If you think SPF should only be worn in summer, think again, you should be wearing it all year round – yes, even in England’s cold winter. The sun’s damaging rays are one of the main causes of your skin prematurely ageing. We’d get that SPF out if we were you!
Another damaging factor that the sun’s rays can lead to is skin cancer. This is a much rarer impact of the sun than premature ageing is, but the consequences can be far more severe – if this isn’t going to persuade you to put the SPF on we don’t know what will.
Impacts
Sun exposure has a large impact on our skin and not in a good way. One of the largest impacts that are visible to the naked eye is the ageing of our skin. Sun exposure can cause fine lines and wrinkles to appear and become more pronounced.
The rays produced by the sun weaken the natural elastane produced in our skin and this, in turn, causes premature wrinkles, sagging skin, and larger undereye bags. It can even contribute to our skin bruising easier.
Facial brown spots (commonly known as sunspots) and skin discolouration are commonly caused by sun exposure and can be avoided by simply wearing an SPF.
Skin texture, redness, and blotchiness are all also improved by the frequent use of SPF, these are all impacted by the rays and will visibly improve or be delayed by the use of protection.
Everyone knows about the connection between sun exposure and skin cancer, and we’re sure it is no surprise that you can help to prevent this by protecting your skin with a factor 30 + SPF.
Why do you need to wear it in the winter?
SPF is important all year round – yes, even when there is no sun in sight. 80% of the sun’s harmful rays can penetrate through clouds and cause damage to your skin.
Similarly, the UV Rays produced by the sun will penetrate through any window. This means that you are getting sun damage when you are at work, home or even driving – you need to be constantly protecting your skin.
What about Vitamin D?
This is a common excuse for not wearing sun cream – What about my vitamin D intake? Yes, SPF does have an impact on your intake of vitamin D, however, what most people don’t know is that they can easily achieve their daily intake of vitamin D.
We meet our necessary amount of vitamin D by simply doing our usual outdoor activities like running errands. All we need is 5 to 30 minutes of sunlight in a day, two days a week to achieve this.
Prolonged exposure has no added benefit to your essential vitamin D needs.
Expiry Date
Some people may not know this but sun cream does, in fact, have an expiry date, and this is not something to be ignored.
Out of date sun cream will no longer protect you from the sun’s harmful rays as the formula will have quite literally broken down over time.
You may as well be wearing no SPF if you are wearing out of date sun cream and it may even cause skin irritation as the formula is not working in the right and desired way.
So, remember always to wear SPF to protect your skin, prevent ageing and overall keep your largest organ healthy.
