Understanding Sunscreen Protection Ratings

As you’ll recall from the discussion about UV Radiation, we need to be concerned with two types of UV: UVA and UVB.

Here is the most important point in this entire guide:

The rating scale for UVB is SPF. There is NO rating scale for UVA.

Common Mistake – Picking a sunscreen solely by its SPF.

SPF is an inadequate measure for evaluating a sunscreen because it only measures protection against UVB. Repeat UVB. SPF doesn’t tell you anything about UVA protection.

Let’s briefly cover SPF before we jump into the more important discussion about UVA.