I have been wanting to write this post all week but had yet to figure out how to start it out. I realized there really is no fun or witty way other than:
Sunscreen is Your Friend!!!
So what is this post about? Well, we are only 1 week away from the official start of summer vacation (Memorial Day weekend) and many folks will be heading to the beach and doing more fun outdoor activities in the hot sun. Sunscreen is a very important part of the equation that many people forget and they should not. Not regularly wearing sunscreen can do many things to your skin: cause wrinkles, leave scaring from 2nd and 3rd degree burns, burn you and cause you to flake for 2 weeks, and lastly can result in skin cancer. I’m not sure about you but those potential side effects of the sun do not sound appealing to me.
How to prevent unflattering side effects: obviously wear sunscreen and wear something that will do the job every time you go outside even if its only for 30 minutes. SPF (skin protection factor) is a factor and you should go with one that you are comfortable with. Many dermatologists will tell you that after SPF 30 they are all the same. I tend to go with the highest number I can that also does not clog up my pores and reapply a thin layer of spray sunscreen every hour or two hours I am outdoors. I really love the Neutrogena line of sunblock and they have a fabulous feeling spray sunblock that cools you off. Also, look for waterproof sunscreen but realize it’s mainly waterproof against rain, drizzling showers, and short swims. Waterproof does not mean you can get in and out of the water and not reapply. You should reapply sunscreen each time you towel off from a swim.
If you do end up with a burn – aloe vera is soothing and healing. Aloe from the actual plant works the best I have found followed by green aloe at the store – not sure what is in the blue version but that tends to make my burns worse. Also sleep and some IB Profin help speed up the healing process.
Have a happy and safe summer in the sun!
May 18th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
For some reason, I can only subscribe to your comments …but not your blog. Dunno why?
May 18th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Agreed. Sunscreen is very important.
May 18th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
That is really strange Tammy. Which program were you using to subscribe with on the drop down menu? I selected My Yahoo which is where I normally put my feeds and was able to do it but I haven’t tried any others.
May 18th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Tammy-that happened to me when I just put the URL in bloglines, but when I used the feed link it worked.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:33 pm
It is fixed now, I was able to add you to my bloglines. Dunno why it was giving me trouble last week…