There has been an explosion of sunscreens for Black skin in recent years, because new manufacturing technologies have opened up many more choices for women with darker skin tones. These are developments we should all wholeheartedly celebrate.
For the most part, gone are the heavy, thick and gloopy suncreams that would not only just sit on top of skin, but also leave Black skin with a ghostly ashy cast. This used to make educating women of colour on the importance of sunscreen a hard task – no one wanted to look like a second rate ghost version of themselves.
Alongside this, there was also the rather damaging narrative that Black and brown skin doesn’t need sunscreen, because of the presence of melanin – the pigment which gives Black skin its colour and forms an inbuilt protective cloak that absorbs most of the destructive sun rays that can lead to diseases like skin cancer. This couldn’t be further from the truth, because darker skin tones are also susceptible to the damaging effects of the sun. Research shows that because of melanin, on average Black skin has a natural SPF 13.4 which is definitely a head start but totally not enough. Enter: the best sunscreens for dark skin.
Darker skin tones need protection especially from UVA rays which age the skin and exacerbate common Black skin complaints such as hyperpigmentation and melasma. Likewise, to a lesser extent UVB rays burn the skin and also affect darker skin tones by fuelling malignant DNA and cellular damage. Whilst the statistics are lower for the Black community, it is still possible for Black skin to develop both sun related and non sun related skin cancers.
So, I would always advice to apply sunscreen for Black skin daily and even on cloudy days and when at home as UVA rays can penetrate through glass and are around us regardless of the weather. Believe or not, now that the world has opened up again and we’re all back to frequent flying, it’s important to apply sunscreen on the plane – UVA rays do come through the windows and at 35,000 feet they are significantly more intense.
With this in mind, here’s a round up of best sunscreens for Black skin from Dija herself and some of the GLAMOUR team…
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