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Sunscreen SPF Is a Gimmick š§“
(3 Minute Read)
Hey sunburner,
You ever see someone like this?
Thatās 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.
Itās 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, itās the midwit meme.
Fascinating.
(Side note: Itās 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 āļø
We like it, but not too much.
For example, letās say youāre 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 youāre 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!
Itās 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 š
And inventsā¦
Ya, he invents sunscreen ā which he names after Piss Bun mountain or whatever.
But thereās only 1 problemā¦
Basically, how much sun is screened?
So he creates a metric: Sun Protection Factor (SPF).
Howās 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, itās the worldās 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.
Thatās 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 hereās the catch with sunscreen SPFā¦
SPF only says how much UVB the sunscreen blocks ā it says nada about UVA.
Wrong.
Thatās catch #2.
Sunscreen SPF isnāt linear ā itās logarithmic.
Meaning high SPF doesnāt 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
P.S. if you enjoyed this lesson, forward it to a friend. If youāre that sexy friend, subscribe here.
P.P.S. Click below to watch Why Sunscreen SPF Is a Gimmick š