The Importance of Sunscreen

While many people of color practice sun safety, a recent survey from the Skin Cancer foundation revealed that 63 % of Black Americans don't wear sunscreen. Melanin is amazing, but the sun doesn’t discriminate. Darker skin tones have a natural SPF of 13.4 while white skin has 3.4. This means we won’t get sunburned as quickly, but we’ll still burn, and are still susceptible to sun-induced damage—such as sun spots and wrinkles—and cancer. In fact, while we are less likely to get skin diseases like melanoma, we're more likely to die from it.

So in order to prevent this from happening we must make sunscreen a part of our daily skin routine. Another struggle while looking for a sunscreen is finding on that won't leave you looking ashy so we've curated a list of melanin friendly sunscreens. It's recommended that Black Americans should wear a broad-spectrum, UVA/UVB sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15 .