UK heatwave: How to choose the right suncream for you, according to a dermatologist

While we may be rejoicing about the opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors this summer, our skin may be telling a different tale.

Transcript

00:00The weather started to hoss up a little bit, we've all experienced that especially over this last

00:04weekend, but just how important is sun protection for our health? Sun protection is really important

00:10for our skin health because we know that ultraviolet radiation, which is around all year,

00:16is damaging to our skin cells and in the short term this might just cause sunburn,

00:20which is very painful, but in the longer term it's definitely implicated in skin cancers,

00:24which are on the rise, and also sort of premature skin ageing, which is not what we like to look

00:29like when we get older. Absolutely, and so the research that's come through there shows that

00:35there are a lot of misconceptions from the British public about sun creams and things,

00:40so what are those top misconceptions that you'd want to clear up please? Well it's a misconception

00:46that's been around for years, but this idea that you only wear your sun cream on bright sunny days,

00:52about 30% of the population in this research by La Roche-Posay don't wear their sun cream every

00:57day, only on bright sunny days, and of course, you know, bright sunny days are super important,

01:01but even on a cloudy day like it was yesterday here in London, you can still damage your skin,

01:06you can even still get sunburned, so it's really important to apply sun cream every day and reapply

01:11every couple of hours when you're out and about. When you go into the shop sometimes it can look,

01:16feel a bit of a minefield, there's so many different types and there's so many different

01:20brands as well to choose from, how do you select one that is right for you? You're quite right,

01:27sunscreen companies have just done so much, there's so many formulations, so many different SPFs,

01:32and in fact in the same study there was some confusion over the language that's used on

01:36sunscreen bottles and what it all means, so what I would say is I would go for the highest SPF,

01:42and one with a really good UVA protection factor, and that's because the SPF is a protection of UVB,

01:49and that's our burning rays, and UVA is very important, more implicated in photoaging and

01:55premature aging, so you want one with an SPF 30 maybe hopefully a 50.