spf yourself !

Now that beach weather has finally hit Bermuda, albiet a bit late, sunblock will soon be a mandatory accessory before we leave home to hit the beach. Bermuda's sun is very very intense & whether you plan on getting tanned or not, a beach umbrella is a must. Since we're at the beach almost every weekend during the summer, we're exposed to the sun a lot more than normal. But I hate wearing sunblock. I grew up under the blazing sun & never wore sunscreen until I came to Canada where upon, Hubby insisted I wear it. It's all too important, he'd say. But I'm fine, I'd tell him. I grew up under the desert sun & have never used it. Doesn't matter, he says. Now's the time to slap some on. And everytime I do slap it on, I cringe as it enters my pores, wondering what exactly is sunblock made of. It can't be good.

The sun is not so intense in Dubai or in Bombay. Sure one's a desert & the other is a sub tropical locale, with summer temperatures always passing the 35 deg C mark but yet no sunscreen. As a brown person, I have more melanin in my skin than the average white person. But even I've noticed the difference in the sun's intensity in Canada & Bermuda. With both these countries being at a higher latitude than Dubai or Bombay, the summer sun feels more intense here when the earth's axis tilts more to the north. Intensity is key. I can feel my skin 'roast' at a mere 25 deg C & so even I grudingly slather on the SPF to protect myself.

Since I'm at it, I figure I may as well go for sunblock, with the highest SPF I can find. The higher the SPF, the more the protection I can get against those harmful UV rays (apparently Bermuda has a higher concentration of UV rays). It doesn't prevent me from getting darker, not that I care. I love it when I get darker & usually it's by several several shades. The tan evens out my skin tone & makes those dark circles under my eyes blend in with the rest of my face. My friend, Kate is adamant that there does exist certain types of sunblock that will do just that - prevent you from getting a tan. But why would you want that ask my non-brown friends. They're just happy to get a tan without getting burned. Getting burned? Now that's a whole other story. Fortunately, not something I've experienced so I don't give it another thought, until our friends talk about how they spent too much time in the sun over the weekend, ending up badly burned in pain, looking like a lobster. At the end of the day they look at us & ask, why aren't you burned? You don't get burned, do you? Sorry my friends. There's not much I can say except that I really really wish you didn't burn either.