Suntan & Sun: Summer Has Begun

With soaring temperatures and the sun beating down on you relentlessly how can you escape a Suntan. sun protection and ultimately when all else fails, to Skin City where you can reverse your Tan and how….. Sunscreen or sun cream or sun block, is a lotion, spray, gel or other topical product that absorbs or reflects some of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation and thus helps protect against sunburn, especially for fair-skinned individuals There are two types of ultraviolet rays that cause damage to the skin, UVA & UVB rays. UVA rays cause skin ageing or photo ageing and UVB rays cause sunburn and with excessive exposure, skin cancer. SPF measures sunscreen protection from UVB rays, the kind that cause sunburn and contribute to skin cancer.

A broad spectrum sunscreen offers protection from both UVA & UVB rays. Now to untangle the mystery of SPF the simplest way to calculate it is the time taken for the skin to turn red on sun exposure without sunscreen, if that is 15 minutes then an SPF 15 protects the skin from sunburn for 15 times that time, which is 180 minutes or three hours. Sunscreen with SPF 15 has to be reapplied every 2-3 hours, taken into consideration sweating and dampness which reduces the effectiveness. For Indian Skin it is recommended that an SPF 15-30 is good enough. A higher SPF offers higher protection by absorbing a higher percentage of UV rays.  SPF 15 blocks about 93% of all UVB rays  SPF 30 filters out 97%  SPF 50 is an almost complete UVB block, at 98%. People with lighter/fairer skin, infants and ageing skin require a higher SPF.

Having said all of that it is still difficult to protect your skin from sun exposure and therefore sunburn. Reapplication is sometimes not possible, sweating and getting wet on the beach compromises the protection as sunscreens are not water proof, they may be water resistant to some extent. SkinCity takes care of your concerns like skin tan, uneven Skin tone and Pigmentation. Skin assessment is done and a customized protocol is advised to best suit your needs. Various chemical peels are available at Skin city to lighten the skin and reduce suntan. However Dr. Niteen Dhepe, Medical Director, Skin City advocates the use of the Helios – Fractional Q Switched NdYAG laser which can lighten your skin to its original shade in a single session. The Helios Laser works on all pigmented & hyperpigmented skin problems. If you have dark inner thighs or buttocks, back, under arms, elbows or knees and this makes you too self conscious to wear the cool summer shorts, sleeveless top or bikini you’ve been dying to buy, walk into SkinCity today.