Protecting Your Skin While Gardening

I have to admit, when I’m out in my garden, or just doing general yard work, the temptation is there to slather on some sort of tanning lotion rather than a good sunblock, but ultimately, I know that not putting that sunblock on will make my skin look older, drier, and also give me age spots and discoloration, and I’d much rather have youthful looking skin without age spots well into my forties rather than look tan now.  That’s what self tanners are for anyways!

Here’s the precautions I now take, after stupidly burning my shoulders and arms the first time I went out in the strong hot sun this summer without enough protection.  I always wear gardening gloves.  Believe it or not, you hands do sweat, and when they sweat, it wears off your sunscreen really fast.  Not to metion the fact that your hands usually get the most dirt and grime and general wetness on them when you’re working outside, all of which generally deplete the effectiveness or completely render your sunscreen ineffective. 

Gloves not only protect your hands from dirt and grime, they also protect them from the sun.  Also, wear a good SPF lip balm.  I prefer plain old cherry chapstick because it’s more waxen and tends to stick to your lips like glue for a long time rather than melt right off in the heat like some of the more emollient lip balms with SPF in them.  Your lips do burn, and you will noticed they’ll be dried out for days if you do not protect them from the sun’s UV rays. 

Wear a hat.  This will help shield you face from the sun, as well as shield the top of your head from the sun.  Why is this important?  Well, because the top of your head will burn.  I’ve actually had the top of my head burn several times, right where the part is, because it’s not typically an area that you would think would need sun protection, so it gets burnt a lot more than people realize.