Do You Know the Difference between UVA and UVB Sun Protection?

Want to make the best of the remain­ing days of sum­mer and have a good time out in the sun? When you shop for the right sun­screen for your next beach trip, do you know what labels you should watch out for? Do you know the dif­fer­ence between UVA and UVB pro­tec­tion? What prod­ucts could pro­vide you with both UVA and UVB protection?

Earlier we talked about how to avoid pre­ma­turely aging skin like Lindsay Lohan's from September 17, 2009  and Facepanda has also been covering a ton of celebrities being horrifying sun toasted. But still, at times you look at a bot­tle of sun­screen with 5 dif­fer­ent acronyms with lit­tle or no expla­na­tion, it is very, very con­fus­ing. Here we will talk a lit­tle about the dif­fer­ence between UVA and UVB sun pro­tec­tion, and prod­ucts with both UVA and UVB sun pro­tec­tion, so that you will be able to fully and safely enjoy your time under the sun.

What is the dif­fer­ence between UVA and UVB in sun protection?

  • Both are UV radi­a­tion from the sun but at dif­fer­ent wavelengths
  • Unlike UVB rays, UVA radi­a­tion lev­els have small fluc­tu­a­tions dur­ing the day, and are present from sun­rise to sun­set every day, all year round, even in the win­ter and on cloudy days, and over time can lead to skin cancer.
  • UVA is the anti aging ray while UVB causes pho­toag­ing and tan­ning ray.
  • Experts say up to 80% of skin aging is due to UVA rays.
    Over 30 years, the left side of this teacher’s face aged faster due to UVA expo­sure through a win­dow in her class­room. Just com­pare the two sides!  UVA rays are 30–50 times more preva­lent and present with rel­a­tively equal inten­sity dur­ing all day­light hours through­out the year, and can pen­e­trate clouds and glass.
  • UVA rays have been linked to skin can­cer.
    There is sig­nif­i­cant sci­en­tific evi­dence that UVA rays con­tribute to skin can­cer by sup­press­ing the immune system.
  • UVA pen­e­trates deeper into the skin to the der­mis where con­nec­tive tis­sue and blood ves­sels exist. The result is a loss of elas­tic­ity that causes the skin to sag, wrin­kle, and age pre­ma­turely.  UVB stays at epi­der­mis level and results in sun­tan­ning, red­ness and sunburns.
What prod­ucts have both UVA and UVB protection?

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