Your Sun Care Habits At 30 Can Lead To Skin Cancer When You're 60

With cases on the rise, you’re more at risk than ever. Here’s what you can do right now to prevent problems later.

Sure, you like to get a tan every summer, or maybe you’ve been known to indulge in a few tanning-bed sessions before a big event or winter vacation. But as long as your skin looks good now, you’re doing fine, right? Uh, nope.

No matter how lovely you look today, your skin could already be in danger from slow-growing non-melanoma basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or other forms of skin cancer.

“A tan may look good to you now, but later you’ll regret it when you have to have surgeries on your face and body to remove skin cancer,” said dermatologist Dr. Claire Wolinsky.

The regret is real, said dermatologist Dr. Hadley King. “It’s important to realize that there’s no such thing as a healthy tan, even if you aren’t burning, since tanning is a defense mechanism that gets turned on when the DNA of skin cells is damaged by UV radiation.”

When you look in the mirror and like what you see, it can be hard to imagine the possibility of skin cancer, said dermatologist Dr. Corey L. Hartman, but it can happen. “Younger skin is more resilient than older skin, so someone who gets sunburned in their 30s will likely see it clear up and resolve itself much quicker than someone in their 60s. Think of it this way — all the time you spend on your skin care routine, and the money you spend on skin care products, means very little unless you’re protecting your skin from the sun.”