Blue umbrellas rule when it comes to sun protection

You’ve probably heard someone comment about how colours have temperatures. Interior designers will recommend painting a room in a shade of blue, to create a cool atmosphere, while a golden yellow colour will produce a room with a warm ambience.

But what shades should you be “wearing” outdoors to keep “cool” ?

The UV colour connection

The advice is usually avoid BLACK. Black is HOT (really hot) because it absorbs the full spectrum of colours from yellow through to blue.

White is considered to be cool, by virtue of the fact that it is reflecting all the colours.

But we live in a rainbow world, so it is really boring to be stuck with “wearing” lilly white, so what colours should we be togged up in and under ?

For sun protection go BLUE

Researches from Ascensión Riva decided it was time to take the swatches out of the design studio and onto the beach.

In their study , they pitted the sun protection of a fabric which had been dyed either blue, red or yellow.

The fabric’s UV protection prowess changed according to it’s colour.

Blue fabric demonstrated superior ultraviolet blocking abilities, ranking tops in terms of its ultraviolet protection factor. Yellow performed worst. Red was in-between.

Just a quick note, if you want to look hot then red is the colour to go for !

Sun is a two edged sword

You need to tap into lizard wisdom and soak up enough to produce adequate quantities of vitamin D.

Vitamin D is important for your overall health and wellbeing – adequate levels of vitamin D help keep your bones strong, keep your immune system in tip top shape by protecting you from colds and flu as well as staving off allergies. Vitamin D even helps keep the little guys (sperm) strong and vibrant.

But too much sun, will leave you burned and blistered in the moment. Plus severe sun burn increases the chances that there is damage to the skin cell’s DNA. Damage to cell DNA can cause the cell to turn cancerous leading to skin cancer.

Hide under a blue umbrella

If you’re spending the day in the sun, you need to fine tune your sun exposure. Avoid the big burn but don’t block out all the sun’s rays with layers of sun screen.

A great way to keep yourself out of the direct firing line of the sun, but still catch some rays is by hanging out in some shade. A beech umbrella creates a little artificial portable shade to hide under.

If you’re in the market for a new beach umbrella then follow the counsel of Mr Ford.

“You can have your umbrella in any shade you like, as long as it’s blue”

Modeling the Effects of Color on the UV Protection Provided by Cotton Woven Fabrics Dyed with Azo Dyestuffs. Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research (2009) 48(22) : 9817-9822. Ascensin Riva, Ins Algaba, Montserrat Pepi, Remedios Prieto.

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