Redhead-Approved Tips for More Fun in the Sun

Is the Sun Really So Bad?

I did a little research and this is what I found:

• Vitamin D, which assists in mineralizing the bones, is formed when the skin is exposed to sunshine.
• Sunshine increases the amount of iron in the blood. This creates a more “magnetic” presence, as is evident in the “well-tanned” look.
• Cancer rates in the USA are highest in the northern states with the least amount of sunshine.
• Rates of breast, prostate, ovarian, and colon cancer are the lowest in people with more exposure to sunshine.
• Sunshine exposure may reduce breast cancer up to 30-40%, and ovarian cancer by 80%.
• Sunshine-associated cancers (non-melanoma) increase most where sunscreens are heavily promoted.
• Sunshine raises positive moods in persons with SAD (seasonal affective disorder).
• Psoriatic skins lesions are reduced by sunshine.
• Direct sun exposure kills most forms of mold, fungus and yeast (athlete’s foot, candida etc..)
• Daily sunshine exposure normalizes hormone levels in both men and women.

So, regular exposure to sunshine can be extremely beneficial, assuming it’s done with safe moderation! The following ideas will help improve your ability to safely spend more time in the sun without damaging your skin.

Foods That Boost Your Natural Sun Protection

One of the most essential, but overlooked, factors in maintaining healthy, youthful skin and preventing sun-damaged skin, follow these three simple steps:

1. Get the idea of your skin being a non-stick baking tray.
2. Now consider your skin cells kinda like itsy bitsy cookies you’re baking.
3. Now think of your time in the sun, like turning the oven on to bake those cookies.

When you eat rancid oils, processed grains, and sugary food, your skin’s “cookies” become much less elastic, they’ll dry and crack and burn more quickly. They’ll also be more prone to blemishes like acne, age spots, psoriasis, eczema, etc. When you then lather on large doses of chemicals in your personal care products, a double layer of toxic sunscreen, then bake it all under the sun, you get skin the perfect conditions for skin cancer, premature aging and other signs of sun-damaged skin.

Avoid highly processed, genetically modified “vegetable” oils like soya, canola, corn and cottonseed. These oils limit your body’s ability to fight cancer and (In the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent Skin Cancer there’s not a single mention of the dietary connection, and yet what you eat is having a huge effect on how well your skin “bakes” in the sun!!)

Redhead-Approved Tricks for Healthy, Happy Fun in the Sun

Before I head out in the sun, I use our “Glow Getter” All-In-One Organic Skin Solution on my skin before going out in the sun and as an after-sun treatment. (You can also try just using coconut oil, jojoba oil, or other healthy vegetable oils.) The jojoba and coconut oil combination of oils can provide a protection comparable to SPF 8 or 10. This isn’t ideal for endless hours of direct midday exposure, but it gently nourishes and protects the skin without putting harmful chemicals on it.

Most times when you’re out in the sun, Nature isn’t too far away and you can get a decent amount of coverage with trees and natural shade to take a break from the heat of the sun.

Outside of beaches and open playing fields (or the dessert where often people who live there have a skin type to handle the sun and sleep during the heat of the day) Nature looks after us with natural shade!

Carry with you light, long-sleeved clothing, and a big, beautiful hat and you’ll be able to avoid toxic sunblock 95% of the time and keep your gorgeous, healthy, happy skin!

The second most important factor to consider regarding your skin’s offering to the sun is not just what you eat, but what you put on your skin.

Stop for a moment and think about all the moisturizers, face creams, cleansers, exfoliators, toners, body washes, perfumes, laundry detergents, wrinkle and pimple-banishing potions you use in a day. Many of them contain a toxic concoctions of chemicals that, when combined with the heat of the sun, make for something like a high risk high school science experiment happening on your body!

Naturally & Quickly Heal & Soothe Skin After Sun Exposure

In spite of what everyone says about fair-skinned folk like me, there are plenty of things you can do to improve your skin’s response to the sun and protect it without gooping on a toxic concoction of chemicals!

Sometimes, in spite of our efforts to avoid over-exposure to sun, it can happen that we get a little touch of lobster! When I’ve had more sun than I intended, I sponge and soak my skin in apple cider vinegar. I soak a face cloth and sponge my skin gently for about 10 minutes. This cools and refreshens the skin and relieves pain significantly. After that, I lather lavender-infused coconut oil (lavender is the essential oil for burns of any kind)  all over my skin and let it soak up every last drop! Then I lather on more!

Usually by morning, my skin is almost completely recovered. The following day I’ll be gentle with my exposure to the sun, but usually after that I won’t have any more trouble for the rest of the summer! It’s always best to gently, naturally build up your skin’s ability to have fun in the sun, but in these parts of the world, given how many months we go without sun, I sometimes get a bit over-enthusiastic and apple cider vinegar and coconut oil are there to back me up!

Sunscreens Disrupt Your Body’s Natural Communication System

The second most important factor to consider regarding your skin’s offering to the sun is not just what you eat, but what you put on your skin.

All the moisturizers, face creams, cleansers, exfoliators, toners, wrinkle and pimple banishing potions you use, contain a toxic concoction of chemicals that (when combined with the heat of the sun) make for something like a high risk high school chemistry class experiment on your face!

Unfortunately, driven by fear-based marketing about sun exposure, most women lather themselves in toxic chemicals that are far more harmful than gentle exposure to the sun!

Look at this “#1 dermatologist recommended” sunscreen that is “pure & free” with “naturally sourced” ingredients sold for use with babies: (Click on the image to see the ingredients in another window)

Retinyl palmitate, which is a form of Vitamin A, is suspected to increase skin cancer and tumors when exposed to sunlight! Oxybenzene is another ingredient commonly found in sunscreens which is harmless UNTIL exposed to sunlight, at which point it becomes highly carcinogenic! Check your own sunscreen ingredients at home and see if you can find “propylene glycol” (That’s antifreeze and should only be handled with gloves in a chemical plant!!)

When you put on sunscreen it anesthetizes the skin, so your ability to feel and know when you’re body has had enough is significantly reduced. By not putting on harmful sunscreens, your body has a much better chance of gently nudging you with a healthy shade of pink and warm heat to let you know that’s enough fun in the sun!

Warning: Sunscreen May Lead to Vitamin D Deficiency

The following risk factors increase your ability of being Vitamin D deficient:

• Aging (less vitamin D is produced in the skin as you age)
• Skin color (darker skinned individuals are more at risk as they need more sunlight to raise levels in the skin)
• Use of sunscreens dramatically increases your risk; it would be beneficial to go without sunscreen for about ten minutes of exposure so that vitamin D (actually a hormone) can begin production in the skin. Many studies are now showing that the chemical content in commercially-produced sunscreens actually contribute to the formation of cancerous cells in the skin.
• Latitude where you live (people living at higher latitudes make much less vitamin D because the wavelength of sunlight is insufficient)

What’s the Real Link Between The Sun & Cancer?

Considering that we evolved over millions of years to be outdoors, it’s not surprising that we need not only sunlight, but regular exposure to UV light as well. So inherently, it is strange that sunlight is now given such bad press. It is only recently in our evolution that we have stopped working on the land; unlike our predecessors, many of us are under cover for most of the day, except perhaps for our lunch hour, when, at the first sign of summer sun, we rush out to catch the strongest of the sun’s rays. Some of us then subject our skin to two weeks of sunbathing in warmer climates for our holidays, and this falls on the side of over-exposure.

The present-day fear of the sun is due to a rise in incidence of skin cancers, especially melanoma. However, the relationship between exposure to sunlight and skin cancer is not a simple one.

Melanomas (typically the name given to cancers of the skin) occur most often on the stomach and torso in men, and on the legs in women, areas of skin not as frequently exposed to the sun as the face and hands. Also since we now know Vitamin D is a powerful anti-cancer molecule it is not only necessary, in fact it can be dangerous, to completely avoid sun exposure.

Have More Fun in the Sun, Then Find Shade

I hope these tips have been helpful and that you enjoy soaking up all the benefits of natural, healthy sun exposure this summer! If you have questions about how to protect your skin in the sun, let us know in the comments below and we’ll do our best to answer them in our upcoming articles. Right now we’re busily working on an amazing Skin Care Secrets course, and we will be releasing this for FREE to our community soon! Stay tuned, and thanks again for being here!