Can This Protect Your Skin? (2024)

Hint: It's already in your closet

by Marygrace TaylorPublished: Mar 20, 2013

Sure, you pull that umbrella out of the closet when skies are stormy. But have you ever considered reaching for it on sunny days, too?

As it turns out, carrying an umbrella on warm summer days can protect your skin from harmful UV rays, according to a new pilot study from Emory University School of Medcine. Researchers evaluated the abilities of 23 different umbrellas at blocking UV radiation, and found that all of the umbrellas blocked at least 77% of damaging rays.

In fact, that makes umbrellas almost as effective as sunscreen where UV protection is concerned. But don’t take the findings as license to stop slathering on the white stuff. Even though umbrellas score points over sunscreen for not needing to be reapplied or applied correctly in the first place, experts say the sun shades do best as a parallel form of protection. “Umbrellas aren’t perfect, so you should use them to complement the sunscreen you’re already wearing,” say study authors Josette McMichael, MD, and Suephy Chen, MD, MS.

Another thing: When you do bust out the umbrella on the next nice day, you might want to opt for a black one. While all the umbrellas in the study offered protection, black models fared the best, intercepting at least 90% of the sun’s rays. “If you wear a dark-colored shirt, for instance, you get hotter because the color absorbs more UV rays,” say Dr. McMichael and Dr. Chen. “Black umbrellas, too, absorb more of the sun’s energy, so less of it is able to seep through the fabric to your skin.”

As for whether black clothes or hats will also keep you safer from the sun? They could—but it’s hard to say for sure. While there hasn’t been any definitive research, researchers speculate that more variables are at play with clothing than with umbrellas. “In addition to color, you have to consider the type of fabric and the tightness of the weave. We’d imagine a looser weave might not block the sun as well as a tighter one,” they note. Translation? Keep slathering on that sunscreen.