Summer Must Have: Sun Safe Clothing

As the weather gets warmer and the sun shines for longer hours in hotter temperatures, it's best you take good care of your skins while you're having fun in the sun. One of the best and most affordable ways to protect yourself from the sun's direct harmful ultraviolet rays (UVR) is by using sarongs to cover up whenever you're lying by the beach and exposing yourself to the sun all day long. Whether you're on a summer holiday or escaping to a tropical destination or simply spending time with your family at a resort over the weekend - you'd need to be aware of your health and the danger that the sun can bring to your skin. As much as we love sunshine, too much of anything can never be good for a person.

Besides your face, your shoulders are the most prone to direct sunlight, cover up these body parts when you're out in the sun!

The most basic form of sun safe protection is clothing and in the context of wanting to be versatile and flexible, you'll find that our sarongs are ideal substitutes for sun safe wear where you're able to pack it easily wherever you go, just fold and tuck it into your beach bags or hand purse and whip it out at any time the sun starts to get overbearing while you're out at the city or beach.

Enjoy being outdoors and just be mindful to how many hours your body gets exposed to direct sunlight

We spend most of our lives getting excited over summer and we can't help but feel the joy of basking under the sun. As much as we love this activity, it's important to stay mindful of our actions. In a long run, over-exposure to sunlight can lead to unpleasing outcomes and to the extreme - skin cancer. According to Skin Cancer Organization, 'the sun damage done to every exposed part of your body is cumulative over your lifetime, continually adding to your risks of premature skin aging and skin cancer'. It is advisable for us summer and beach lovers to cover our skins often as it's better for our health from a long term perspective. Besides the superficial downfalls of pre-mature aging and wrinkles and unhealthy skin glows - you'll have to consider taking care of your immune system and state of being.

Always pack an extra sarong just in case you need to allow your skin to breathe and rest no matter where you go

Here are 2 important factors to look out for when deciding on the best sun safe clothing for you and your family:

1) FABRIC WEIGHT & DENSITY: WEAVE TYPE & ABSORPTION 

Choose the kind of fabric that does not allow sunlight to pierce through. This is dependent on the number of fibers woven together in any fabric, the tighter the knit, the tinier the holes and so the less space for UV sunlight to go through. With higher thread count and more fibers weaved together, you'll have dense and solid like materials which makes it protective from sunlight. Besides that, do consider the types of material that absorbs more UV radiation. *'Most fibers naturally absorb some UV radiation, and some have elastic threads that pull the fibers tightly together, reducing the spaces between the holes. Synthetic fibers such as polyester, lycra, nylon, and acrylic are more protective than bleached cottons, and shiny or lustrous semi-synthetic fabrics like rayon reflect more UV than do matte ones, such as linen, which tend to absorb rather than reflect UV'. If you want to go for our lightweight fabrics, do consider choosing our Pertama top quality sarongs for women and men, which are usually made of denser type of rayon weave type.

2) COLOR VARIATIONS

Our sarong collections are created with color dyes that helps reduce exposure because they absorb UV radiations. It is common that darker colors tend to absorb more UV than lighter colors which explains why wearing a black sarong under the sun will heat up your body ore than say wearing a white sarong. Vivid and darker colors tend to provide better sun protection then lighter and pale colors but this is also subject to the sarong fabric type and weave that you can put into consideration. You're best bet to keep your skin safe is to go with white sarongs because *'white fabrics have 'optical whitening agents' that are chemical compounds that strongly absorb UVR, especially UVA'.

You can spend hours out in the sun, just build a make shift tee-pee & get your skin protected from overexposure sunlight

Additional tips when shopping for sun safe clothing:

1) Buy garments that covers more skin. If you need an extra sarong to take with to the beach, get it done. You can even go for our plus size sarongs so you have plenty of material to protect your skin with

2) Get the size right, over stretching clothing that don't fit your body size will only allow more sun exposure to pierce through the fabric. If you're worried about stretched clothing, make sure you get a scarf or sarong to layer up as added protection

3) If you're going to wear bikinis or bathing suits or swim shorts under the hot sun, make sure you have your sarongs packed together. Sure we love to work on our tan lines but after 1-2 hours you'll start to feel the burn on your skin and that's not a good sign. By that time you'll need to hydrate by a dip at the pool or ocean and dry up and cover yourself with your sarongs so you can allow your skin to rest and breathe

4) Pack the right travel essentials! Never leave for a tropical destination or summer holiday without your sun protector for body and face (minimum SPF 15), a beach hat, sunglasses, cover-ups like ponchos, cardigans or sarongs

Wear a sarong over your head and shoulders if you start to feel your skin heating up

Above all - sun safe clothing goes beyond health benefits, they can be stylish and fashionable and versatile for your everyday wear! You can play around with different colors and use your imagination to layer up and combine sun safe sarongs with your outfits of the day.

*1 World Sarongs is thankful to Skin Cancer Organization for enlightening and educating us regarding this important subject on our skins and to our beloved customers who were trusting enough to share their insights and reviews with us.