Whether you are serious about caring your skin or not, i think you must have heard about sunscreen products. Because sunscreen products are very common and popular skin care products now a days. These products are used to protect our skin from the harmful effects caused by sun rays in case of over or moderate exposure to the sun.
When you buy a sunscreen product i think you look for the followings:
- SPF value
- UVA/UVB protection or wide spectrum protection
- Water resistivity and not to mention the brand of the product
On the labels of the good products SPF value are given clearly. You must have seen values like; “SPF15″ or “SPF30″ or “SPF50″ or something like that. But do you know what does SPF mean and what that numbers after SPF (15, 30 etc) means? You don’t have to know the meaning of these things to use sunscreen 
But a basic understanding of these things will help you more to choose the right product.
So what is SPF and what does the value means anyway? SPF stands for “Sun Protection Factor”. It is a numerical measurement of effectiveness of sunscreen against the sun rays especially against the UV-B ray. This UV-B ray causes sunburn on our skin and in case of over exposure to sun it may cause skin cancer also. The numbers “15″, “30″ etc indicates the numerical value of SPF. The higher the value of the SPF the higher is the effectiveness of protecting the skin from UV-B rays. As far as i know no measurement such as SPF has been introduced to measure the effectiveness of protection against UV-A rays. One thing to mention here that SPF value is not given to the sunscreen products only. Sometimes on the labels of other skin care products like skin whitening or brightening products you may see SPF. For those products the meaning of SPF is same like the sunscreen products.
So what number of SPF you should choose? Well the lowest value of SPF is 2 and the highest number is not fixed because almost in each year a sunscreen product with a higher number is being marketed. Now there is sunscreen product having SPF value of 100. But does it mean that you need to use a sunscreen product of SPF 100 to be best protected? . In fact a product of SPF15 or SPF30 has the capability to protect your skin from over 90% of UV-B rays. Higher SPF product will give you higher amount of protection, but difference is not that much significant. The difference may become even less if they are applied on skin for a long time.
Don’t bother yourself about the SPF value of a sunscreen product when you buy one. Choose a product with a standard or common SPF value. Because the effectiveness of the sunscreen will largely depend on how long you are staying under sun, at what time you are staying and also in which region you are staying. Apply a sunscreen product that suits you. If one doesn’t suit you apply another. And if you have time and interest consult a skin specialist for getting suggestions about specific product or specific SPF value that will suit your skin best.
Taking care of skin is important if you want to achieve overall fitness and not to mention wellness. Take care of your skin. Protect your skin from sunburn and skin cancer with the best options you have.
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Ehsan
Visit skin care section of increase-fitness.com to get info and tips about skin and skin care.