The truth about sunscreen and Indian skin we keep ignoring

Every summer, like clockwork, someone announces that sunscreen doesn’t work on Indian skin. The headline travels faster than the nuance, and suddenly sunscreen is on trial for crimes it didn’t commit. Here’s the inconvenient truth: sunscreen works. What doesn’t work is how we use it, what we expect from it, and the fantasy that one ₹600 tube can outsmart the Indian sun.

UVA damage is the real issue for brown skin

Let’s start with the great misunderstanding: protection vs tanning. Sunscreen is designed to protect your skin from UV damage — burns, DNA damage, premature ageing, skin cancer. Dr Shreya Sankhe says that sunscreen is not a magical force field that freezes your skin tone in place. Indian skin tans easily because melanin is reactive. That’s biology, not betrayal. If you’re standing on a beach at noon, sweating, swimming, rubbing your face with a towel and expecting zero tan — that’s optimism bordering on delusion.

She didn't say that sunscreen is useless. She said what dermatologists quietly say all the time: sunscreen isn’t invincible, especially in Indian conditions.

Most of us buy sunscreen the way we buy bottled water — grab whatever’s closest and hope for the best. SPF 50? Great. But SPF only measures protection from UVB rays (the ones that burn). Brown skin’s real enemy is UVA, i.e., the rays that cause tanning, pigmentation, melasma, and long-term damage. If your sunscreen isn’t broad-spectrum or doesn’t clearly mention PA+++ or PA++++, you’re leaving the door open and acting surprised when the sun walks in.

Then there’s application. Dermatology recommends two finger-lengths of sunscreen for the face and neck. What do we use? A polite dab. At that amount, your SPF 50 performs like SPF 10. Sunscreen maths is cruel and completely uninterested in your budget.

Reapplication is where things really fall apart. In a humid, coastal, sweat-heavy country, sunscreen breaks down fast. You’re supposed to reapply every two to three hours, especially outdoors. Almost nobody does. Not because they’re careless — because life happens. Traffic happens. Makeup happens. Reality happens. Sunscreen didn’t fail; it was abandoned mid-shift.

There’s also the formulation problem. Many sunscreens sold in India are imported or adapted from Western markets. They weren’t built for 90% humidity, aggressive UV indexes, or skin types prone to pigmentation. Chemical filters that behave perfectly in Paris can sting, darken, or oxidise on Indian skin in Goa or Chennai. That’s why so many dermatologists now lean toward mineral or hybrid sunscreens here. Zinc oxide may not glow, but it shows up and does its job.

And let’s address the melanin myth. Yes, Indian skin has more melanin. No, that doesn’t make us immune. It means we burn less easily, not that we’re safe from damage. Pigmentation disorders and late-detected skin cancers are actually harder to spot on darker skin tones.

Sunscreen alone is not enough. Hats, sunglasses, shade and avoiding peak sun is important. Carrying an umbrella isn’t unfashionable — it is dermatologically sound.

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