[sun care] You only need sunscreen if the UV rating is 3 or higher.

Beauty Tips For Body Care
Hey, I've seen a lot of stuff in SCA about how you need to wear sunscreen every single day regardless of weather. While I do agree that the weather being overcast/rainy/etc. doesn't mean you shouldn't wear sunscreen, depending on where you live there is no need to wear sunscreen every day.From wikipedia: The ultraviolet index is an international standard measurement of the strength of sunburn-producing ultraviolet (UV) radiation at a particular place and time. The UV Index is designed as an open-ended linear scale, directly proportional to the intensity of UV radiation that causes sunburn on human skin. For example, if a light-skinned individual (without sunscreen) begins to sunburn in 30 minutes at UV Index 6, then that individual should expect to sunburn in about 15 minutes at UV Index 12 – twice the UV, twice as fast. The purpose of the UV Index is to help people effectively protect themselves from UV radiation. Public health organizations recommend that people protect themselves (for example, by applying sunscreen to the skin and wearing a hat and sunglasses) if they spend substantial time outdoors when the UV Index is 3 or higher.Here is a graph showing that the UV index is generally lower in winter: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/UV_Index_NYC.png/1200px-UV_Index_NYC.pngHere is a breakdown of the UV index which runs from 1 to 11+: https://www.epa.gov/sunsafety/uv-index-scale-1. It recommends that if you burn especially easily you should apply sunscreen even when the UV index is low, but for the majority of people, a UV index of <2 is safe.If you want a way to track the UV index in your area hour by hour, I really like the app UVLens, in which you can input your location and check the UV index, but there are tonnes of similar apps. I check the app every morning and see what the UV index will be when I'm outside, and if it goes above 2 I put on sunscreen. Otherwise I don't bother.I just wanted to share this because I see a lot of fear mongering about the sun and it's time we took a more scientific approach to the issue. Obviously to each their own etc. etc. etc. but them's the facts.
Girls Blog 2015
Submitted by alyaaz