Louise Thomas-Minns is a skin specialist and therapist

Q. I have read that you should use a sunscreen every day but don’t understand the need for it when it’s not sunny?

A. Ok let me give you a brief lesson in the three rays omitted by the sun.

UVA is the ageing ray, UVB is the burning ray and UVC shouldn’t reach us little beings down here on planet earth since the ozone layer should protect us from that one.

UVA is the longest ray and is present 365 days of the year regardless of the weather condition so come rain, snow or shine we are getting UVA damage to our skin. It’s able to penetrate through to the deepest skin layer damaging everything in its path such as our collagen fibres, which maintain the youthful spring to our skin, our immune protecting cells and at worst causing pre cancerous changes to our skin cells.

This ray is why 90%, yes that’s 90% of the ageing of our skin is caused by the sun.

For those of you who are thinking ‘well that’s ok cos I just drive to work go straight in to my office and miss most of the UVA anyway’ I’m afraid that you are getting damage whilst driving since glass magnifies UVA by 100 times and your computer screens and fluorescent lighting in your offices also omit UV rays so there’s no escape!

However, we do need a certain level of UV as this is what synthesises the production of Vitamin D in our bodies vital for good bone health and boosting our immune system amongst other things however we only need 15 minutes of exposure a day to achieve these levels.

So my advice is to wear a product everyday on the face, neck and chest that has at least an SPF of 15. Look for ingredients such as Zinc and Titanium oxide to give you the best protection.
MD Formulations SPF 15 total protector £15.00, which is recommended by the skin cancer foundation, is what I recommend to my clients (www.u-treatments.co.uk)

Louise Thomas-Minns CIBTAC CIDESCO BABTAC is a skin specialist and therapist with over 12 year’s experience. She is the owner of U Treatments, a beauty business that brings the salon to you and is about to launch a London skin clinic. She lecturers in, and is an NVQ assessor part time, in beauty therapy.
Her specialism in the skin and ingredient technology requires her to be a regular guest on Radio Norfolk and write for some national periodicals.
Visit www.u-treatments.co.uk or call Louise on 07810 872 633 for details of her bespoke treatment menu.