Should You Bother Wearing SPF On Cloudy Days?
Your skin resolution: To use SPF more regularly
Why you want to slack off: It’s not even sunny outside.
Why you shouldn’t give up just yet: Harmful rays can cause skin cancer and photoaging—no matter what the weather.
How to keep at it: In the sun protection game, every minute counts. “The thing to remember is that sun damage is cumulative,” says Dr. Debra Jaliman, a New York-based dermatologist and author of Skin Rules. “Even if you go out for five minutes a day, every day, those five minutes add up over the course of a lifetime.” With this in mind, sunscreen should be worn not just when in the sun, but anytime you’re outdoors. Even in winter. And yes, even on a foul-weathered day.
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“When it’s cloudy or rainy or gray, you’re still getting ultraviolet light,” Jaliman explains. While UVB rays are stronger between 10am and 4pm and tend to burn the skin, UVA rays emit a steady strength throughout the day and have a longer reach—so they’re able to penetrate windows and nasty weather. They can also cause skin cancer, skin damage and aging. “This UV light damages your collagen and elastic tissue and breaks it down and so you get wrinkles, brown spots, uneven coloration and broken blood vessels,” Jaliman says.
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In short, wearing sunscreen every day is the single most important thing you can do to protect your skin from cancer and photoaging. So pick a broad-spectrum sunscreen (which under FDA guidelines, protects against UVA and UVB rays) and apply it to any exposed skin before leaving the house—no matter what the forecast.
Try: MD Solar Sciences SPF 50 Mineral Creme, $30, available at Sephora
