percent (and let's face it, odds are you are), then you definitely need to read the rest of this sunscreen trivia.
Fess up: Do you apply sunscreen regularly?
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