Women's Sun Care

What You Need to Know

Only this last week a young, vibrant woman died of cancer. She was 29 years old and had only been married for a year. She had been diagnosed with a vicious form of melanoma the week before Christmas and now - not even at the end of January, she is gone, her life cut tragically short and her husband left bewildered at the speed with which he lost this strong and determined partner.

Every year more and more people are diagnosed with melanoma - a form of skin cancer. Most are found early enough that they can be treated and the patient survives - but if you don't know what to look for and how to protect yourself then the chances of it being much more serious increase greatly.

Just using sun cream when you go to the beach and sun bathe is not enough to protect yourself. When you get a sun burn it is sore for a few days and then it fades and you are left with a tan - something we all crave for the summer months to make us look healthy and attractive. What you don't realize is that the sun burn isn't just a couple of days of discomfort - it also causes damage to the deeper layers below the skin's surface and this is what can eventually cause cancer. It doesn't need to be a severe sun burn, a steady build up over a number of years, of milder sun burns can still have disastrous effects. Sun care is something that needs to start at a very early age and continue through the rest of your life.

Fortunately now we are more aware of the need to protect our skin from the effects of the sun and the majority of women's skin care products also have sunscreen in them. Moisturisers, foundations, body lotions, even lipsticks are produced with sun screen - so women's skin care is definitely aimed towards protecting us against the damaging effects of the sun's rays. But is this enough? What more can we do to to care for our skin in the sun?

There are a few things we can do - alongside using the products with sunscreen - such things as wearing a hat with a brim to help protect our face - wearing sun glasses to protect our eyes - seeking shade during the hottest parts of the day - using lip balm or lipstick with sunscreen in - making sure we use the right UPF sunscreen for the conditions (such as waterproof creams for swimming or sports activities) - and reapplying frequently - and another step we can take is to wear clothing that has been made with a fabric that filter's out the harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun and offers maximum protection. There are lines for women, men, children and babies for beach wear, casual wear and for surfing and swimming.

If we take every precaution in our skin care steps to protect our skin against the sun's damage - we stand a much better chance of not finding ourselves with leathery, prematurely aged skin - or skin cancer. Women already take steps to preserve a youthful complexion with age -defying creams and lotions - we need to make sure we also protect ourselves and our loved ones with the proper kind of sun care.