Sunscreen: It's Not Always Easy

Change is never easy. Whether you are making the move to a new city, beginning a new job, or starting a new phase in your life, change can be a tough pill to swallow for most of us. A skin cancer diagnosis, yours or a loved one’s, can rock your world and bring about all kinds of changes you never saw heading your way. Changing the way you look at sun protection can be just as challenging as any other big shake-ups in your routines. Challenging? Yes. Impossible? Definitely not.

A forced relationship with sunscreen

When I was diagnosed with melanoma in 2007, I had to quickly familiarize myself with sunscreen. As a mother, I thought I knew what I needed for my kids and was fairly confident in my purchases. My children were young at the time and didn’t protest about me putting it on them before playing outside. They had no comments about the texture or smell, so I concentrated on finding a kid-safe lotion with a high SPF, and we were golden.

Resistance

My turn had come, however, and things didn’t go as smoothly. Every brand I tried irritated me. I don’t mean it irritated my skin. I mean it aggravated me that I even needed to bother with it. I didn’t want to buy it, didn’t want to use it, and, above all else, I didn’t want to need it. Funny, that. Me, a mother of two in my 30s, and I was fighting sunscreen like a cranky toddler after a long day of playing at the pool fending off my mom’s incessant reapplications.

A rocky start

One after another, I bought and tossed aside tubes and bottles of multiple brands and SPFs. Some of them were too greasy. Others were so thick it seemed to take an insane amount of time to get them rubbed in, to the point where I no longer felt I was coated in a thick pasty film. When I say an “insane amount of time,” I am not exaggerating. If you have ever accidentally put too much shampoo in your hair and had to rinse until you thought you were losing your mind, you know what I am saying here. It’s like “The Song that Doesn’t End” - it just goes on and on, my friend.

All of the excuses

If you are beginning to search for your own sun protection and dread the process, know this - you are not alone. I have been advocating for safe sun practices since my diagnosis in 2007, and I remember my own sunscreen tantrums like they were yesterday. The struggle can be very real for many people. We come up with all the reasons. We don’t want to add it to our routine. Sunscreens can be expensive. They are often too thick to handle easily and need to be reapplied. We hate that we need to do it - that skin cancer diagnosis has made us angry. Been there, and felt that. All of it.

Advice for your sunscreen relationship

My advice to you as you start to add sunscreen to your daily regimen is:

• To start slowly.
• Try several different brands and types (creams, lotions, mousses) and include mineral sunscreens in that list. My favorite ones are mineral sunscreens.
• Don’t dive in headfirst and coat yourself on a daily basis.
• Try a sunscreen for the face first. These tend to be lightweight and will make you feel less greasy.
• When one doesn’t work for you, set it aside for a different one. If you keep it and try to force yourself to like it, you will grow more frustrated and less likely to make sunscreen routine.
• Once you adjust to using sunscreen on your face, move to the neck. It’s an easy move to make--just use your facial sunscreen there, too.
• After you are comfortable with making sunscreen a daily habit and have tried a few for your arms and legs, start adding the rest of your exposed skin to your routine.
• Keep your sunscreen alongside your toothbrush, cleansers, and makeup. Don’t make the mistake I made for a while. Storing it in the laundry room with the beach bag was a no-no...out of sight, out of mind.

Change can be a good thing

I fought it, y’all. Tooth and nail, I fought it. I was mad that I had to use it at all but wouldn’t give in and stop the search for one that worked for me. Knowing I needed to use sunscreen and finding one that didn’t drive me nuts were two very different animals. You can expect to be irritated. Change isn’t easy, and this is a big one for a lot of us. Once you find what works for you, you’ll see that this change, well, it’s a good one.