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Have you had your first face lift yet? Laser? Any treatment for your face?
I was discussing my blog with my dermatologist, a top doctor recently written up in W Magazine, Dr. Peter Kopelson, Beverly Hills, California. He knows I lost my husband to skin cancer.
I asked him if he had written any articles on caring for your skin after laser. He said he didn’t have anything he could get his hands on that second, but, he added, “anytime you do anything to your face, it needs time to heal, and sun protection is critical.”
In fact, in addition to the recognition of the importance of sun protection after losing my husband to skin cancer, the second reason why I developed my products (UV umbrellas and hats) was because my plastic surgeon said after my laser treatment that I needed to stay out of the sun, to which I replied, “I can’t do that. I have a dog and he needs to be walked.”
But I can tell you that for me laser was no fun at all, and there was no way I wasn’t going to protect myself. But how? At that time, there were no UV umbrellas or hats, or at least I wasn’t aware of them.
And then I got an idea. I opened up the trunk of my car and looked for a beautiful red rain umbrella that I had given my mother decades before for Mother’s Day, and decided to use that. It was very feminine. As I walked under this gorgeous, red umbrella, women came to me from all sides of the street … sometimes three different women at the same time, asking me where I got this gorgeous umbrella (I continue to try to reproduce it, but China has yet to “get” it). And my need, plus their enthusiasm, were influencing factors of my developing UV umbrellas.
Sun protection in winter? You don’t even need to think about it if:
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You’re using sunscreen once a day if you’re just going from the car to work
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You’re using sunscreen several times a day if you’re skiing, and not just on your face but on your ears and neck
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You realize you need this protection even in a blizzard!
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You realize that you need this protection even if it’s cloudy (UV rays penetrate light clouds)
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You recognize that if you’re in high altitude you can burn faster than on a beach
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98% of the glare from sunlight on snow can be filtered out by wearing UV glasses and that this is important because many eye diseases – as well as cancers around the eyes – can occur if you don’t.
If you’re doing all this, give yourself a great big hug and congratulations! You’re in the minority now, but if you share this with friends someday you may be in the majority.
Ever want to pretend something isn’t there that is? We all have – to some degree or another. But in the case of melanoma, the person you’re most trying to fool is you, and it can cost you your life.
And what about the people around you … your wife or husband? Your children? Others who are close to you? You don’t just take one life; you take everybody with you, not in terms of life lost, maybe, but in terms of utter heartbreak.
How can you prevent this? Let us count the ways.
1. If you see a mole or something suspicious, get it checked out! This is your best insurance that your chances of getting skin cancer will be reduced.
2. Check it out yourself. Look at yourself, your spouse, your kids once a month in front of a long mirror and in good light. Grab the dog and check him out too while you’re at it! If you’ve got a light-haired dog, he can get skin cancer, too. (Of course you’ll be taking him to a different doctor).
3. Exactly what is the cost? Nobody can say exactly what it means to see a loved one suffer, or know, sooner or later you will lose that loved one. Nobody can say exactly how extended family and friends will feel when they find out someone with whom they built a loving, trusting relationship held this back from them. And no one can possibly say what heartbreak this will bring to the man or woman left behind. Simply, it’s so much easier to protect yourself. Isn’t it?
What else can I do to prevent this? Use sunscreen, but don’t rely on it alone. Use UV accessories such as UV Hats with a 3-4” brim (covers your neck, your ears, your eyes and your face). UV Umbrellas cover even more of you.
Where can I get more information? The Skin Cancer Foundation and American Cancer Society are good places to start.
It’s temping to avoid something about which we’re frightened. It’s human. But if you’ve done everything you can, you’ll never have to feel guilty or regretful – toward yourself, toward loved ones. And that is a blessing in itself.
You can’t buy good health, or can you?
In the case of skin cancer, you can buy good health, or at least good prevention, and for very little. I’m specifically referring to things you can do on your own.
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Examine your skin every month. Your entire body. Look for very dark or irregular moles or even tiny specks.
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Use-use-use sunscreen. What makes sunscreen effective isn’t only what’s in it. It’s how it’s applied. Most people apply it once a day, if at all. If needs to be reapplied every 2 hours. If you don’t apply it properly, you’re not using your full chunk of armor.
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Protect your eyes. Use UV Sunglasses. And make sure you protect around the eyes. Ophthalmologists recommend a UV hat or UV Umbrella for this purpose.
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Get sun protective clothing. You won’t always find fabrics that feel good to your skin. But do the research. There are many companies making UV clothing today and eventually you will find something acceptable.
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Accessories to block the UV rays. There are a range of accessories, from UV head scarves to UV hats and UV umbrellas. You can find accessories that fit in with your lifestyle.
So, go out and buy yourself some good health. It won’t be expensive and it could save your life.
Lynn Rose is the founder of Soleil Chic UV Umbrellas and UV Hats. After losing her husband, Jerry, to skin cancer, she became passionate about creating “UV Protection with Style”. Her umbrellas have been seen on the Today show, endorsed by top doctors and seen in the hands of celebrities. Actress, Cate Blanchett took her umbrellas to Morocco. For more UV information, visit her website at www.soleilchic.com
Who doesn’t want to look healthy, sexy, thin? Yes, even thin. At least that’s what we were told some five decades ago. We even poured on baby oil to make us tan faster. But dying for the perfect tan was never in the bargain because we didn’t know that could happen.
Today, most of us know there’s danger lurking out there. And what do we do about it? We go to sun tanning salons and roast under sun lamps (which, by the way, are far worse than a day at the beach). We also go to the beach. Oh yes, we use our sunblock…maybe. We might go in the water, but do we reapply sunscreen afterward? Most likely, no.
And, at the same time, interestingly enough, we get our faces lasered, lifted, polished, oxygenized and more which makes us even more sensitive to the damaging rays of the sun, but does that knowledge stop us from excessive sun exposure? Some of us, yes.
But there are so many of us not paying heed. Why?
There are probably as many different reasons as there are people, but incomplete knowledge about how to really protect yourself is a major one.
What came to mind while writing this was my attempts to be a skier decades ago at Sun Valley, Idaho. I was doing some exploring of the west on a Greyhound bus, and thought how fun it would be to get a job in this resort town for the winter. I wasn’t thinking about skiing; I was thinking about meeting some terrific men who came there to ski.
It was nearing the fall and all the jobs I could think of were taken. The Greyhound bus would be stopping any minute and I’d get on it and return to Los Angeles.
Within five minutes, I did find work . . . right next door to the coffee shop I was waiting in. I worked at night singing and playing the piano (after 3 weeks of piano lessons) in the bar right next door. I had the day to myself … every single day.
After 3 or 4 days, I was going nuts having all this time on my hands and all of a sudden it occurred to me that if I was going to stay here, I should take lessons and learn how to ski! The only problem was that I was not at all athletic, and I was terrified of skiing after the one experience I had had at a local mountain resort skiing over the edge of a hill. I was in a class, but somehow hadn’t gotten the concept of how to stop myself.
Well, I decided to take lessons, anyway. And each time before I went up the mountain, I made a bargain with God (and I was not religious). If you get me down the hill this one time, I will never ski again. Well, this sounds pretty stupid, but I did it nonetheless. And somehow each time I went up I made it back down again.
That’s what I think happens with skin cancer. What’s a few hours in the sun? It feels so good and I’m young. If and when I ever get it, they’ll probably have developed a cure. I’m so young and it’s mostly old people who get it. Who cares what happens to me then? A bargain, a rationale, whatever you want to call it.
Protecting yourself is so easy. Use a good sunscreen (one that protects against A and B rays) and reapply it often, wear a UV hat, protective clothing, and stay out of the sun in peak hours. And the money you would use in a tanning salon … which will do a lot more damage than a day at the beach…save it for a vacation or something that will enrich your life, not something that could shorten it.
Lynn Rosenberg lost her husband to skin cancer and has made it her mission to educate and inform consumers about sun protection. She has also created a line of UV Umbrellas and Hats. For more information, visit: www.soleilchic.com
It only took 30 years. But better late than never.
The FDA’s ruling is now a done deal. They now require more accurate detailing of what protection each sunscreen really gives.
In addition, the FDA alerts consumers, “Sunscreen alone will not protect you,” and added, “Sunscreen is only one part of a sun protection regimen,” and they recommend, in addition to sunscreen, that we use protective clothing [UV Hats and by extension UV Umbrellas].
Many of us have the mistaken belief that if we’re just going from the car to the office, or the car to the market, it’s such a short time that protection is unnecessary. But short times accumulate and everything we can do to protect ourselves against the sun’s damaging rays helps.
5 TIPS YOU MAY NOT KNOW:
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Sunscreen wears off, rubs off, sweats off. For it to be effective, we need to reapply it often.
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Sun tanning salons are more dangerous than the sun itself. A 20 minute visit to the booth is equivalent to spending a day at the beach. Medindia.com.
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Some medications can make you more sensitive to the UV rays. Be sure to check your prescription; there will be a warning on the label if this is so.
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If you really want a tan, get yourself some sunless tanning lotion. You’ll get the look you want without the risk.
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Reflection adds to the intensity of the UV rays. If you’re in snow, you need to protect yourself as much or more so than if you’re at the beach.
One more tip: share this information with friends. They could live to thank you for it one day.
Lynn Rosenberg lost her husband to skin cancer. She has made it her mission to educate people regarding the importance of sun protection and creates, designs and manufactures UV accessories. Visit: www.soleilchic.com for more information.
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