Beating the Heat while Fat: Applying Sunscreen on a Fat Body
Hi everyone! It's Fat Friend Summer here in the USA again, the time of year where even if you love your fat body or feel completely neutral about it, you have to admit that it is a complete pain in the ass sometimes because it is hot out here.
I've written a lot about being fat and hot before (I mean temperature hot, not like, aesthetically hot), including:
Beating the Heat while Fat
Slipshort Review (for preventing chub rub)
Now, I'd like to talk about sunscreen. Please note that this post is written from a USAmerican perspective using USAmerican resources (mostly), so product availability and public health guidance might be different where you are!
First, everybody needs sunscreen. I don't care how much melanin you make, the sun is a deadly laser and you need to protect your skin from it. There are several types of sunscreen out there- I prefer mineral sunscreen because I don't mind the white cast, but you know what's best for you and what doesn't irritate your skin. I'm not going to go into the how and why everybody needs sunscreen- instead, I'll leave you with some links that should convince you.
American Academy of Dermatology's FAQs about sunscreen
Skincancer.org's info on sunscreen
Instead, what I'm here to talk about today is the special considerations that fat bodies need when it comes to sunscreen. There is nothing wrong with having a fat body. There is nothing wrong with being fat and going outside. You have just as much right as a thin-bodied person to show as much or as little skin as you want. Your sun exposure should be about your comfort and nothing else. And just like any other body, fat bodies deserve to be nurtured and cared for, and that means you need sunscreen.
But there are a few things that fat bodies do that require a little extra attention on the sunscreen front!
The Emotional Impact of Being Fat and Needing Sunscreen
Did you know that fat bodies may be more likely to get a sunburn than thin bodies? Yet research shows that when you control for factors other than subcutaneous fat, people with less subcutaneous fat are likely to experience a more severe sunburn than people with more. In another study that looked at risk factors, basically everybody other than people who avoid the sun are at risk of sunburn. Even sunscreen use was an associated factor, which- ok, most of us are using sunscreen wrong. Point is, it's not the fat that makes fat people more prone to sunburn; it's other factors, and we can control some of those! Like how we apply sunscreen!
Emotionally, being fat in summer is often not easy. There's a lot of complex feelings and insecurities that often crop up, even in the people who are the most confident about their bodies. It can be a lot to be perceived! Sometimes you don't want to ask for help. Sometimes the thought of someone else touching your skin feels like the worst thing in the world. Sometimes you need to put on sunscreen and you're by yourself to begin with.
But if there's parts of you that you can't reach with your own hands, you shouldn't feel bad because there is no moral value to having a human body of any shape- everybody has skin. Everybody needs to protect their skin. Even thin people can't necessarily reach their own backs. Putting on sunscreen shouldn't feel embarrassing; it should feel completely neutral, because it's simply protection from the sun. If you're feeling distress or resistance, reframing it as something you're doing to take care of yourself can help. So can reframing it as "I'm not doing this for me, I'm doing this to thwart the sun (or something equally silly)." The second you bring silliness into it, the easier it becomes to take it less seriously and minimize the distress's power over you.
You have lots of options for getting sunscreen on yourself! Each of these does require a different range of mobility, so think about what you can and can't do with your arms when you're thinking about one of these.
Stick Lotion Applicator: This applicator has a spongy pad on the end of it. You put the lotion on and use it to get areas you can't reach. You have to be careful with even coverage and use a little more sunscreen than you think you need.
Spatula Lotion Applicator: This is basically just a silicone spatula with a long handle that you use to get lotion on your back. You might need to work a little harder with this one to get the sunscreen to rub in, but you'll have a lot of control over the location with this one.
Strap Lotion Applicator: Using one hand on each handle, this applicator is good at quickly covering large areas. However, it can be a little more challenging to get even coverage, so make sure you get everywhere.
Paint Roller Lotion Applicator: My favorite kind of applicator, this device gives you really even, complete coverage. Just make sure to wash it off between uses because the roller pad can get gummy if you don't rinse it.
I've linked examples on Amazon because that was both easy and convenient, but you can almost certainly find an applicator that works for you at a big box store or any drugstore or pharmacy. Many of these have extendable or curved handles that make it easy to get to those hard-to-reach places, and the even coverage means that you're not going to have streaky burned patches on your back or other areas.
Another application style people often use is spray sunscreen. I use this stuff too, but never for my base coat; I like to use a cream so that I can see that I got everything. I do like to top up with the spray instead of paint-rollering myself every single time I need to reapply. However, some people are sensitive to aerosols and the scent of spray sunscreen, and if you have sensitive skin, it might not be your favorite. Spray sunscreen may also be banned in certain areas for environmental reasons, depending on what kind of sunscreen it is and what's in it.
Also, because almost nobody seems to remember it: You have to rub the spray sunscreen in for it to be effective. If it just sits there on top of your skin where you left it, you run the risk of uneven coverage... and thereby, sunburns!
Fat bodies have more surface area than thin ones, and it's easy to forget that every part of you needs coverage! (At least, every part of you that's exposed.) Body size is a risk factor for not using enough sunscreen, especially on the face, so make sure that you use it often and liberally!
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, it's expected that an adult should use about 1 ounce of sunscreen- a shot glass full. But guess who this data is for? Not us, that's for sure!
Like many other doses based on body size, it seems that the sunscreen dosage is based on the idea of the Reference Man, a fictional guy who weighs 70 kilograms (154 pounds) and is five foot seven. If you're not built like him, almost anything dosed based on body size is going to be flawed for you. Fortunately, Sarah Rose Yalowitz over at SELF has gone into the numbers and come up with a better explanation of how much to use based on body surface area calculations. I'm not going to repost the whole article here, but you should read it because it's very interesting how these numbers were derived.
(If this is hard to read, height/weight/amount of sunscreen are in the alt text.)
If you're using stick or spray this doesn't work, but if you're using liquid/cream/gel/whatever, it's a good place to start. Also those are shot glasses in the image, not full-sized glasses.
Here's some things to remember as you apply sunscreen on each of your body zones.
Head: Using a facial sunscreen (you can use regular sunscreen if you want but if you have sensitive skin you should definitely use facial), cover all exposed skin. Make sure to get behind your ears and the back of your neck by your hairline. And don't forget your lips- you should use a lip balm with SPF for that, though.
Neck and Chest: If you have neck rolls or a hump of adipose tissue on the back of your neck, make sure that your sunscreen covers any crevices there.
Arms: Make sure that when you're doing your shoulder, you get the whole thing. Don't ignore any skin folds and make sure you get the back of the joint where your shoulder forms the armpit.
Legs: Some people don't put sunscreen on their legs. I'm not one of those people. Get the tops of your feet too, and it's not a bad idea to have foot protection that covers the whole foot if you're in a lake or ocean. Fat can make it difficult to reach your feet and if you get cut in the water, it can get infected pretty quickly. So if you're wearing water shoes, you can probably skip the tops of your feet.
Chest and Belly: If you have skin folds that will be exposed in your bathing outfit, make sure you get the underside of those as well as the tops. Even if you think they won't see the sun, they might! And then you'll end up with a sunburn that's going to be extremely uncomfortable and extremely challenging to heal.
Heat and Sunburn are Not The Same Thing
Have you ever said "I can't believe I got a sunburn, it wasn't that hot out!" Because I know I have. I bet most of us have at some point. But the reality is that while it's often hotter when the sun's rays are most intense, you can still get a sunburn on a cool day. You can even get a sunburn on an overcast day; 90% of the sun's UV radiation can make it through cloud cover. Before you go outside, look up the UV index (or your country's equivalent) for your location. If it's over 3, it can cause damage to some skin types. If it's 6 or higher, everyone should be wearing sunscreen. If it hits 11, why are you going outside? Stop that. Go back in the house. Even if you have a tan, you can burn in 5 minutes if the UV index is 11. Even if you produce the most melanin of any human being who's ever lived, a UV index of 11+ will hurt you.
No sunscreen lasts forever, and even if you're not swimming, you're sweating. And the more body fat you have, the more you sweat- you have more surface area (meaning more room for sweat glands) and a better-insulated body (meaning you retain heat better), so when you're exposed to heat, the body's natural evaporative cooling systems kicks into overdrive. You sweat. It's part of life.
But it's also a part of life that makes your sunscreen wear off faster. So you might need to reapply more frequently, especially on a really hot day! I personally like to apply a mineral base coat before I go out in the sun, then top up with spray every so often (depending on heat, intensity of the sun, am I wearing a giant hat, etc.) and reapply my mineral after I get out of the water.
In many cases, if you're just hanging out dry, it's said to reapply sunscreen every two hours. I usually do it more frequently than that though, just because I have the kind of skin that is less "fair" and more "pallid." Make sure when you reapply that you've patted yourself dry and give the new sunscreen a few minutes to soak into your skin before you hop back in the water. This goes for everyone, no matter their body size. Just because you put it on in the morning, that doesn't mean it's still effective six hours later!
This is a lot, right? Here's the quick list of stuff you need to remember about sunscreen.
Everyone needs sunscreen, regardless of skin tone or body size.
Fat bodies deserve sun protection.
Fat people are not inherently more prone to sunburn, but applying can be a bitch and a half for a lot of reasons. It's ok if you think it sucks! You still gotta do it, but you're allowed to think it sucks.
Application tools help with hard-to-reach spots and accommodate different mobility levels.
Spray sunscreen is convenient for reapplication, but don't forget to rub it in!
1 ounce (a shot glass) of sunscreen is a minimum, based on outdated body metrics; larger bodies need more.
Be thorough in applying sunscreen to all exposed areas, including your skin folds if they're gonna see the sun!
Heat and sunburn are not the same thing and you can get sunburned even when it's cool out.
Sweating impacts sunscreen longevity, so reapply frequently because you are going to sweat that's just how it works. Unless you have anhidrosis, in which case you won't.
Always dry off before reapplying, and let sunscreen absorb before going back into the water. Otherwise you're basically just washing it off.
Now go have fun outside or stay inside, whatever it is you wanna do, but just don't go getting a sunburn!
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