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Exposure to sunlight is bad... right? As the saying goes, everything in moderation. Catching a couple rays can be totally fine but getting too much sun is definitely harmful. Sunlight has Ultraviolet (UV) radiation which increases your risk of sunburns, premature skin aging, and skin cancer so it’s important to limit your exposure.
Clothes provide our first defense against the sun by absorbing or blocking the UV radiation, but different clothes provide different levels of protection. Darker colors are more protective than lighter colors, while tightly woven fabric is more protective than one that is loosely woven.
UV, UPF and SPF
Choosing clothing that has been designed for sun protection and tested to confirm its Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) will give you the most control over your UV exposure. UPF is the system used to rate apparel for the UV protectiveness, similar to the SPF rating for sunscreens. When evaluating clothing for their protection against the sun, you’ll want to look for higher UPF ratings. The higher the number, the more effective the garment is at blocking out those harmful rays. A garment with UPF 25 means 1/25th of UV radiation passes through the clothing while UPF 50+ (the highest on the scale) means that less 1/50th of UV rays pass through the fabric (or 2% transmittance). For example, a typical white cotton T-shirt will have a UPF rating of 4 which means that 25% of the UV radiation passes through it.
“Sunscreen” For Your Head
We wanted to ensure our caps provided protection from the sun and we took special care to design with cancer patients in mind. With more skin exposed on the scalp due to chemotherapy, and an increased sensitivity to the sun from the medications, cancer patients need to be even more careful about their exposure to UV rays. That’s why we made sure all our hats had a UPF rating of 50+.We do this by incorporating the same minerals used in sunscreen into our fabric. These nanominerals absorb the UV rays and drastically minimize your exposure.
Of course, we would still recommend wearing sunscreen when going out into the sun for prolonged periods of time. While OURA headwear is UV protective, it should be used in conjunction with sunscreen and sunglasses to give you complete coverage from head to toe (we’ve got your head covered).
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OURA was born from our experiences with cancer.
To learn more about our story, click here.
To purchase an OURA headwear for a loved one, click here.
