Summer when the sun hates you

Everyone loves summer. I love summer too, in theory. In practice, summer is a three-month negotiation with a big yellow ball that wants to cook me.

Why we burn instead of tanning

Most natural redheads carry variants of a gene called MC1R. Normally, this gene tells skin cells to make eumelanin, the dark pigment that protects the skin and gives you a tan. When MC1R works less well, the body mostly makes pheomelanin instead, the red-yellow pigment. It colors our hair beautifully, but it protects the skin very poorly. Result: we burn, and we freckle.

It's not only about sunburn

In 2012, a team at Massachusetts General Hospital published a study in Nature showing that, in red-haired mice, the red pigment itself caused oxidative damage in the skin and promoted melanoma even without UV exposure. Mice are not humans, but it's one reason dermatologists tell redheads to check their moles regularly, not only to wear sunscreen.

My actual summer routine

• Broad-spectrum SPF 30 or higher every morning, even when it's cloudy (the American Academy of Dermatology recommends at least 30)
• Reapplying every two hours at the beach, and after swimming
• A big hat and sunglasses, always
• Picking the shady table, the umbrella, the tree
• A skin check with a dermatologist once a year

The comments

"You should get a little color!" Thank you, I will. The color will be red, it will hurt, and it will peel in three days. "Just tan slowly" is also a classic. I've tried. Slowly, I turn a slightly deeper pink.

The bright side

One popular scientific hypothesis says pale skin spread in northern Europe because it helps the body make vitamin D with very little sunlight. So my skin isn't broken. It was built for cloudy Scotland, not for a Mediterranean beach.

I don't tan. I just have more freckles by September.