Daily advice
After all those weeks of lockdown, you’re about to rediscover the outside world. Your skin isn’t used to being exposed to the sun! So here are some ideas to prepare your skin for UV rays. Hint: sunscreen required!
After almost twelve weeks of being inside, we’re all finally allowed to start going out again… Happiness! Especially for those of us who don’t have a garden, a patio or a balcony and couldn’t take advantage of the sun’s first warm rays. Be aware, however. Even if we want to make up for the lost time, and summer feels like it’s right around the corner, giving your skin full sun exposure from day one is not a good idea. After being covered by clothes over the winter, and staying inside during early spring for the lockdown, your skin will be quite fragile when it comes to UV rays. So how can you take advantage of the sun and still be safe? Here is our advice for easing lockdown specifically for your skin.
As noted in the official health recommendations, easing lockdown needs to be done progressively and to ensure that all necessary precautionary measures are taken to avoid a new wave of contamination. For skin, it’s exactly the same strategy. To get a healthy and harmonious golden glow without taking any risks, there are two related requirements that must be met:
Prepare your skin for the sun bit by bit by adapting how much exposure you get to your skin tone: more slowly for fair skin compared to darker skin.
Apply sunscreen that is adapted to each exposure, even when your tan appears.
A sunburn can appear after just 20 minutes of sun exposure
Ahhh, we’ve waited so long to be able to wander in the park, go for a picnic in the countryside or stroll pleasantly down the street for errands… Now’s the time to take advantage of it, while keeping a safe distance, of course, and also while protecting your own and your children’s skin, even if you just go out for 15 to 30 minutes. That’s all the exposure required before some fair skin starts to burn. Remember that your skin hasn’t had the chance to progressively get used to the sun this year, so it’s even more important to wear sunscreen, even for a short time outside. To be sure that you stay safe in the sun, remember your protective wear!
Slowly increase the amount of time you spend in the sun:
For fair skin, 15 minutes the first day, 20 minutes the second, 25 minutes the third…
Even when your skin is tanned, avoid staying in the sun for too long.
Apply an SPF 50+ sunscreen whatever your skin tone for your first few times out, and be sure to apply the right dose. All studies show that the quantity of cream actually applied is half as much as the amount used in laboratory tests.
In other words, an SPF50+ cream becomes only an SPF25 when not enough is applied.
Remember to apply your sunscreen 15 minutes before going outside.
Reapply your sunscreen every two hours.
Avoid being in the sun between 12pm and 4pm when the sun’s rays are at their strongest.
Tanning is a natural biological process to adapt to our environment. When skin is exposed to the sun, more melanin is produced, turning the skin into a darker colour than usual and thickening the visible layer of our skin. These two reactions are to protect our body from UV rays. Tanning provides a fairly effective filter for UVB rays, avoiding sunburn. But it offers no protection from UVA and visible rays. It, therefore, doesn’t lower the risk of either premature ageing or skin cancer.
The tanning process takes a while to begin. Melanin is produced within the deeper layers of the skin and must migrate to the skin’s surface. After several days of sun exposure, tanning occurs little by little. The intensity depends on your skin tone. An effective and protective sunscreen is the best way to wait for melanin to surface and to tan in complete safety.
Bioderma’s Photoderm range is the perfect partner for first exposure to urban sun, for all skin types, from normal to the most specific needs.
If you get too much sun exposure too quickly, without wearing any sunscreen, you’ll get a sunburn faster than a tan! Your skin will peel more or less depending on the depth of the burn, and you can forget all exposure for the time it takes to heal. Not to mention premature skin ageing and the risk of skin cancer.
Just the opposite! The clouds let UVB and UVA rays thorough. UVA rays, responsible for premature ageing and some types of skin cancer, pass through clouds and windows. Your skin is still exposed and therefore needs protection.
False! The marks that show up quickly after sun exposure early in the season are the result of UVA rays producing an oxidative reaction in the melanin present in the skin’s outer layers. The reaction is the same as that from a tanning bed. A true, protective tan takes several days to appear.
Not at all. Start your treatment immediately, keeping in mind that these nutritional supplements stimulate the production of melanin and their full effect usually appears after about 2 weeks. They don’t protect at all from the sun and you must still apply sunscreen before going out. This type of treatment is recommended if you have benign summer light eruption (BSLE). Studies show that they do prepare the skin for the sun.
You can go out in the sun if you respect certain conditions to avoid any BSLE. Prepare your skin right now, taking a course of nutritional supplements specific for sun protection and tanning. They contain beta-carotene to accelerate the skin’s colouration, as well as antioxidants and vitamins to strengthen the skin. Expose yourself progressively and protect your skin with an adapted sunscreen, with high anti-UVA protection. UVA rays in particular appear to be involved in sun allergies. Remember that tanning plays a protective role in lesions caused by the sun.
That’s an unfortunate choice for both mood and health! Too much exposure can be dangerous, yet the sun is still indispensable for synthesising vitamin D in our body. In fact, doctors recommend at least 15 minutes of sun a day. An important part of numerous biological processes, vitamin D plays an essential role in how the immune system works and in absorbing calcium and phosphorous to have strong bones. A large part of the population shows insufficient vitamin D in their blood. So a moderate amount of sun and the right protection can close the gap!
