Well, being as the weather forecast often is, it was wrong. The sun managed to fight its way past the clouds and we had gorgeous weather--up until Friday. It rained and rained all of Friday and into Saturday morning. Miraculously, with a little help from the bride's late mother, the sun came out in full force about an hour before the ceremony.
The result? One very happy bride, a beautiful wedding overlooking the ocean, clear skies for gorgeous photos by the fabulous Clare Norton, and several very sun burnt bridesmaids.
As the sun had only shown its face literally an hour before the ceremony was set to begin, not one of us thought of sunscreen. For the duration of the ceremony I could feel the sun beating down on my bare shoulders but the only thought I gave to it was just to be thankful for the warmth after the previous freezing 24 hours. After the vows and kisses were exchanged we were off and moving and I forgot about the sun.
We were running around for pictures and for wine and for lobster and for dancing and for, well, everything that happens at a wedding. For five hours I was grateful for the warmth of the sun at an outdoor wedding. I had no idea that I was burning. Apparently I was.
Making my way home from the island, I noticed that the strap of my bag was hurting my shoulder more than normal. I thought, "Oh, I must have gotten a little sun!" I got to my apartment, removed my jacket, saw that my skin was almost purple and thought, "Holy hell! What happened?!"
Then yesterday Jon and I went to the Wicked Big Meet in Connecticut. He demanded I wear sunscreen. Feeling the crisp on my shoulders, I obliged. We brought it with us and reapplied consistently throughout the day. Okay, I mostly just reapplied to my shoulders because I wanted color on the rest of my body, but still! I definitely put it on my already-burnt parts more than once.
I left WBM with a sunburn on my shoulders that was twice what it was when I had arrived. I got in the car and asked Jon what SPF the sunscreen was--thinking it must be low, like 10 or 15, if the sun got through it to burn me further. Nope! It was SPF 50!! Then Jon tells me that he heard once that any SPF works kind of like the car wash: any package beyond a certain package is the same one with spiffier words and a higher price--meaning any SPF over 30 works just the same as 30 only it costs more.
I'm not normally a wearer of the sunscreen so I must know: Is it really all just a marketing gimmick when you get past SPF 30?
My initial search on Google tells me that this is apparently a hot topic (heh heh) as there are a lot of results. Whether or not sunscreen over SPF 50 works any differently than anything over it seems to be where the controversy lies. According to this article by the NY Times, SPF used to max out at 30, so when higher numbers started hitting the beach, folks were skeptical. It also tells me that the way SPF is calculated is by comparing the time a person usually takes to turn red in the sun with how long it takes them to turn that same shade of red with the sunscreen on (sucks to be that Ginny pig).
What that means, according to this article, is that a person who normally turns into a lobster in 20 minutes in the sun unprotected, should theoretically be able to stay in the sun without burning 15 times longer than that when wearing SPF 15 sunblock. So according to that math, assuming there is no swimming or sweating involved, that's 5 hours in the sun without burning. Right? 15 x 20 = 300/60 = 5. Yeah. 5 hours in the sun without burning while wearing SPF 15 if you normally burn in 20 minutes without it. I can do math!
Well I think that SPF is a big fat marketing liar. Because wearing SPF 50 even applied once I should have been fine being in the sun for 7 hours. I was a good human and reapplied over the course of those 7 hours and I still burnt.
Interestingly enough, the difference in ultraviolet B ray protection between SPF 50 and SPF 100 is barely notable. It's not actually offering you double the blockage. SPF 100 blocks 99% of the UVB rays, SPF 50 blocks 98%, and SPF 30 blocks 96.7% (thank you NY Times). Does Coppertone or Banana Boat tell you this? Nooooo. Of course not! They just go ahead and let you believe you're doubly protected while charging you another $2 and throwing images of little-girl-butt in your face.
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