Summer’s almost here and everyone knows what that means; along with bugs, barbecues, and beaches, it’s sun season. For some people, this is the best time of year—time to strip down to a swimsuit and get an effortless golden tan. For people like me, though, it’s time to start carrying a giant tube of sunscreen everywhere I go. Even though I’m not red-haired or freckled, I have extremely fair skin, and on a sunny day, I burn after just a few short minutes outside. If you looked at the rest of my family though, you’d think I was their weirdly-pale distant relation, because my parents and sibling all have deeply tanned, almost Mediterranean skin. Thanks, genetics.
Decided by DNA
Some people are tanners and some people are stay-in-the-shaders, depending on the amount of melanin in their skin. We all possess melanin; some of us more and some less. It’s produced by cells called melanocytes, which can be found buried in the deep layers of skin. Melanocytes protect our skin by releasing melanin in response to exposure to UV rays. Whether you’re a tanner or a burner, any time you see your skin change color, that’s the result of melanin being produced. Everyone has about the same number of melanocytes in their skin, no matter what race they are or skin type they have. The only difference is how active the cells are. The more active the melanocytes, the darker a person’s skin is. People with dark, Mediterranean, or black skin are more naturally protected from the sun and far less likely to get burned.
Ultimately, sun worship is dangerous and even a suntan is a sign of skin damage. It tells us that the melanocytes have been activated and are attempting to protect the outer layers of skin. Dark-skinned people have melanocytes that take a pretty relaxed approach to defense, since they already produce more melanin anyways. For fair-skinned people, our melanocytes go into hyperdrive trying to protect us. But anyone, regardless of skin type, can overdo it, and when we get too much sun, it results in the hot, red, and painful condition we know (and hate) as a sunburn.
