Can You Tan with Sunscreen?
On a hot sunny day many of us just want to lay out in the sun take it easy and get a bit of a tan. We all know we must use sunscreen to protect our skin form the sun. But does using sunscreen prevent us from getting a tan?
Dermatologists advise and recommend strongly the use of sunscreen since using it protects you. This is because using sunscreen protects your skin from many dangers the sun can cause to your skin such as causing your skin to age and causing skin cancer.
Although intentional tanning is not considered to be safe you may still be able to get a modest amount of tan while using sunscreen. Tanning happens when UV rays come into contact with your skin. Once these UV rays go through to the lower layers of epidermis, they start producing melanin.
Melanin pigments are natural pigments which can be found throughout our bodies. Melanin has several functions in our bodies. It is responsible for tanning our skins when it comes to contact with sunlight, UVA rays and is also responsible for pigmentating our hair and eyes.
These melanin pigments also protect our skins from getting burned. Usually those who’s cells produce more melanin do not get burned as fast as those who’s cells produce less melanin. People who have light coloured skin produce less melanin which is the reason their skin burns quicker when it comes to contact with UV rays. Also, for the light skinned people the dangers of getting burned are much higher!
Those who’s skin is not very light produce more melanin and this means it takes a longer for their skins to get tanned and allows them to spend more time in the sun without getting burned. So, essentially how you can tan with sunscreen is based on the amount of melanin your skin produces and each person’s pigmentations.
This means if you want to tan and spend time outside you should know your skin type and based on your skin type use the correct SPF in your sunscreen. So, if you are light skinned due to the low amount of melanin your cells produce you will get tanned very quicky which can happen within minutes after exposure to UV rays!
The sunscreen you use protects your skin from the dangerous UV rays from the sun and it allows you to spend more time outside without getting burned. The higher SPF sunscreen you use the more protections it offers.
According to a study done in Australia if your skin takes to show symptoms of burning without sunscreen in 10 minutes, applying a sunscreen with a SPF of 50 will increase that time by 50 times. This means having applied a sunscreen with a SPF of 50 allows you to spend 500 minutes in the sun before getting burned.
So, essentially when you use sunscreen it only prolongs the amount of time you can spend in the sun without getting burned. It does not prevent you from getting a tan.
