SPF, UVA, UVB and Plus signs on every sunscreen bottle.
Hi, I'm Dr. Rashmi Shetty, your skin expert at Glamrs.com
I'm sure all of us watched English Vinglish.
You know how difficult it was specially if
they were to ask for a cup of coffee?
It's almost as difficult to choose your right sunscreen.
Is it SPF? Is it TPA?
Is it the number of Plus signs that I need to look for?
Is it the number of SPF that I need to look for?
It's so super confusing.
So here I give you some clarity about all of these terms.
We start with SPF which is Sun Protection Factor
which is the number that's written on your tube
like a 30 or 50.
So pretty much one SPF protects you for 10 minutes under the sun.
So likewise if it is 30 SPF, it's 30 into 10
which is 300 minutes which equates to 5 hours that you're safe.
So it's very important to apply
the adequate amount of cream on your face.
Also you shouldn't be in a really sweaty place,
you shouldn't be wiping away your face,
you shouldn't be touching your face 20 times.
All of this will take away a part of the cream
and therefore take away a part of the protection.
So pretty much on an average what we as experts tell our patients is
reapply your sunscreen every four hourly.
TPA is a Tan Protection Index which means to say
how many minutes you're outside the sun without actually getting tanned.
So you will see on a bottle couple of plus signs.
So usually four is the maximum and the best, two is very average,
three is good enough.
So you at least have to look for a three plus sign on a bottle
to make sure you're protected against tanning well.
The ultraviolet rays that you are actually getting yourself exposed to
when you are going out in the sun and which damages your skin
are the UVA, UVB and the UVC.
UVA causes ageing UVA causes further damage even up until your DNA.
UVB is very superficial, touches just the top layer of your skin
but causes the burning.
Both of them do cause tanning as well.
So it's important for you to use a sunscreen
which protects you against the whole spectrums.
So there's your primer and all the sunscreen terms explained.
The sun gives you great highlights.
I don't think this is true at all! Your sun
doesn't tan you in regions, does it?
You can't go stand in the sun and say just tan my cheek.
I wish it happened that way but it doesn't.
If you think the sun ray is going to kill the bacteria,
you need to stand out in the sun for a long long time
probably to even be able to do something like that
by which time you will be dark
and you would have had enough damage
causing other things.
There's no benefit to an SPF higher than 30.
I'd say maybe yes, if you really want a good sun protection for your face
you could go up to 50 but again, it depends on your lifestyle,
if you could reapply your sunscreen every three to four hours,
if you're not really out and out in the sun,
so maybe if you don't sweat too much on the face
then you could stick to 30 and say that's pretty much enough.
Because we are darker, because we have a lot of melanin content
in us, we naturally have a sun protection mechanism in our skin.
But yes, there are skin cancers happening and
sunscreen does prevent skin cancer.
You must protect yourself against it.
Sunscreen is your first line of defense against sunburn?
Yes it is! But also what you can do is avoid sun itself.
However sunscreen will help you a little
maybe you can cover yourself with wearing
fully covered linen fabric, large hats, big sunglasses to protect you.
Sunscreen can just definitely be one of the factors
which should protect you from sunburn.
Swimming is one of the times when you get your worst damages
So, therefore applying sunscreen is very important.
Because there is chlorine, whatever your SPF you may have
to reapply it up to 20 minutes.
Longer you stay, more is the damage to your skin,
even if you apply sunscreen.
But applying sunscreen while you're in the pool
is a mandate.
Oh you definitely need sunscreen everywhere.
See we're not looking at protecting you from the visible sunlight,
we're looking at protecting you from the ultraviolet rays.
Specially UVA penetrates all kind of glasses.
So you must apply sunscreen whether you're indoors or outdoors.
There you go, I hope this was really helpful
to kind of take away some of the myths of the sunscreen,
and now you will apply your sunscreen
and keep yourself protected.
Thanks for watching, until next time
here's to a happy skin!