We associate the use of sunscreen with the beach, the desert, or some other outdoor activity with the sun right above our heads.
That is a misconception that endangers the lives of many adults and kids that enjoy the outdoors even when the sky is cast with clouds, is cold, and there's snow everywhere!
And who is to blame for this misconception? Nobody! Or, more accurately, all of us!
The history of mankind is peppered with examples of adaptations, things we changed in order to survive. The Ozone layer, climate change, pollution (in the form of CFCs, CO2, and other pollutants in the air), acid rain, are changes that have been taking place for not too long. Changes to our environment to which we should be adjusted by now, but we aren’t.
The reason we have not adapted to all these changes is not for lack of willingness, but because adaptation is a process that takes very long, many generations, and these changes are occurring rapidly!
So, what’s the deal here? You ask yourself. Did you bring me to this article to make me read about climate change and pollutants? The answer is No, and Yes.
When we were young children, we would play outside with our friends. It was a simpler time, traffic was scarce, we know our neighbors and they knew us, and the effects of the sun on our skin were tolerable. The worst things that could happen to you were to fall off your bike and get a raspberry knee or get a sunburn in your cheeks and ears.
Either one was gone in a couple of days and you were back in the street with your friends.
A few years passed by and things became more complicated. Skin cancer, Melanoma, is something we all need to aware of, even people with dark skin!
If you think we don’t know what we are talking about, take for example this quote from the Skin Cancer Foundation: “One study, for example, found an average five-year melanoma survival rate of only 65 percent in black people versus 91 percent in white people. Another showed that late-stage melanoma diagnoses are more common in Hispanic and black patients than in non-Hispanic white patients.” (If you are interested in reading the whole article, click here.)
The good news is that, if diagnosed on time, there are ways to treat it and get rid of it, as another article from the Skin Cancer Foundation explains “Tumors discovered at an early stage are those that are confined to the upper layers of the skin and without evidence of spread. These melanomas are treated by excisional surgery and usually, this is the only treatment required to successfully rid the patient of melanoma.” You can read the full article here.
Soooo, what can we do to avoid contracting this horrible, and sometimes fatal, form of cancer?
There are many things that are influential in our health, including our diet, the exercise we do or don’t, and, in the case of skin cancer in particular, how much we expose our bodies to the sun. There is also genetic predisposition, but there’s nothing we can do about it.
One way to make sure we minimize the risk of skin cancer is to protect our skin when we go outside. Whether it’s the beach, with the sun coming from the top, or the ski slopes, with all the snow reflecting the sunlight on us, (you’ve seen people that came back from a ski trip looking like raccoons, haven’t you?)
That’s why we developed Dare To Be Bald Broad Spectrum Sunscreen with SPF 50, a magnificent protective sunscreen that can be used by itself or in combination with other Dare To Be Bald products to maximize their effects.
Now you know what you can do to protect your skin! If you need an extra push in the right direction, read the list of ingredients to know more about what it is that you put on your skin:
Active Ingredients: Avobenzone 2.4%, Homosalate 12% Octisalate 4%, Octocrylene 4.8%. The purpose of these ingredients is to ameliorate the impact of the sun on your skin (sunscreen).
Inactive Ingredients: Water, Propylene Glycol, Cetyl PEG/PPG-10/1 Dimethicone, Phenoxyethanol, Benzoic Acid, Ethylhexyglycerin, Glycereth-2 Cocoate, Octydodecyl Stearyl Citrate Crosspolymer, Disodium EDTA, Sodium Chloride. These ingredients are added to keep the properties of the Active Ingredients, well, active.
Now do the right thing, you owe it to yourself, and your family and friends. We all want to see you live a long life, enjoying the outdoors!
