How your shirt color helps keep you from sunburn gives you facts to use in your everyday life about staying safe in the sun.
We know that covering our skin from the sun is important, but are you aware that some shirt colors keep you from sunburn better than others?
With color science able to increase the protection you get from your sun blocking clothing, why not put this to work for your skin protection?
Deep tones of color do more to protect your skin. They can do this by absorbing the sun’s rays and holding them off your skin. To get the very best from this information, let’s take a look at how this ability to absorb the sun’s rays protects your skin.
Why Darker Colors Keep Your Skin Safe In The Sun
Think back to the pictures we have seen through the years of the serious desert dwellers. How did those guys dress? They wore black loosely fitting robes.
The black robe protected their skin. The sun couldn’t get through the heavily woven cloth to their skin.
The sun’s rays were absorbed into the black fabric that the robes were made of. The sun’s rays contained energy. This energy produced heat and would keep the person wearing the robe warm in the winter, and hot in the summer.
So the loose fit was needed to allow the air to circulate under the robe. The air circulation would allow for the evaporation of the heat. Helping the wearer of the robe stay free from sunburn, and cool their bodies as well.
This color wheel shows the deeper colors that are better for sun blocking. Using this guide to keeping your sun blocking shirts in the deeper tones of any color will help keep your skin safer from the sun.
Remeber, the fabric itself must not allow the sun through. Unless you purchase a UPF rated garment you don’t know for sure the sun blocking ability of any shirt. When you are shopping from your closet, knowing the color secret will up your protection game.
The Part Your Life Style Plays In Preventing Sunburn
The idea that you can stay safe in the sun, without any sun damage to your skin, all day long for every day is not based on fact. You can try to stack the facts in your favor, but in my part of the world, here in central Texas you are simply not able to stay 100% safe.
The sun is directly over us may months of the year. Even in the fall and winter, the noon day sun can be extreme.
You have to adapt to a responsible lifestyle. If you are a person who loves running, you will need to run early mornings and late afternoons. If you want to participate in outdoor activities, choose the ones what start early.
You can protect your skin for a few hours, but all day? Hardly. This is difficult and will require a lot of focused awareness. The same is true for your children.
Finding a lifestyle that puts you poolside after 4 PM or before 11 AM is much healthier than being in the sun during the htter hours of the day.
Spending time in the shade during the hotter times of day will keep you better protected than laying in the sun and thinking tans are good for you.
Can Wearing A Dark Colored Shirt Prevent Sunburn?
Yes, wearing a dark colored shirt can prevent sunburn for a while. But, it might not be enough to protect you all day. You have to consider the whole life picture.
For a few hours in the sun, you should be safe if your shirt is a tightly woven fabric that allows no sun to shine through, and is a deep color.
Does your shirt have a double layered yoke to protect your shoulders? Does it have some vents to allow air in? It there a collar to protect your neck? Are the sleeves long, and the fit loose? Did you wear your sun blocking hat? Your sunglasses?
You see, your sunblocking wardrobe takes more than a shirt to protect you from the sun. Did you apply sunscreen where your shirt didn’t cover you?
Did you take breaks in the shade? Drink lots of water? A hyderadeted body sunburns slower than a dehydrated body. Are you taking any medication, even over-the-couter-medication? Tylonel, Motrin? Uh-oh, your sensitivity to the sun just went up.
Protecting your skin from the sun is not a one step process. It is important to use all your tools to stay safe in the sun. To enjoy a healthy life and keep your skin healthy and prevent early aging, you may have to change some habits.
Preventing Sunburn Will Take More Than The Best Color
Wearing a hat with a 3 inch brim, your sunglasses, and your sun blocking shirt are all important parts of the skin protection practice.
We have been conditioned to hearing the advertisements indicating the power behind a particular shirt, and we think that is it. Wear that shirt, and we will never sunburn again. This just isn’t a true picture of a safe lifestyle.
Helping your kids learn how to protect their skin is important for their healthy futures. Our skin health is often over looked until we get old and look older. Trying to repair damaged skin is harder and much more expensive than protecting what we have.
Sami’s Take On How Your Shirt Color Keeps You From Sunburn
Sunburn prevention is more than the shirt color. It is the color, the fabric, the fit. Then there is your lifestyle. Your sun hat and sunglasses. Sunscreen. Drinking lots of water. What medications are you taking?
I am sorry to squelsh your idea that sun protection is easy. It will be once you have good habits built. But is you are just starting to be aware of a healthier skin with protection from the sun, it is a shock that just buying the right color shirt won’t actually do it.
Start with a sun hat and sunglasses. Wear them when you are out doors. Untill you get a UPF shirt, wear one from your closet that is longsleeved and loose fitting. Tightly woven fabric is best. Darker colors are best.
Covering your body when you are in the sun is better than exposing your skin to the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Take care of your skin, and it will take care of you. Drink enough water and other fluids to stay hyderateded.
Your awareness of a healthy way to live in the sun will serve you well by keeping your healthy and protected.
Have you fond a good way to protect your skin? What are your short cuts to better sun protection for your skin? Share in the comment sections and help us all to learn more ways to take care of our skin while in the sun.
Thank you,
Sami