Sunscreen SPF Is a Gimmick šŸ§“

(3 Minute Read)

Hey sunburner,

You ever see someone like this?

Thatā€™s a Facekini.

A $4 mask designed to keep your face white.

Why?

Because in Asia, white is beautiful.

Why?

Because society does this:

The rich hate the poor.

Itā€™s a universal law of human nature.

So the rich run from them.

In Asia, they run into their office ā€“ which keeps their skin white. So the poors are stuck outsideā€¦tanning.

But in America, the poors found them in the office. So now the rich run outsideā€¦tanning.

Graphically, itā€™s the midwit meme.

Fascinating.

(Side note: Itā€™s also why rich people dress like hobos ā€“ ripped jeans, faded sweaters, and $1,850 trashed sneakers.)

But my point isā€¦we have a mixed relationship with the sun ā˜€ļø

We like it, but not too much.

For example, letā€™s say youā€™re at the beach.

Girls are nice.

But the sun is mean.

Because after a while, it sizzles your skin ā€” so you look for protection.

(PSA: you only need 15 minutes of sun to tan ā€” after that youā€™re just burning.)

Now historically, you had a few options:

  • Egyptians used beeswax

  • Greeks used olive oil

  • Romans used mud

But everything changes in 1938 with this one dude in Austria:

Nein!

Itā€™s Franz Greiter:

Franz is sad.

Not because no pictures of him exist ā€“ but because while climbing Mount Piz Buin (lol what a name) he got sunburnt to a crisp.

Now most of us would just take the L, but Franz is a ~nerd~

So he does science šŸŒˆ

And inventsā€¦

Ya, he invents sunscreen ā€” which he names after Piss Bun mountain or whatever.

But thereā€™s only 1 problemā€¦

Basically, how much sun is screened?

So he creates a metric: Sun Protection Factor (SPF).

Howā€™s it work?

Well, lemme nerd out quick.

So, the sun shoots out all types of light:

  • Gamma

  • X-ray

  • Ultraviolet

  • Visible

  • Infrared

  • Microwave

  • Radio wave

Hell, just look at this drawing:

Now half this light is friendly.

The other half wants to kill us.

Ya, the ouch light is on the left.

See its wavelength?

SMALL. FAST.

Basically, itā€™s the worldā€™s smallest jackhammer.

So small in fact, that it can break your DNA ā€“ which kills your cells and gives you cancer.

But luckily, Earth got your back.

Because it has its own sunscreen ā€“ THE ATMOSPHERE.

See the atmosphere blocks most ouch light from reaching us.

But some still slips throughā€¦ultraviolet B & A.

Which UV hurts more ā€” B or A?

B.

Thatā€™s because the UVB model jackhammer is even smaller & faster ā€” causing sunburns and ~cancer~

But UVA still hurts too.

It goes deeper into your skin ā€“ causing wrinkles and aging.

But hereā€™s the catch with sunscreen SPFā€¦

SPF only says how much UVB the sunscreen blocks ā€“ it says nada about UVA.

Wrong.

Thatā€™s catch #2.

Sunscreen SPF isnā€™t linear ā€” itā€™s logarithmic.

Meaning high SPF doesnā€™t matter.

For example:

  • SPF 15 = 94% protection

  • SPF 30 = 97% protection

  • SPF 100 = 99% protection

TLDR: Buy SPF 30 ā€“ anything above that is useless.

Crush ass,

Dylan & Henry

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P.P.S. Click below to watch Why Sunscreen SPF Is a Gimmick šŸ‘‡