Every summer there must be hundreds of people who get sunburn. One of those persons might be you. The question to ask is ‘why do we get sunburns?’ of course not everybody gets sunburn but ‘we’ who have light skins. Cells around our skin called melanocytes produce melanin pigments, which gives the skin the dark color if it is present in abundance. For the light skinned people the melanocytes produce just enough melanin, but for the dark skin people too much melanin is produced unlike the albinos who have very little or no melanin.
Exposure of your skin to the ultraviolet rays from the sun makes your skin to panic over its safety and starts producing extra melanin which can lead to suntan. However if the skin continues to be exposed to the sun for a long time, the melanocytes are unable to produce enough melanin to protect your skin thereby causing sunburn. Extra blood is then pumped to the area affected to help in healing process making the place look red.
The ultraviolet rays from the sun will always affect the weakest part of the skin or the one exposed to the sun for the longest period of time. As the sunburn begins to heal the skin peels of so that a fresh layer of skin is grown over the damaged area.
Therefore it is advised of all light skinned people to apply enough sunscreen when going out into the hot sun of summer. The sunscreen will over another protective layer to your skin that will repeal the ultraviolet rays from the sun. Sunburn can be experience by both the old and the aged but infant’s skin are more sensitive and therefore more prone to sunburn even within a very short time of exposure.