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By Jackie Badenhorst
From bush and beach walks to epic peaks, it’s hard to deny the freedom, peace, and accessibility of the great outdoors are unmatched. And to ensure you can keep doing it comfortably and safely for years to come, we wanted to explain how to protect your skin while doing what you love.
Your skin is your body’s largest organ. Occupationally and recreationally, you’re constantly exposing it to altitude, cold winds, low humidity, perspiration, and strong UV. We believe everyday skin protection is just as fundamental as your safety gear, choice of footwear, and even nutrition.
To explain why we believe all of this, here are our nine tips on how you can stay skin-safe. This essential guide is season-agnostic, so take action now and try to make skin protection an everyday habit, regardless of when you’re reading this.
External aggressors – as we call them – like harsh, cold weather, dry or hot air, ultraviolet light, pollution, smoke, and stress attack your skin every single day. Especially if you’re a year-round adventurer.
These aggressors cause skin damage. Damage could be anything from dryness, redness, cracking, itchiness, or sensitivity all the way to skin cancer (and thousands of other things in between).
Your skin is the body’s first line of defense and needs help repelling these aggressors. One of the principal roles of the skin is to prevent things from the outside world that might cause damage from getting into your body. For example, airborne infections, bacteria, viruses, or pollutants. That’s why it’s so important your skin barrier remains healthy, intact, and un-compromised at all times. For us, that comes in the form of skin protection. It isn’t skin care without skin protection!
The gorilla in the room and chief of all aggressors is ultraviolet light.
UV accounts for 80% of premature skin aging and 90% of melanoma skin cancers.
Here’s the critical piece of science most people don’t realize. UVA specifically reaches your skin every day and in equal measure throughout the year. It also accounts for 95% of the UV that reaches us on Earth. So, as long as it’s light outside, UVA reaches your skin – even through clouds and glass. And even on a cold July day in a fog-covered Cape Town.
UVA penetrates the deeper layers of the skin, meaning you can’t see the damage. It contributes to premature skin aging and wrinkling by damaging the natural proteins under the skin’s surface. These proteins keep the skin tight and robust but, when damaged, can’t provide the same structural support. For a long time, it was thought that UVA couldn’t cause any lasting damage other than these cosmetic changes. However, studies strongly suggest UVA enhances the development of skin cancers because the rays also cause DNA damage within specific skin cells.
As mentioned, this damage is often invisible, and it’s accumulative. The concept of protecting yourself from something you can’t see and which might never happen is hard to fathom, but it’s the single recommendation every dermatologist worldwide would endorse. And that’s especially true for somebody like you who spends so much time outside.
Visible damage, of course, is sunburn or redness. Sadly, a sun tan is also a sign of damage as your body fights to protect itself from overexposure to UV. Five burns in your lifetime doubles your risk of skin cancer. How often have you come home red-faced and blamed it on the wind or cold? That’s sunburn caused by UV, and it’s skin damage.
Given that UV is ever present, the temperature outside or time of year doesn’t matter. So, for any outdoor walks or climbs – any time of year – use good sunscreen on all exposed skin before heading outside. For active individuals, we recommend choosing an SPF 50+ product with the European’ UVA’ kite mark (or UVA 4-5*) on the pack. The higher SPF means you’re protected for longer. Reapply every two hours, and don’t forget your nose, back of the neck, and ears – commonly missed spots where people can often burn.
Another factor specific to what you do is altitude. The higher you go, the closer you are to the sun, which sounds obvious because it is. But also, the air is thinner and cleaner at altitude, so less UV is filtered out. The cumulative effect of this means UV levels increase by 10% for every 1,000m you travel above sea level, according to the World Health Organisation.
This is especially important to remember if you live in Gauteng and high-elevated parts of Mpumalanga and Free State. With a relatively flat landscape, it’s very easy to forget you are almost 2000 meters above sea level.
If there’s snow around, light reflection plays a major role in increasing your UV exposure. UV hits you twice: once from the sun and again, as it bounces off snow and back onto you, almost doubling your exposure. For these reasons, a mountain can be one of the harshest UV environments you can find yourself in.
If you care about your health, sunscreen is a vital piece of gear for your pack.
Another way to protect the skin is by wearing a physical barrier that blocks attack, i.e., clothing. But beware – not all fabrics are created equal. For example, a white cotton t-shirt is the equivalent of SPF 5, and you could feasibly experience invisible skin damage through it.
Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) is to fabrics what SPF is to sunscreen. It’s a measure of how much UV protection the fabric provides. Denim is UPF 1,700, so it’s highly protective, but I’m not sure we could persuade you to attack a summit in the middle of summer wearing your favorite Levis jeans. Look out for UPF 50+ active and climbing wear. It’s a good option if you don’t like putting creams or cosmetic products on your skin.
Craghoppers’ gear is widely sun-protective. You can learn more about its Solar Shield technology and browse our sun protection range here.
It might not get hot, but your head’s a sitting duck under strong sun. That’s even more true for any bald men or those with a close cut on top. Wear a beanie or cap. There are breathable, lightweight, UPF 50+ variants out there. It’s a whole lot better than a sunburnt head or sunstroke.
You may want to check sun protective hats and caps on our website.
For the same reason that it’s ideal to protect your skin from UV every day, we should probably all wear sunglasses more often than we think. When out adventuring, protecting your eyes against sunlight (including snow or ice glare) is important for your eye health. As mentioned, UV levels can be high even on a cloudy day, and overexposure can lead to painful inflammation, known as ‘snow blindness.’ It can also increase the likelihood of developing cataracts.
Sunglasses with UV400 protection (or those with the CE kite mark) are a critical piece of kit. Avoid low-quality lenses, which can cause more harm than good.
Even if your lips don’t usually need special attention, they will probably do when you’re out climbing. Lips don’t produce sebum, so they can quickly become dry. They also burn more easily than other areas of skin.
What’s the solution? Keep an SPF lip balm in your pocket for both UV protection and moisture. Reapply constantly throughout the day.
A little-known fact is that winter is the worst time of year for people who suffer from outbreaks.
The skin’s top layer, the epidermis, is a waterproof barrier between your body and the big wide world. It’s the skin layer where drying takes place. And this is key.
Healthy skin contains approximately 30% water. Each day, it loses about one pint. The dry winter season presents a problem because humidity is low both inside and out, and the water content of the epidermis tends to mirror atmospheric moisture. So, as humidity drops, water loss increases because dry air pulls moisture from the skin.
When the skin’s water content drops below 10%, dryness, flaking, and itching begins. This leads to redness, cracking, and inflammation: all signs you might personally recognize of weathered winter skin.
Cells in the epidermis are held together by a lipid-rich glue made up of natural oils. Water loss (and its consequences) accelerates when the glue is weakened. Things that cause the glue to lose its grip include sun damage, over-cleansing, scrubbing, underlying medical conditions, and, of course, winter conditions.
It’s also worth mentioning that the epidermis gets thinner with age, often due to the cumulative effect of sun damage. Thinner skin doesn’t retain moisture as well. On top of this, natural oil production slows with age.
While dry skin is clearly not life-threatening, it’s a nuisance, doesn’t look great, and can give rise to complications like eczema or infections (don’t forget the main role of the skin!).
To manage winter skin, we suggest the following: moisturize (even more) regularly, stick a humidifier by your bed, have warm (not hot) showers, use soap-free products because soap is drying and strips your natural oils, and drink water (see later).
Help your skin repair and recover after a long day outside. Try to shower as soon after you’re back indoors to avoid pores getting clogged from sweating. After a shower, apply a good moisturizer to re-seal and hydrate the outer barrier.
Moisturizers can do two things depending on their ingredients: form a layer to block water leaving or try to add water to the epidermis. Applying straight after a bath or shower seals in moisture while your skin is damp. Don’t forget about your hands and body – they definitely won’t say no to a daily layer of added moisture.
This one is more about looking and feeling better, but that doesn’t make it any less important.
Last but not least, here’s a simple one. Maintain cellular moisture from the inside out and drink up.
This really is one of the best ways to keep your skin moisture levels high. Assuming you’re hiking, walking, climbing, etc., you’ll also be sweating, in which case, drink more than you usually would.
This is especially true during winter when more dry skin is common, and you might drink less because you’re likely to be less thirsty/sweat less.
This article was originally published on Craghoppers.co.uk in collaboration with LifeJacket Skin Protection.
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