Sun Safety Tips for All Seasons: Why UPF Clothing Matters Year-Round
While it seems obvious to protect your skin from the sun during summer, what may not be super apparent is that you actually need to keep practicing those sun safety tips all year round.
The truth is that the sun's ultraviolet rays can harm your skin during any month, so protecting your skin from UV rays is not just something you should do while on vacation or during the summertime.
Today, we go over some helpful sun safety tips for each season and explain why you should wear UPF clothing and swimwear year-round.
Understanding UV Radiation and How it Works
Before we dive into the importance of UPF clothing throughout the year, it's crucial to understand why sun protection is needed all year long. To help you understand why, we're going to go over the different types of UV rays.
UV radiation from the sun comes in two primary forms: UVA and UVB.
UVA rays have a longer wavelength, are associated with skin aging, and can penetrate windows and clouds. They are present with relatively equal intensity during all seasons.
UVB rays are responsible for causing sunburns and play a more significant role in the summer months when the sun is at its peak. However, they are still present during other times of the year.
According to the Skin Cancer Foundation, UV radiation is a proven human carcinogen which can cause basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, cancers which often appear on sun-exposed areas of skin. When found and treated early these types of skin cancer are usually curable.
UV exposure that leads to sunburns can lead to melanoma, which is a more dangerous type of skin cancer.
Sun Safety Tips for Each Season
While it's recommended to wear sun-protective clothing and swimwear with a high UPF rating as well as broad-spectrum sunscreen during every season, here are some tips on what types of clothing/swimwear are best suited for each part of the year.
Fall Sun Safety Tips
As this season is generally cooler for most people, remembering sun-protective clothing is important. It can be easy to think "it's cloudy outside, so I don't need to wear sunscreen or anything with a UPF rating," but this isn't true.
Remember: you can get sunburned when it's cloudy outside.
We recommend wearing the following during the cooler fall months:
- Long-sleeve UPF 50+ shirts
- UPF 50+ jackets
- Broad-spectrum, high SPF sunscreen (re-apply every 2 hours)
- Wide-brim UPF 50+ sun hat
Winter Sun Safety Tips
Remember that UV rays reflect off of snow, so be careful during this season! If you're playing in the snow, snowboarding, skiing, or whatever it is you like to do during wintertime, don't forget the broad-spectrum sunscreen and sun protective clothing and gear.
- Sun-protective neck gaiters
- Polarized sunglasses/goggles
- Long-sleeve UPF 50+ shirts
- Sun sleeves and gloves
- Broad-spectrum, high SPF sunscreen (re-apply every 2 hours)
Spring Sun Safety Tips
By the time Spring comes around, most of us are so ready for sunshine that we don't wear sunscreen or protect our skin with UPF clothing when we go outside. Be careful during this time as this puts you at a higher risk of damaging your skin, getting sunburnt, and, potentially, getting skin cancer.- UPF 50+ sun wraps
- Sun hats
- Sun protective pants
- UPF 50+ dresses
- Broad-spectrum, high SPF sunscreen (re-apply every 2 hours)
Summer Sun Safety Tips
UV rays tend to be the most intense during the hot summer months. This is where the sun's rays are strongest as the sun is directly overhead, so UV rays travel a much shorter distance to get through earth's atmosphere.
During this time of the year, wearing sun-protective swimwear, broad-spectrum sunscreen, and avoiding the sun during peak UV hours is key.
Here are some tips of what we'd suggest wearing during this season:
- UPF 50+ swimsuits
- Sun-protective board shorts
- Sun hats
- UPF 50+ swim shirts
- Broad-spectrum, high SPF sunscreen (re-apply every 2 hours)
UV Skinz's UPF Clothing Recommendations for Year Round Sun Protection
Women's Bestsellers
Men's Bestsellers
Kids' Bestsellers
Baby Bestsellers
Our UPF swimwear is actually called sun wear/swimwear as it can be worn either out and about or in the water. This makes our bestsellers the perfect year-round sun protective apparel for the entire family!
Stay up to date on the latest UPF fashion trends all year long today. We've got you covered all year round.
