Protecting your skin from the sun is imperative, especially if you spend a lot of time outside. Sunscreen is a terrific technique to protect yourself from the sun’s rays, but it isn’t always sufficient. Additional protection against dangerous UV radiation is provided by wearing sun protective apparel.

What is UPF?

When we talk about sun protection, the terms Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) and Sun Protection Factor (SPF) are frequently employed. Although they can sound alike, they are not the same thing.

Due to its increased usage, SPF is a term that describes how effective sunscreen is. It shows how long it takes for skin to get red after being exposed to UVB rays. If you go outside without any protection and begin to burn after 20 minutes, an SPF 15 sunscreen should shield you from the sun’s rays for 15 times longer than naked skin does.

The term UPF refers to the amount of UV rays, including UVB and UVA, that may permeate a certain fabric and harm your skin. A UPF 50-rated piece of clothing will protect you from 98 per cent of the sun’s harmful rays. The other two per cent will infiltrate the cloth.

Anything between 30 and 40 is regarded as a ‘very protective barrier’, and anything with a UPF of 50 or more is deemed ‘excellent protection’.

What is Sun-Protective Clothing?

Not all clothing effectively protects your skin from the sun. The colour and fabric of an item, among other factors, may determine how safe it is to wear it in the sun. UV radiation can pass through the tiny holes in the weaves of everyday clothing or even through a light-coloured shirt directly. The block is substantially stronger on UPF clothes, providing you with more sun protection.

The majority of sun protective apparel is available in a range of shirts, leggings, and cap styles and looks and feels like athletic or athleisure. And compared to a regular T-shirt, it frequently feels a little more opulent because of the greater thread count.

Highly dark or very dazzling colours provide for the best clothing. These colours are preferable to light ones for skin protection since UPF clothing absorbs UV radiation rather than allowing them to reach the skin. The fabric has a big impact on the UPF of your clothing. As opposed to tightly woven materials like wool or denim, thick, opaque textiles are preferable. In general, if you hold a piece of clothing up to a light and can see light through it, you can get a fair idea of how simple it will be for UV rays to penetrate your skin.

The composition of the fabric has an impact on UPF in addition to the ingredients used to make UPF clothing. Look for fibres like unbleached cotton, glossy polyester, satiny silk, and high-tech fabrics when buying apparel with sun protection. All of these materials either reflect UV rays back into space, filter them out, or absorb them.

Your level of protection will increase if you are able to wear anything loose. Too-tight clothing flexes more readily and loses more UV protection as a result. Since skin protection from the sun also depends on the kind of clothing you wear, if you have to select between a shirt with short or long sleeves, go for the long sleeves to keep your arms out of the sun.

Many a times, clothing designed expressly to be worn in the sun have UPF labels, similar to how the majority of sunscreen bottles have SPF markings.

What elements affect clothing’s ability to shield against the sun?

The majority of clothing partially shields the skin’s layers from UV radiation. A variety of factors are used to calculate UPF of an item of clothing. The same standards can be applied to determine how effective a common piece of clothing is at blocking UV rays.

•   Dyes: Dark clothing is usually better to lighter clothes in terms of UV protection, but the type of dye used to colour the fabric affects how well it blocks UV rays. The higher the concentration of UV-blocking a dye has the more UV rays it blocks.

•   Treatments: During various stages of the manufacturing process, clothing manufacturers may include UV light-absorbing materials. Laundry additives, such as brighteners and UV-disrupting chemicals, can increase a garment’s UPF rating.

•   Weave: Loosely woven materials provide less protection than densely woven ones. To determine how tightly woven an item of clothing is, hold it up to the light. If you can see light through the weave, it may be too loose to block the sun’s rays.

•   Fabric: Without further chemical processing, some fabrics like cotton, flax, rayon, and hemp might not efficiently screen UV radiation. Wool, polyester, nylon, and silk are some materials that are better at blocking sun’s radiation.

•   Stretch: It is possible that stretchable clothing offers less UV protection than non-stretchable clothing.

Which clothing is the best for sun protection?

•   Dense fabric: Not always does wearing more clothing layers mean greater protection. A fabric’s principal defence against UV radiation is the density of its weave; the tighter the knit or weave, the smaller the holes and the less UV rays can pass through.

•   Dark or bright colours: It is a fact that darker colours absorb more UV rays than lighter colours like white and pastels. For instance, red is a striking colour that can block UV rays. Vibrance of colour raises the level of protection.

Why should you invest in sun protective clothing?

1. You can feel confident that the textiles used in specialist-approved sun protection garments are indeed sun protective.

Unless a fabric has undergone extensive testing, it is difficult to determine the degree of protection you are obtaining from your garment. The UPF of a standard T-shirt may only be 5, which is equivalent to using SPF 5 sunscreen and indicates that 20 per cent of UV rays are passing through the fabric. In contrast, a fabric which has passed testing and received a UPF50 certification, which is equivalent to applying SPF50 sunscreen, blocks at least 98 per cent of UV rays.

2.  Functional design is incorporated into sun protection apparel to reduce direct solar exposure to your skin.

When creating sun protective clothing and sun hats, sun protection is the first focus. Long sleeves, thumbholes, and collars are typically features of a sun-protective clothing, allowing you to shield the backs of your hands. A sun hat that will shield you from the sun will have a large brim and other elements, including a legionnaire flap to cover your neck and ears.

3. You can stay cool in hot, sunny circumstances by wearing specialised UPF 50 sun protecting apparel.

Sun protective clothing is practically designed and uses fabrics that are breathable, light, and ultralight to make it comfortable to wear in warm, sunny conditions, in addition to having a great UPF 50 rating.

4. Approved by the medical experts.

Dermatologists all agree that the best way to protect yourself from UV rays is to use broad-brimmed sun hats and sun protective clothing. Wearing a UPF50 shirt is equivalent to applying SPF50 sunscreen with better assurance since sunscreen can rub off or lose its efficacy due to perspiration or movement during the day. In order to maintain the degree of protection, most people usually apply less sunscreen than is recommended and forget to reapply every two hours. As a result, they develop a greater propensity for skin cancer, ageing skin, and sunburn.

5. Overexposure to sunlight is responsible for up to 90 per cent of skin ageing.

Limiting your exposure to sunlight is the key to having youthful skin; forget moisturisers and cosmetic surgery. The sun damages the proteins in our skin, which over time leads you to lose your youthful appearance. On the plus side, this sort of ageing can be prevented by utilising the proper sun protection.

6.  Purchasing a sun protective clothing is nothing but an investment in your long-term health.

Sun protective clothing protects the largest organ we have—the skin, and we can’t trade it for another one. Investing in trusted UPF50 sun protection sooner could mean avoiding paying for it with your skin at a later time.

Conclusion

In view of the factors discussed above, it may be wise to wear UPF clothing in the summer. If purchasing UPF clothing is not feasible for any reason, use full-cover apparel that can provide effective sun protection instead. Hats, sunglasses, and scarves are some of the accessories that can assist in preventing damage.