Why Sun Protection Clothing is Better than Sunscreen

As more and more people become aware that sun protection clothing is available, the great debate begins: is clothing or sunscreen better?  Of course the best solution is to use both of them because they both play an important but different role in sun protection.  So why isn't pairing that teeny tiny bikini with an entire bottle of sunscreen enough?  Here are four ways sun protective clothing is a better option than sunscreen:

You aren't rubbing chemicals right into your skin.  Sunscreen is made from extremely harsh chemicals that are engineered to reflect UV radiation away from the skin, but you have to rub these chemicals into your skin and let them be absorbed into your body.  That doesn't sound like a very healthful way to beat radiation.

You get better protection.  Sun protection clothing comes with a UPF, or ultraviolet protection factor, while sunscreen is rated according to SPF, or sun protection factor.  UPF measures protection against both UVA and UVB rays, both of which can be harmful to your skin, but SPF measures only protection against UVB rays.  A broad spectrum sunscreen can help protect against both types of radiation, but there is not yet a standard way to measure levels of UVA protection in sunscreen.

Clothing doesn't wash off or fade away.  You are much more aware of how much skin you are baring to the sun when you depend on clothing to protect your skin, but it's easy to forget to reapply sunscreen after an hour or two and difficult to know when exactly it wore off.

Swimsuits and clothing manufactured from sun protective materials will lose less UPF when wet than those that are not made to protect against the sun.  Scientists do not know why wet clothing doesn't protect against the sun as well as dry clothing, but this is less of an issue with UV protective clothing, which has been engineered to protect through all scenarios.

So why spend the extra money on UV protective clothing instead of just wearing regular clothes?  The answer is simple.  According to the a scientific study performed by the International UV Testing Lab, a standard white t-shirt was found to have a UPF rating of only five and actually let in more than 15 percent of UVB rays and more than 13 percent of UVA rays.  Meanwhile, a white t-shirt that was specifically manufactured to be sun protective had a UPF rating of 10 and kept out more than 80 percent of both UVA and UVB rays.  The scientific evidence definitely shows why it's worth the time and money to look for UV protective clothing.