It’s easy to think that skin cancer won’t happen to you. Some of us are more susceptible than others, but we won’t know until we know. Take care of your body (and avoid hyper pigmentation issues) now by following these tips for skin cancer prevention!
Here’s three easy ways to protect yourself from skin cancer:
Wear sun protection every single day (no matter the weather)
Like many, you might not like the thought of wearing gross SPF, but not all SPF is created equally! There’s different textures and even different shades of tinted sunscreen so you don’t get any white cast. You can even find sunscreen that doesn’t have that typical sunscreen smell you remember as a child.
The sun’s rays age us. SPF keeps us looking younger, longer. When finding a good SPF, be aware of misleading marketing and carcinogenic ingredients. I only recommend active ingredients: zinc oxide and titanium dioxide. Be aware the cancer causing ingredient Benzene.
Wear a hat or protective clothing while in the sun
SPF only protects for so many hours before you need to reapply. If you’re not going to be able to reapply every two hours, then wear a hat or sun clothes for extra protection!
Don’t ever go in a tanning bed
Like me, you probably think “a couple times won’t hurt” – but I was gravely wrong. I went tanning probably less than 30 times ever, and I now have had two huge chunks of skin taken out (one had to be done by a plastic surgeon) and countless moles removed. The process of that was not fun and the scars are not pretty. Now I have to go get checked twice a year and continue to get mole after mole taken off and checked for cancer. Don’t be naive like me – avoid tanning beds at all costs.
*I am not a doctor and cannot prescribe anything to you. Doing these things above is not a guarantee of avoiding skin cancer in your lifetime.