With Memorial Day celebrations at the end of this week, the 2016 summer season officially begins. Dr. Orlando Ciclioni and his staff see it also as the beginning of the most dangerous time in Florida for exposing your skin to the damaging rays of the sun.
A Mini-Case Study
Golden haired, fair-skinned Haley was astonished that a beauty mark mole on her on the inside of her upper arm was diagnosed as melanoma, the most dreaded form of skin cancer. She trembled with fear and outrage, “But I used sunscreen,” she said tearfully. ”
The truth is, she did not use her sunscreen; she abused her sunscreen—and you might be doing the same things this week-end at your Memorial Day picnic.
Avoid her mistakes, and be aware of the 6 ways Orlando Cosmetic Surgery Med Spa staff are seeing people abuse their sunscreen:
1. The 30 Minute Rule: Sunscreen takes 30 minutes to activate properly once it is applied to your skin. Don’t wait until too late. When you put on your swimsuit or cute summer clothes, put on your sunscreen indoors, out of the sun.
Do not wait until you have put your towel down on the beach! Dr. Jeannette Graf, MD, assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, stated “You actually want to apply your sunscreen 30 minutes prior to exposure.”
2. Wear Your Birthday Suit! Many people are unaware that sunscreen does not work effectively if it is not applied nude. You are not protected if you just slap it up the hems of your clothing.
3. Stay Alert When You Apply It! Melanoma can seek and destroy some strange places on your skin. The beams of the summer sun can probe into the tiny spots you do not protect.
Orlando Cosmetic Surgery Med Spa reminds you: Smoothly cover your toes, and feet, inside, bottom, back and top. Also, slather the sunscreen onto your underarm area as well as inside each upper arm and do not forget the back of your neck.
By the way, sunscreen for your body is very different from the formula for your face. Apply facial sunscreen all the way up to your hairline, around your ears and on your eyelids. Plus, lips demand their own high SPF lip balm.
4. Set A Sun Alarm. Many true confessions from sunscreen companies claim only 30 minutes of active protection. Some sunscreen is effective for an hour. Reapply it if you are slick with sweat or soaked in water. Note that if you wipe down your sweat, you lose your sunscreen.
No two-hour post-barbecue naps for your Memorial Day!
During your nap, if you must sleep in the sun, have a Designated Driver for your sunscreen bottle wake you for reapplication after no more than 45 minutes.
5. Clouds and Window Tint Are Not Sunscreen. If you cruise around under a cloudy sky, the sun can still hurt you.
Window tint is very limited in its protection; yes, you should wear sunscreen in the car. You see, if melanoma or sun damage doesn’t attack you, premature aging will, so make your sunny holiday safe!
6. You only have one skin—be generous to it! Don’t give skin cells too little too late. If you must use a spray, coat yourself with it twice, and spray no more than six inches from your skin. Spray in each spot until you actually see it on your skin.
You might as well know that the life of a bottle of the active ingredients in sunscreen is only a year, so slather it on thickly!
Orlando Cosmetic Surgery wishes you a Happy, Skin-Safe Memorial Day Week-end!
We know picnics, barbecues and outdoor trips are the heart-beat of this All American Holiday, but let us not forget the prime reason for establishing this holiday.
Memorial Day was created as a time for honoring the soldiers who gave their lives to defend American freedom. We hope you will take the time to lay a flower on a hero’s grave, and perhaps remember the
Words of President Ronald Reagan:
“Yet, we must try to honor them—not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, to battle and to final sacrifice.
Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough:
The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper.
Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden.
And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we—in a less final, less heroic way—be willing to give of ourselves.”
