Wear Sunscreen; No, Wear UV-screen

Put on your sunscreen. No, scratch that, put on your UV protection. Got yours on?

Anyone over 40 knows there was once a time when protection from the sun was the least of the American culture's concern, and the Coppertone tan was the greatest. Sun damage? Never heard of it. Skin cancer? Just hype; I'll take the risk. That was the mantra.

Today the risk isn't so far fetched. The proof's in the dermal pudding, as it were. It's no longer "if," but "when." Sun damage is something to be concerned about, and a Coppertone tan should make one as self conscious as wearing real fur. 

Imagine driving by a city street corner and splatting a tanned bystander with a balloon full of SPF35. But I digress.

Sunscreen is a misnomer because it implies protection from the sun, such as that of a bright, clear summer day. Did you know UV rays on a cold, dark, rainy day are just as dangerous, maybe more so?

Be concerned about 2 types of rays from the sun: UV/A and UV/B. UV/A is the worse of the two, with links to more skin cancers than UV/B. UV/A rays are the ones that bounce around under cloud cover. Seems like sunscreen can be spared on these darker days. Wrong. It may be a rainy day, but the deadly "A" killer lurks -  in silence, just like high blood pressure. 

UV/B rays are those rays on a sunny day, the ones that burn (or tan) your skin. Think of B for Burn. These, too, are dangerous, however. They cause freckling, which is what we call it when you're 9. Hyperpigmentation is what we call it when you're an adult, or when we want to be taken seriously. Hyperpigmentation is, basically, melanocytes gone wild. Gone so wild they can turn into a malignancy. (Melanocytes are the stuff that makes the tan within your skin cells.) Unfortunately, it can take 20 years to find out the damage caused, leaving lots of time to stack the deck against you.

Forget about the weather and forget about whether you'll be outside or inside. If the sun is up, wear UV A and B protection. Wear it every day, inside or not. Just keep the bottle next to your toothbrush, and put in on after a good brush.

We recommend the Benev Sun Protection 35, and the Obagi Medical Healthy Skin Protection, also SPF 35. Both of these products are excellent on your face, don't feel greasy, and are FDA-approved to be an honest SPF35.

The cost of these products is not much higher than the good OTC stuff. However, they are free of chemicals and fragrances that cause allergic reactions and breakouts.

Got an indoor job? Wear the same UV protection. Documented cases are aplenty of indoor professionals who sit near a window who, after a good 20 years, developed lesions and sun-damage at an advanced rate and more pronounced on one side of the face.

Even though our message is to encourage you to wear UV protection at all waking hours, we see no reason for you to feel any remorse for your unprotected days of yore. Got sun damage? So what. It's no crime to have been caught in the sun. The only crime is to do nothing about it. Lots of great products and programs are available to correct sun damage by cycling the damaged cells out of your system and accelerating the replacement of new, health, sun damaged cells.

With Obagi Medical (if you do well with systems) and Benev Cosmeceutical offer stunning results. These two product lines aren't the only options in the pharmaceutical-grade world of skin care. But we've done our homework and we highly recommend Obagi and Benev, or we simply wouldn't carry them.

Coming soon ... four top self-tanners, as recommended by a leading beauty magazine.