Sunscreen for dark skin: Do you really need it?

Before we dive into why sun­screen is impor­tant for peo­ple with dark skin, you may be curi­ous to know where the ​‘peo­ple with dark skin don’t need sun­screen’ myth came from in the first place.

It all stems from the fact that peo­ple with dark­er com­plex­ions pro­duce more melanin (the pig­ment that gives skin its colour) than those with lighter skin. Melanin helps to pro­tect the skin against the sun by absorb­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing the harm­ful UV radi­a­tion in the sur­face lay­ers, reduc­ing the risk of cel­lu­lar dam­age that can lead to skin cancer.

Although increased melanin in dark­er skin types offers some low lev­el pro­tec­tion, it is cer­tain­ly not a com­plete bar­ri­er against sun dam­age or skin cancer.

Here’s the bot­tom line: if you have skin, you need sunscreen

Regard­less of your skin tone, you need at least SPF 30 pro­tec­tion to guard your skin against harm­ful UV rays. At MoleMap skin cancer clinic, we rec­om­mend that all peo­ple wear SPF 50 sun­screen for the best pro­tec­tion against skin cancer.

If you avoid using sun­screen, your skin can­cer risk increas­es sig­nif­i­cant­ly. Skip­ping sun­screen can also lead to oth­er unde­sir­able skin con­cerns in dark­er com­plex­ions such as pre­ma­ture age­ing, sun spots, wrin­kles and hyperpigmentation.

Invis­i­ble sun­screen goes on clear — or more accu­rate­ly, almost clear — when applied to the skin, mak­ing it a great option to avoid a white cast or pur­ple tinge on dark skin. This type of sun­screen uses zinc oxide nanopar­ti­cles so they are hard­er to see when they are spread onto the sur­face of the skin.

While invis­i­ble sun­screens may not be com­plete­ly trans­par­ent on all dark­er skin types, they will often leave a much more seam­less or sheer finish.

Min­er­al sun­screen uses min­er­al ingre­di­ents such as zinc oxide and tita­ni­um diox­ide that sit on the skin’s sur­face, cre­at­ing a phys­i­cal bar­ri­er against the sun’s harm­ful UV rays. Chem­i­cal sun­screens, on the oth­er hand, absorb into the skin and con­vert UV rays into heat then release them from the body.

While chem­i­cal sun­screens tend to be eas­i­er to rub in on dark­er skin types, min­er­al for­mu­las are less like­ly to clog your pores or irri­tate your skin. Min­er­al sun­screens can some­times leave a white cast on dark skin so it may be help­ful to look for for­mu­la­tions com­bined with light-weight mois­turis­ers or serums like hyaluron­ic acid. These for­mu­las will often have a thin­ner con­sis­ten­cy, designed to rub in smooth­ly and dry clear — per­fect for all day, every day wear.

Tint­ed sun­screen comes in dif­fer­ent skin-coloured shades (rather than the stan­dard white for­mu­la) to bet­ter match your skin tone while still pro­vid­ing high lev­el sun pro­tec­tion. Tint­ed sun­screen also helps to even out your skin tone if you suf­fer with blem­ish­es or hyper­pig­men­ta­tion. This makes it a great option for when you want some cov­er­age but don’t feel like wear­ing a heavy, full face of make up.

It can be dif­fi­cult to find a per­fect match when it comes to tint­ed sun­screen, espe­cial­ly for those with dark­er com­plex­ions. How­ev­er, most beau­ty coun­ters and skin­care stores that sell tint­ed sun­screens for dark skin offer free sam­ples or in-store testers to help you find a shade and for­mu­la that suits your skin best.

Those with dark skin are not immune to the risks of sun expo­sure. Even if you have a dark­er com­plex­ion, it’s still cru­cial to be proac­tive about your sun pro­tec­tion to reduce your risk of devel­op­ing skin cancer.

Sun pro­tec­tion tips for dark skin

Some of the best ways to pro­tect dark skin from the sun’s harm­ful UV rays include:

• Using a broad spec­trum SPF 50 sun­screen, spe­cial­ly for­mu­lat­ed for dark skin tones
• Wear­ing sun pro­tec­tive cloth­ing, includ­ing UPF 50+ hats and sunglasses
• Seek­ing shade and avoid­ing direct sun expo­sure dur­ing peak UV periods

Do peo­ple with dark skin need reg­u­lar skin checks?

Yes! In addi­tion to appro­pri­ate sun pro­tec­tion, dark­er-skinned peo­ple should also check their skin reg­u­lar­ly to mon­i­tor for changes, such as:

• New moles or spots on your skin
• Moles or skin spots that are chang­ing in size, shape or colour
• Moles or skin spots that have become rough, raised or scaly
• Moles or skin spots that are itchy, irri­tat­ed or bleeding.
  

Peo­ple with dark skin are often more prone to devel­op­ing melanomas or oth­er skin can­cers in unusu­al places, such as under the fin­ger­nails or on the soles of the feet. This fac­tor may also play a role in why skin can­cers often aren’t diag­nosed until lat­er stages in peo­ple of colour.

One of the best ways for dark­er-skinned peo­ple to avoid this out­come and catch any hid­den skin can­cers ear­ly is to get a pro­fes­sion­al skin can­cer check at least once a year. With a com­pre­hen­sive mole check like our Full Body MoleMap, a trained melanog­ra­ph­er can com­plete a thor­ough check of your skin from head-to-toe and eas­i­ly spot any sus­pi­cious spots on your body.