Is Tanning Really Worth It? What UV Does to Your Skin Before You Ever See the Damage

For years, we treated a tan as proof that a holiday had worked.

You went away pale.

You came back brown.

People noticed.

That meant you had rested, travelled, spent time outside, “caught the sun”.

In my family, that was completely normal. My mother meant well — in her generation, a deep tan looked like health.

So when I was a boy, I chased it.

At the end of four-week scout camps and holidays organised through my father’s workplace, I would lie in the sun for hours, turning over and over, trying to get every part of me darker. More than once, I gave myself sunstroke doing it.

I thought I was doing something good.

But I was doing the opposite.

I am forty-three now. I work as a pharmacist prescriber in aesthetic medicine, and a lot of what I do is help people manage skin changes that I recognise. Not only from textbooks. From my own skin. From my own history. From the mistakes my generation inherited before we knew what they were.

When I look at photographs of my father at my age, the difference is obvious. I do not think that is mostly genetics. I think it is mostly this: his generation baked in the sun without a second thought. Mine slowly began to understand the cost. The next generation may age better still, because daily SPF is becoming normal rather than strange.

This article is about the thing I wish someone had explained to me at fifteen.

Not how to reverse sun damage.

How not to create it in the first place.

Because every tan has a biological price.

A tan is not healthy skin

Most people see a tan and think their skin looks healthier.

But your skin is telling a different story.

It is trying to protect itself from damage that has already happened.

When ultraviolet light reaches the skin, it can damage DNA inside skin cells. A tan is part of the response. Melanocytes — the pigment-producing cells — make melanin and move it towards the surface, where it helps absorb and scatter UV.

Think of melanin as your skin’s emergency sunscreen.

Useful, yes.

But still emergency. (!)

Your skin is not producing that colour because it is thriving. It is producing it because it has detected a threat.

A tan is defence.

Not glow.

Not health.

Defence.

That is the part people often miss. The colour appears after the exposure. It is your skin trying to limit further injury from something that has already started.

So when someone says, “I look better with a tan,” I understand what they mean. A tan can temporarily soften redness, blur small marks and make the skin look smoother.

That does not make it harmless.

Alcohol can feel relaxing.

Smoking used to look glamorous.

That did not make either of them good for the body.

The same logic applies here. You may like the effect. Biology does not care whether you like the effect. It still records the exposure.

Why tanning became desirable

The attraction to tanning is not just personal. It is cultural.

Through the eighties and nineties, a tan meant holidays, health, sport, travel, money, freedom. It meant you had been somewhere. It meant summer had happened properly.

Go further back and the meaning was almost the opposite. Pale, even skin was associated with people who could afford to stay out of the sun. Darker, weathered skin was associated with long hours of work outside.

A tan used to signal labour, not leisure.

Then fashion changed.

Foreign holidays became status. Bronzed skin became desirable. The phrase “healthy tan” became something people repeated without asking what the skin was actually doing.

Fashion changed.

Biology did not.

The skin still reads UV as UV. It does not care whether the exposure came from a beach, a sunbed, a garden, a car window or a cloudy day in Brighton.

The skin does not read lifestyle trends.

It reads radiation.

The biological price of a tan

Your skin has an excellent memory.

Unfortunately, it remembers UV much better than you do.

You may remember the holiday. Your skin remembers the exposure.

Every burn, every tan, every “I only sat out for an hour” adds to a running total.

You do not feel that total accumulating, which is why tanning feels harmless at the time.

The bill also does not arrive the same day.

Under the surface, UV does several things at once. It drives oxidative stress. It activates enzymes called matrix metalloproteinases, which break down collagen and elastin in the dermis faster than the skin can rebuild them (Kohl et al., 2011). It also pushes pigment cells to work harder and less evenly.

Years later, that becomes the pattern people recognise as sun damage:

• fine lines,

• loss of firmness,

• crêpey texture,

• broken vessels,

• sun spots,

• blotchy and uneven tone.

That is the biological price of a tan.

A short cosmetic effect, paid for later with collagen, pigment stability and skin health.

And this is not only about appearance.

UV exposure is also the main preventable cause of skin cancer. When I talk about sun protection, I am not only talking about looking younger.

I am talking about the health of the largest organ you have.

UVA and UVB: the 5% you feel and the 95% you do not

The simplest way I explain ultraviolet light in clinic is this:

UVA Ages. UVB Burns.

UVB is the part most people understand because it makes itself known.

It burns the surface. It drives much of the tanning response. It is involved in most skin cancers. It gives you redness, heat, peeling and the obvious “I have had too much sun” warning.

But at ground level, UVB is only about 5% of the ultraviolet reaching you (World Health Organization, 2022).

The other 95% is UVA.

UVA is quieter. You do not feel it in the same way. It does not announce itself with the same immediate redness. But it reaches deeper into the skin, down into the dermis, where collagen and elastin sit. It passes through cloud. Much of it can pass through ordinary window glass. It is there on a grey day, in the car, beside a window, when you are not sunbathing and not thinking about sun at all.

That is the problem.

Most people protect themselves from the part they can feel. I want you to understand the part they cannot.

Percentages can sound abstract, so let me put it differently. Imagine all the ultraviolet light reaching your skin as one year of 365 days.

The UVB — the burning and tanning part most people notice — would be about 18 days.

The UVA — the ageing wavelength you do not feel — would be the other 347 days.

That is the proportion.

Eighteen days shout.

Three hundred and forty-seven stay quiet.

And the quiet part is doing a lot of the ageing.

There is a well-known clinical photograph of a lorry driver who had spent twenty-eight years with one side of his face next to the window. That side looked dramatically older: deeper lines, thicker texture, more sagging. Same man. Same age. Same genetics. Different UVA exposure through glass (Gordon and Brieva, 2012).

You can see the same principle on your own body. Look at the inner side of your upper arm, around the bicep — skin that almost never sees direct sun. It is usually smoother, more even, calmer.

That is not better skincare.

That is protected skin.

The difference between that and your face is not simply age.

It is exposure.

Why sunscreen is not just for sunbathing

This is where people get it wrong.

They use sunscreen when they think they might burn. Beach days. Holidays. Heatwaves. A long walk. A garden party.

But burning is mostly the 5% conversation.

Ageing is mostly the 95% conversation.

If you only protect your skin when you are sunbathing, you miss a lot of the exposure that actually ages the skin. UVA is still there when the day is bright but cool. It is still there through cloud. It is still reaching you through glass.

That is why daily SPF is not a summer habit.

It is a skin-quality habit.

Prevention is not glamorous, but it has stronger evidence behind it than any treatment I can offer you. In a randomised trial, adults who used broad-spectrum sunscreen daily showed no detectable increase in skin ageing over four and a half years — around a quarter less photoageing than people who used sunscreen only when they felt like it (Hughes et al., 2013).

That is one of the most useful anti-ageing facts in aesthetic medicine.

Not exciting.

Just true.

How to use SPF properly

A sensible baseline in the UK is SPF 30 or above, broad spectrum, with good UVA protection. Look for a high UVA star rating, or the UVA-in-a-circle symbol on the bottle (NHS, 2025; British Association of Dermatologists, 2024).

Two things decide whether sunscreen actually works.

Most people get both wrong.

The first is amount.

For the face and neck, the two-finger rule is a useful guide: a line of sunscreen along the length of your index and middle fingers together. The SPF on the bottle is tested at a proper dose.

Most faces receive a polite smear. Then people wonder why it failed.

If you apply SPF 50 too thinly, it does not behave like SPF 50. That is not the sunscreen being useless. That is the dose being wrong.

The second is reapplication.

Sunscreen is not magic paint. It is a product with a dose, a film and a limit. In strong sun, and after sweating, swimming or towel-drying, it needs topping up.

Now, I am realistic. Perfect reapplication is not how most people live every day.

If the choice is between applying SPF properly once in the morning and not applying it at all because you know you will not reapply, apply it once.

A proper morning layer is still better than nothing.

Do not let perfection become the reason you do nothing.

And sunscreen is a floor, not a licence.

Shade, a hat and not chasing a tan will always outperform any cream. Sunscreen makes unavoidable exposure safer. It does not turn unnecessary exposure into a good idea.

The UV index, vitamin D and common excuses

Most phones show the UV index next to the weather. Use it!

The World Health Organization advises shade, sunscreen, a hat and protective clothing whenever the UV index reaches 3 or above (World Health Organization, 2022). If the UV index is high and you do not need to be outside, staying out of the sun is not extreme.

It is sensible.

Protect the exposure you cannot avoid.

Avoid the exposure you can.

Then there is vitamin D.

Yes, we need sunlight for vitamin D. I am not going to pretend otherwise. But your face is a small percentage of your body surface, and it is the part most people least want to age. If vitamin D is the goal, it makes more sense to protect the face and, in sensible moderation, expose larger and less cosmetically exposed areas such as arms, legs and torso.

For many people, diet or supplementation is a simpler and safer route.

You do not need to sacrifice your face to make vitamin D.

SPF, treatments and the part people misunderstand

One question I hear often is:

“If you have treatments yourself, why are you so strict about SPF?”

I will tell you why - because treatments maintain the skin.

SPF protects the investment.

Yes, I maintain my own skin. I have regular cosmetic peels, occasional microneedling when the timing is sensible, and a deeper TCA peel periodically, usually around once a year in late autumn when UV exposure is lower and recovery is easier to control.

But that is not a template for everyone else. It reflects my skin, my goals and my understanding of those procedures.

And none of it replaces daily SPF.

Those treatments are maintenance. Sun protection is the foundation.

If I could choose only one intervention for your skin over the next twenty years, it would not be a peel, a laser or an injectable.

It would be consistent sun protection.

Everything else becomes harder when UV keeps adding damage in the background.

Finding a sunscreen you will actually wear

The best sunscreen is not the most expensive one.

It is not the one with the most beautiful packaging.

It is not the one you admire in your bathroom and never use.

It is the one you will actually wear every day.

There is no longer much excuse for saying every sunscreen is thick and greasy.

Some are. Many are not.

Modern formulations can be light, elegant, hydrating, matte, tinted, non-tinted, fluid or gel-cream. I keep a few good options in clinic because texture often decides whether someone will actually use SPF every day.

If every SPF feels awful, you probably have not found the right one yet.

Do not let a bad sunscreen from ten years ago decide how your skin ages for the next twenty.

One thing does need to be clear.

The SPF built into a day cream or foundation is usually not real sun protection.

It is reassurance in a jar — unless you apply enough of it, and most people do not.

You apply face cream in a thin, polite layer. Nowhere near the amount needed to reach the SPF printed on the jar. Treat SPF in skincare or make-up as a bonus on top of proper sunscreen.

Never as the base layer.

The same goes for SPF powders, sticks and sprays. They can be useful for topping up during the day. They are not the foundation.

Where my clinical background changes the conversation

I do not only look at skin as something to make look better.

That changes the conversation.

The first thing is medication - and people often forget this.

Skin does not react to UV in isolation. It reacts with your biology, your hormones and sometimes your prescriptions. A number of common medicines can make skin much more sensitive to UV: some antibiotics, certain diuretics and blood-pressure medicines, particular acne treatments, some anti-inflammatories and others.

On these, a level of sun that would normally do little can burn or mark the skin quickly.

That is one of the first things I check before advising anyone on sun exposure or pigmentation.

It changes what is safe.

The second thing is that not every mark the sun leaves is cosmetic.

If a spot is changing — growing, darkening, developing an irregular edge, bleeding, itching, or starting to look different from every other mark on your skin — it needs proper medical assessment before anyone thinks about treating it for appearance.

Most such marks are harmless.

That is not the point.

The point is that you check first.

A cosmetic plan should never be used to paper over a medical question.

What about correcting damage already there?

This is not hopeless.

Some UV-related changes can improve. Certain sun spots and patches of uneven tone can be softened, and in suitable skin sometimes cleared.

But prevention is still the better treatment.

Not because correction is impossible.

Because correction is always work done after the damage has already been created.

Peels, lasers, microneedling, pigmentation treatment and melasma management all deserve proper explanations. They should not be squeezed into this article just to make it look comprehensive.

This article has a simpler job.

To help you stop creating the problem.

A calm word to finish

I did not write this to make anyone feel guilty about holidays, or about summers already spent. I spent mine chasing the exact thing I am now asking you to be careful with.

The point is not shame.

It is timing.

The skin you protect today is the skin you will be living in at seventy. I look younger than my father did at my age for one main reason, and I suspect the next generation will age better still because daily sun protection is becoming ordinary rather than strange.

That is not vanity.

It is biology catching up with culture.

A tan fades in a fortnight.

The colour disappears first.

The biology stays longer.

Your future skin is being built quietly, every day.

The question is whether you want UV making those decisions for you.

If you are looking at your skin and wondering what is already there, and what is genuinely worth doing about it, that is what a skin assessment is for: calmly, and before any treatment is chosen.

You can book through the Appointments page.

Piotr Wojtowicz

MPharm, Independent Prescriber,

MSc Cosmetic and Aesthetic Medicine

PGDip Dermatology in Clinical Practice

This article is general education, not individual medical advice. Any treatment should follow a personal assessment.

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References

Gordon, J.R. and Brieva, J.C. (2012) ‘Unilateral dermatoheliosis’, New England Journal of Medicine, 366(16), e25. doi:10.1056/NEJMicm1104059.

Hughes, M.C.B., Williams, G.M., Baker, P. and Green, A.C. (2013) ‘Sunscreen and prevention of skin aging: a randomized trial’, Annals of Internal Medicine, 158(11), pp. 781–790. doi:10.7326/0003-4819-158-11-201306040-00002.

Kohl, E., Steinbauer, J., Landthaler, M. and Szeimies, R.-M. (2011) ‘Skin ageing’, Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, 25(8), pp. 873–884. doi:10.1111/j.1468-3083.2010.03963.x.

National Health Service (2025) Sunscreen and sun safety. Available at: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/seasonal-health/sunscreen-and-sun-safety/ (Accessed: 6 July 2026).

British Association of Dermatologists (2024) Sun protection fact sheet. Available at: https://www.skinhealthinfo.org.uk/sun-awareness/the-sunscreen-fact-sheet/ (Accessed: 6 July 2026).

World Health Organization (2022) Radiation: ultraviolet (UV) radiation. Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-ultraviolet-(uv) (Accessed: 6 July 2026).