Time to Cover Up: July is National UV Safety Month

You will never, ever find me lying out in the sun. Instead, what you will see is a middle-aged woman covered from head to toe in sun-protective clothing, wearing a large sombrero and enormous sunglasses and sitting underneath the shade of a beach umbrella. I won’t care if you laugh at me. I definitely do not look sexy at the beach. But my healthy skin and I are totally okay with any snickering.

As far as I am concerned, every month should be UV Safety month. You can just as easily get burned by a crisp December sun. However, I assume that July has been chosen, because it represents summer, a season that beckons for all of us to strip down and Coppertone up. Don’t you just love that smell of coconut oil?

Here is the rub. Skin health is a terrible thing to waste. And youth is wasted on the young. I love the magazine advertisements that show young women lying about in bikinis on a tropical beach. If you flip a few pages later, you will find the latest anti-wrinkle cream. The reality is that UV exposure from the sun is the main cause of skin damage and, even worse, skin cancer. If only we knew then what we know now.

In my new book, Menopause Confidential, I wrote a chapter called, “Who Is That Wrinkly Old Woman In The Mirror?” Once you hit your forties, all that sunbathing you did in your youth will come back to haunt you in the form of dry, wrinkly, brown spotted, leathery skin. You will lament the fact that you have permanent tan lines from that vacation ten years ago. You will spend too much money on moisturizers and anti-aging products that promise you the moon, if not the sun.

So here comes a secret. It is not too late to adopt skin healthy habits. Stay out of the sun. Slather on sunscreen every day of the year. I am going to start a campaign called “Sunscreen is not just for summer anymore!” By the way, my favorite is Neutrogena Ultra Sheer Dry-Touch Broad Spectrum SPF 30. I never leave home without it. And don’t forget to apply sunscreen to your neck, the backs of your hands and your décolletage. I am only reminding you of these additional areas because most of you have indeed forsaken them over the years.

I am going to share another secret with you. My tweenage daughter, Ava, wants to wear bikinis! Can you imagine my horror? What can a Mommy do to protect her child from the ravages of UV exposure when all the other girls are prancing around in practically nothing? Well, I figured it out. I made a deal with my Ava to wear a protective swim rash guard whenever she is in a bathing suit. I told her that if she did, and also generously applied sunscreen to protect her gorgeous youthful skin, I would pay her $10 a week.

It is the best money I have ever spent. So cheers to UV Safety Month!

Tara Allmen, MD Credentials:
– Board Certified Gynecologist and Nationally Certified Menopause Practitioner
– New York City’s Leading Expert In Menopause
– President, North American Menopause Society Foundation
– Fellow of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology
– New York City’s Top Gynecologist, 2015
– Five Star Rating From Doctor’s Choice Awards
– Five Star Rating From HealthGrades