The TRUTH about Sunscreen 

Alright so a couple missed factors here: -The reason American sunscreens only reduce half of UV exposure lies in the restrictions imposed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Sunscreen is categorized as a drug in the U.S., and the FDA maintains a very strict and specific list of approved ingredients. Unfortunately, this list hasn't been updated since the 1990s, forcing formulators to comply with outdated research. In contrast, most Asian countries continue to research sun damage every year, allowing them to develop more advanced, effective, and not to mention, comfy sunscreen formulations. -While American sunscreens must pass a broad-spectrum test to prove they protect against both UVB and UVA rays, there's still no standardized rating system for measuring UVA protection factor in America. In comparison, Asian countries use the PA+ system (with PA++++ offering the highest level of UVA protection). The U.S. has no equivalent to this rating system. - You SHOULD wear sunscreen even when the sun isn't directly shining if the UV Index is high enough to cause damage. Your weather app can tell you this. But yes, you don't really have to if you're staying indoors the whole day and you're not going out. Basically, this video only accurately addresses American-made sunscreens, which most skin-care enthusiasts generally avoid like the plague.

Pale skin wasn’t seen as better because of racism but classism. People who were laborers were darker from working outside.

All dermatologists, yes I mean ALL, recommend sunscreen as the most vital step in one’s skincare routine. UV rays is the number one aging factor for our skin.

Some corrections: SPF does not mean how much longer you can stay in the sun. That's because they get this number from testing how much longer it takes your skin to get red in the lab, where there is consistent UV output and an even 2mg of sunscreen applied per cm of skin. In the real world though, uv rays vary widely throughout the day and most people aren't going to be wearing 2mg per cm. Also higher SPF DOES make a significant difference and studies where they have people where 50 spf on one half of their face and 100 spf on the other side have shown this. Most people see SPF 50 blocks 98% of rays and SPF 100 blocks 99% so it's only 1% more effective, but if you think from the other direction, SPF 100 lets in 1% of rays and SPF 50 lets in 2%, then you can see how much more effective SPF 100 is. These are super common myths so not surprised you made the mistakes, but you can check out Lab Muffin Beauty's video "is higher SPF better" video or her sunscreen myths videos.

at 6:50, hyram is NOT a dermatologist. There are so many actual dermatologists, and you chose someone with no qualifications to feature in that panel

I'm not a true ginger, but I do have the pale, freckled skin. I live in TX, AND I've had several spots of non-Melanoma skin cancer.Using sunscreen is not about looking younger for me, it's about cancer prevention.

Slip on a shirt Slop on some sunscreen Slap on a hat Wrap on some sunglasses

During the pandemic I took up excercising outdoors almost daily. My arms which had the most exposure acquired a permanent tan. They didn't burn because they were tanned out. About a year later I discovered a new mole. Another year later I noticed the mole changing. I go to dermatologist and it's skin cancer but it had not started spreading so was able to get away with a minor procedure that removed the mole and a bit of extra tissue. Now I take sun protection seriously, you don't even need to sunburn to get skin cancer. Tanning in itself is skin damage. So hats, sunscreen, and sun protective clothing. Remaining pale all year round is important.

Levi: "I don't wanna depress you..." Me: "Listen, buddy. This isn't my first Future Proof. Ok?"

That ain't Franz Greiter, that's Charles Darwin, don't believe everything on Google images.

Skin cancer runs in my family so it's more than just a vanity issue for me. Remember to (re)apply sunscreen to your hands and forearms, kids! It's not just your face and neck that get that regular sun exposure! Sun protective clothing companies do make sleeves and gloves if you prefer that option, too.

As an extremely ginger ginger, what I've learnt is to use the stuff designed for kids. It tends to protect better and have less of the "beauty" BS in it

Being an avid outdoors person I actually apply sunscreen at least 3X when I'm outside for an extended period of time

I'm with Caroline on this one. As a redhead and the mother of a redhead, the idea that higher spfs don't make much difference definitely isn't true for us. If I wear 30 I burn. If I wear 50 I burn. If I wear 75 I burn a little less. If I wear 100 I probably won't burn so long as I'm careful and don't stay out too long. Even if it's only a tiny bit of difference it's a tiny bit that we need to not turn into lobsters. Also if you're prone to burning look into sun protection clothing! It's better than any sunscreen, cheaper in the long run, and even though it looks odd to wear long sleeves in hot weather they're actually designed to keep you cooler.

I’m a skincare enthusiast. All i can say is the this sunscreen issue should be taught properly in school. After i deep dive into the information there’s so much to learn. I recommend watch Lab muffin beauty and dr. Dray in more information and updates in the realm of sunscreen and skincare. And by the way the EWG is just No. they and their “clean beauty”spread a lot of misinformation on skincare ingredients.

The condom video would be hilarious. Definitely a must do

You need to do a Future Proof on Environmental Working group. They are not so holy and honest.

The thing that annoys me about suncream is that to get the SPF factor specified you need to apply 2mg per square cm of skin which equals to something like 1.5ml of suncream for your face and most suncream for "designed" for your face is in small bottles and cost a lot, so if you applied every 2 hours of being outside then that small bottle barely lasts a week. What I do is use suncream aimed at babies and kids mainly because my skin is sensitive and those formulas are gentle and only apply once a day but if im going outside I will put some more on and thats it.

"light skin is seen as upper class because racism" Or more likely, because getting a tan before intentional tanning became a fad, meant that you were working outside, and as such you were likely poorer.

I'm not even going to pretend I'm above caring about how I'm going to look in 20 years. I'm starting to grey, and I've embraced it and given up hair dye. I intend to embrace every wrinkle as well. But I'm trying to age as gracefully as possible! For me that means eating well, exercising, and skin care! I do appreciate this video. I try to go with what my dermatologist recommends.

The reef safe issue is mostly over stated, and not the largest contributers to reef bleaching. Similar to how plastic straws pale in comparison to other causes of ocean plastics, even though there is a large focus on straws.

Ambre Solaire was invented in 1936 by Eugene Schueller for the Garnier company, for the rich owner to not burn on his yacht. It's a french invention y'all, 10 years earlier than the Swiss, and commercialized right away. Also tanning was popular in France in the 30s indeed because of the social advancement of mandatory PTO: it was trendy and possible to go on holidays. I'm sure Coco Chanel didn't hurt the movement but it was a thing much earlier than her boat trip.

I only buy sunscreen that is stocked in Australia. 1) only place in the world that regulated and has LAWs around SPF ratings. Which is so important when you live somewhere with such bad uv exposure 2) in New Zealand year after year sun block gets tested and it turns out that 50+ is only 24 (Banna boat + cancer society sunblocks)

I like the topic but the focus of the vid and intention behind it was a little confusing. Starting tone seemed to be knocking down on sunscreen and then in the middle it seemed more like an exploration of sunscreen's history to today in the Western world. Maybe I'm just not sure what I should be expecting from Future Proof vids....?

This video didn't really have much information... what was the thesis? What's the point? What is this TRUTH you mention?

3:00 light skin is not just about racism, its about class and where you work. If you work on the field like a peasant you get tanned but if you worked an administrative upperclass jobb indoors you where paler

A celebrity changing human behavior (tanning is suddenly cool) reminds me of the early days of photography. No one is smiling, because smiling for a photograph wasn’t a thing until Clark Gable was photographed smiling at a movie premiere. Suddenly showing your teeth to the camera was cool!

we need a TRUTH about the EWG, cuz it's....untrustworthy, let's say

not sure about elsewhere, but in the uk, as well as the spf rating, most sunscreens have a UVA protection rating on the back of the bottle, but like you said, not everyone knows this. So even if you have spf 50, its not gonna prevent cancer if the UVA rating is poor. Always check the bottle more closely

"Well you know because racism"...more like it was a symbol they didn't have to work outside and stayed in luxury...Before slavery (which was created to identify the Slavic people, or slav, who were European aka lighter skin tone, enslaved by Muslim nations, and even before that the ancient greek word "sklabos") was associated to skin color, different classes have been a thing since the dawn of time. Along the same lines that being of a large stature was a sign they had a lot of food accessible to them and therefore were wealthy. Not everything is "racism"

PLEASE STOP CITING EWG AS A CREDIBLE SOURCE

The “why are you so pale… you peasant?” remark was hilarious! 😂

In Australia, we have a statistic that 2/3 Australians under the age of 60 will be diagnosed with skin cancer in their lifetime. Also sunscreen is the final barrier from you and the sun, but it should not be the only barrier you use. Avoiding prolonged sun exposure when the UV is high (seeking shade), wearing things to protect your skin from the sun (hats, sunglasses, long sleeves) is MUCH more important, but often the most ignored.

3:33: No, not racism. It's because the masses were working outside; in the fields, in construction, etc., and the nobility didn't. If you work outside, you get more melanin, thus you get darker skin. This had nothing to do with race. It was poor vs rich; peasants vs nobility. Those people were most of the time the same race. It was just a status symbol of not having to do the dirty work.

I didn't realize that people were using sunscreen much at all.

Your ideas on SPF are wrong. basically, going from 50 -> 100 is like going from 98% to 99% protection. For the sake of comparison, imagine if you could choose between 98% no skin cancer and 99% no skin cancer. 99% no skin cancer means 1% chance of skin cancer, and 98% 2%, or double, the chance of skin cancer. There you go, the 1% matters if it already blocks 98% because double the chance of skin cancer is still double the chance of skin cancer

It's amazing you just came out with this video because I was recently researching SPF and was really confused by what I read but I *think* I have the missing link in my brain. So yes, SPF 30 will allow you to last 30x longer in the sun, if you apply every couple of hours. But my next thought was, well if I apply it every couple of hours, won't that protection last to infinity then?! No. The missing piece is that SPF 30 (for example) only blocks 97% of UVB. So because it allows 3% through, no matter how often you apply it, you will eventually burn. Could that happen in the 16 hours you're in the sun? Dunno, that's for a math wizz. Lol

I was raised on sunblock creams in the 90s. used to hate it. specially when my mom reapplied sunblock on me when picking me up from school. I am brunette with fair skin and freckles. I think that if I didn't have freckles my mom wouldn't have been so aware of sunblock. have certainly accumulated many freckles and premature expression lines due to my love of the outdoors but I wear long sleeves (even to the beach) and try my best to reapply sunblock as directed by the bottle. sunblock is a religion to me now

I use sunscreen because I'm vain, and to protect my skin. If you're outdoors you need to use sunscreen and yes, you need to reapply often. Use liberally and above all on face, neck, décolletage and arms. If anyone if looking for a good Scandinavian sunscreen I can wholeheartedly recommend Evy, it's a nice mousse. And remember, always buy a new bottle for the season and don't rely on the one from last year, sunscreen expires fast and you need to protect yourself. For riding a bike it's nice to wear summer cycling gloves, the hands are very exposed.

My partner is a freckled ginger and when we were visiting Italy for the first time we noticed their sunscreen lotions worked way better than the ones we had bought in canada, and with the comment that most north American sun screens wouldn't pass eu standards, now I know why that is

You have the choice between either have white skin from zinc oxide and Titanium oxide or transparent creme from nano particles and depleting organic chemicals. Protective clothes became surprisingly attractive.

Nice hat in the ad read @ 5:07. Glad to see another Winnipeg Jets fan!

I am from Mumbai, where the climate is hot and humid, and I also have oily skin. However, after watching your videos, I have started using littllextra riceberry sunscreen and it has been amazing on my skin. I have recently joined swimming and my skin easily gets tanned (I am a dark-skinned person). I have been using this sunscreen before going for a swim and my skin hasn't tanned at all. It provides excellent protection from chlorine, and I am surprised by the results. I have been using this daily for a month now and I really like it. Thank you so much for these wonderful videos and your thorough research.

looking young? we dont want to have skin cancer!

Didn’t know it was still ok to make fun of people with red hair. 👎🙄 Gee, I wonder why that is…anyone?

A great person to watch is Michelle on the LabMuffin channel. She’s a Ph.D. chemist, cosmetic, and she knows a ton about sunscreens, their formulations, testing, etc. 🙂

I'm a skincare fanatic. I'm half blond half ginger, so I have to be pretty careful with sun exposure. Like, long sleeves in summer level careful. I have to say that even I find the "sunscreen every day" mantra a little annoying. If the only time I'm going to spend outside is walking from my house to my car and walking from my car to my office, I don't need SPF. If I'm going to be outside for more than like fifteen minutes, I religiously apply sunscreen. If not, what's the point?

If you ever doubt that the sun has a huge effect on your skin, google "trucker skin sun" for a graphic demonstration!

I have really enjoyed your videos in the past, but I am noticing a trend as of late. The videos tend to be more superficial and a lot of time is spent on jokes, personal stories, and all-around fluff. There was so much to unpack here with regards to sunscreen: "chemical" vs. mineral sunscreens in terms of safety and effectiveness; how little sunscreen people actually put on; claims of sunscreen chemicals being detected in the blood and what it means in terms of health; how effective the waterproofing is, etc. Instead, we get 13 minutes of very broad remarks about sunscreen. I wish you'd better spend your time to address these issues. Thanks!

One thing I only found out a few years ago that was pretty mind-blowing to me was that when you get a sunburn, now of course the main damage that we see on the surface, to our eyes usually looks repaired in weeks, maybe months at most when you're pasty again, but it actually takes the skin about 18 months to heal fully from a sunburn, which is an unreal amount of time. So if you burn once every summer effectively your whole life, but are on top of it the rest of the time, you never really technically fully heal, you just keep re-burning the same burn, which I imagine is also part of what can be so critical in people developing say skin cancer. It's interesting, it was more classism original as largely race was less of a concept than class was throughout history. So the darker the skin was more associated with outdoor labour, and softer, more fair skin from those with the wealth to hire others. That classism, over time would start to solidify in a loss of understanding that underlying factor, until color was just either good or bad (obviously way oversimplifying). When I was a kid, my whole family were basically sun worshippers. I mean, we live in Winnipeg, Canada. When you're used to winter lasting 4-6 months, and much of that is spent in temperatures worse than - 40° (which funny enough is actually where both our imperial and metric systems meet before once again no longer aligning) and so the first moment in spring that they arguably could just it, they were all outside with a beer and the sun from literally before the sun would actually rise until after it would set. Not only was it not a time of using sunscreen to block anything, they were using tanning oils so they could extra cook their skin for the darkest colour. Then there is me, the pale one who would overheat instantly and always more at home watching television or being on the computer. My twenties were spent always outside and tanned. My thirties are back to indoors and pale lol. Also, on the whole doing a video on condoms, do it up! Honestly, considering how much people think they know about products like sunscreen until you do any dive into them, I'm sure that there is a world of information about condoms that would be fascinating and also probably blow some minds.

FYI, for your typical RU-vid viewer: Sunscreen is something you would use outside, so it doesnt apply to you.

I work outside weekdays for about 6-8 during peak sun hours. Its been years and they still havent made a sunscreen that last longer then 2min-4max hours... grumble grumble 😑

In Southern Africa we traditionally used clay soil and mud to protect ourselves from the sun.

1:00 as a chemist everything about that frame hurts me.

Wait, did the Future Proof Health channel shut down?

For goodness sake, don't do surface level "research" on things as important as sunscreen and then make a video about it. Sunscreen videos do good on the algorithm and will bring you more views than usual but that doesn't allow you to spread harmful rhetoric about it, if you truly want to be ethical about it. Sunscreen misinformation is rampant and extremely harmful. As much as i empathize with Caroline's experience, her being a ginger doesn't make her an expert on sunscreen. Please look at actual research and don't cite EWG; it's the fastest way to lose all of your credibility. Better yet, hire a credible fact checker to help you out with this if you reading and analyzing quality, peer-reviewed research papers is not your jam. Was disappointed in FPH's video on sunscreen, am disappointed in this as well.

I am almost paper white and once when I was little I wore a backless dress and my whole back where the dress wasn’t was red as a tomato it hurt so bad!

There is no product I smear on my skin every single day except soap in the shower. And that gets rinsed off. Even living in South Florida for over 40 years, I'll take my chances with (natural) sunshine rather than applying chemical cocktails to my skin intentionally.

It’s tough to find gray hairs when you have a full head of hair that’s gray.

I'm usually the one telling all my friends to reapply sunscreen. I wear it on my face every day and keep a small bottle in my bag in case I might get some sun exposure on my tattoos. I love sunscreen haha.

If you wanted people to comment on the image of Franz Greiter, well played sir.

This is very interesting, but you don't answer the question "what should you do to make a good decision for protecting yourself from the sun". So what?

Darn it. All I wanted to know was about the reefs certifications.

Okay late to the party, but in some countries, Australia and Japan for example, the use of sun screens have been questioned for years. What they discovered was melanomas actually increased with the popularity of sun screens (this was countered by sun screen manufacturers with the totally unproven contention that a previous sunburn, eg decades earlier, can cause future skin cancers). The most logical explanation boils down to the difference between UVA and UVB rays. Before sun screen intelligent people limited their exposure to the sun to prevent sunburn. However since UVB sunscreens prevent sunburn, people started exposing themselves to the sun for much longer periods of time, unfortunately most sunscreens didn't protect from UVA rays (the rays most responsible for skin cancers). So removing the fear of sunburn actually caused people to subject themselves to the cancer causing UVA rays for longer periods of time. Even broad spectrum sunscreens do a much poorer job of protecting from UVA rays, requiring hourly applications and the UVA protective qualities are easily removed by swimming.

I hold some contention with the claim that pale skin had been preferred due to racism, but rather classism, as most pre-modern europeans did not freqently interact with other races. They did have regularly interact with people who worked in the fields all day who would have gotten tanned due to sun exposure, and people didn't want to look poor or working class.

It's appalling that you put a photo of Hyram in a comment about dermatologists next to The Doctorly. Seriously makes your tease of the reef episode totally sus.

Consumer Reports recently reviewed sunscreens and MANY of them do not achieve anything close to the SPF listed on the bottle. And that’s using the somewhat clinical strategies of application within the scope of a STUDY, not trying to slather it on a wiggly toddler. It would certainly explain why my BF and I both burned through 50 SPF, reapplied frequently, while on vacation. Our SPF 50 was more like SPF 20 or less.

super freckled ginger here. no sunscreen, no burns, lots of sun every day. explain

Now I would like to tell you that EWG is NOT a credible source of information, despite it's branding marketing whatevers. An example of this is the cosmetic ingredients rating they give rarely follows any scientific research instead is heavily influenced by the "clean" beauty industry.

i regrettably disliked the video. i am biased as i like skincare and do care about anti-aging (i am also not a professional in this field by any means), but i didn't like the framing of the video. i agree with questioning what we buy and how necessary certain products are, but i don't think sunscreens should be a target. yes American sunscreens aren't that good, but overall, i believe the professional consensus is SOME spf is better than none (you can also get way better sunscreens through the european and east asian markets) the message i got from the video was to question whether you really need it if you don't care about anti-aging, and though it does make a point that it's not questioning whether or not it's necessary to prevent skin cancer, i feel like it did painted sunscreens in a negative light, which i worry would discourage people from using it overall.

The backflips you have to do in order to make sunscreen look like a bad thing is comical at best and dangerous at worst. Some protection isn’t about looking young. It’s literally about not damaging your skin and not preventing cancer. Yes, not aging as quickly is a benefit but trying to look youthful is not the majority reason as to why people use sun protection. Also, you’d be extremely hard-pressed to find a sunscreen that is not broad spectrum so it’s honestly not a concern for anyone buying sunscreen at the store.

I myself tend to burn to a crisp unless I slather myself in SPF everywhere. My skin doesn't tan it just burns.

Sunscreen is so important, not only does it prevent you from premature aging, it also protects you from skin cancer. Wear SPF and every day kid. SPF has been huge in Asia for decades, that’s why they always look younger

Me, a very simple human: 1. Much sun makes hurt. 2. I don't like. 3. I use sunscreen. 4. Much sun doesn't hurt

I was told by a jehovahs witness that using too much sunscreen while pregnant turns your baby gay😂

Yes, please make a video about condoms and their sustainability. I am eagerly awaiting Levi's presentation on this matter.

I live in Florida and my sunscreen is a shirt

What happened to Future Proof Health? They did a video very similar to this a while ago. And I haven't seen anything from that channel in a while...

Poor Caroline… I too am a red hair, blue eye victim of three sun’s beatings.

I think cause I’m black but I’ve never been sun burned in my life

1:20 In my youth (which was 15 years ago) suncreen with SPF of 20, 10, even lower were completely normal.

So many misconceptions in this video I don't know where to start 🙈

Got an ad for a hair growth product on this video

Why did I just watch a full video of someone making a documentary of something he has no clue of? 🫣

I have vitiligo, so basically there is no amount of sun cream in the world I could wear (apart from hiding under a pile of bottles) that would actually protect me for any length of time. Get a wide brimmed hat and wear long sleeves, there's no substitute.

0:00 jokes on you, my dermatologist made fun of me for wearing sunscreen in the winter and for using moisturisers as a teen :’D

As a fellow ginger, the joke about Caroline being ginger and using a ton of sunscreen was too funny and so relatable.

As a ginger, I just wear long sleeves 🤷‍♂ (wil still apply a bit on my face and hands, as well as wear a hat and generally look for shade)

Someone said I was gay for using sunscreen and I replied you think you’re tougher than the sun?

It wasn’t racism. Pale skin showed you had money because you weren’t outside doing manual labor. So the paler you were the better. That’s still a thing in Korea. That’s why you see Asian women and men wear those big visors and umbrellas lol

3:33 No, that wasn't racism lol. Having lighter skin was a sign of wealth because poor people would work in the fields all day, so they'd be under direct sunlight for most of their life, which would obviously make their skin darker, while wealthier people would stay inside = their skin wouldn't be as dark.

Fucking love this guy for making such great videos. Definitely the Pride of The Levi family

I always thought Baz Luhrmann kicked off the sunscreen thing

What happened to Sher? Usually this topic was presented on Future Proof Health.

I still use P2P when my streaming service of choice decides to discontinue offering my favorite shows. I don't live in a place with the best internet connection, so having local media can be a life saver when the network is having a bad day.

Levi's wearing a pretty cool shirt, goes well with his complexion.

I use everyday

There’s something for everyone in Thai collection but it’s all beautiful and detailed

This video dropped with interesting timing as a number of schools here in Japan are banning kids from wearing sunscreen for a few 'choice' reasons apparently.

Long time subscriber, first time commenting: Better than the sunscreen video in the other RU-vid Future Proof channel, but still a no.