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How the Fitzpatrick Scale Helps You Take Care of Your Skin
If you’ve ever paid attention to your facial skin, you’ve probably noticed some characteristics of your skin type. Maybe you’ve noticed some dry areas or recognized sensitivity and self-diagnosed your skin into a particular category. While knowing if your skin is oily or dry is important for knowing which products are right for you, there is another way of classifying skin that is essential for its health.
If you’ve ever paid attention to your facial skin, you’ve probably noticed some characteristics of your skin type. Maybe you’ve noticed some dry areas or recognized sensitivity and self-diagnosed your skin into a particular category. While knowing if your skin is oily or dry is important for knowing which products are right for you, there is another way of classifying skin that is essential for its health.
The Fitzpatrick Scale is a numerical way of classifying skin types to determine how easily it tans or burns. This typing test is used to ensure skin is properly taken care of and protected against sun damage and other issues such as hyperpigmentation. While there is an assessment tool that presents questions to accurately determine your Fitzpatrick type, many people can determine their type based on the characteristics of each grouping:
TYPE I: Highly sensitive, always burns, never tans.
TYPE II: Very sun sensitive, burns easily, tans minimally.
TYPE III: Sun-sensitive skin, sometimes burns, slowly tans to light brown.
TYPE IV: Minimally sun sensitive, burns minimally, always tans to moderate brown.
TYPE V: Sun-insensitive skin, rarely burns, tans well.
TYPE V - VI: Sun insensitive, never burns, deeply pigmented.
A Fitzpatrick type 1 would be an albino-like skin that burns with only a few minutes of bright sun exposure. A type 6 would be the darkest skin type that rarely, if ever, burns. Most Caucasian Americans and persons of Germanic or Scottish descent are probably a Fitzpatrick 2-3, whereas Latino and Mediterranean skin types may be 3-5. Red headed persons of Scottish descent have the easiest skin to burn and also have the highest rate of skin cancer and melanoma occurrence.
Knowing your skin type on this scale will help you understand how necessary it is to use sun protection to prevent acute burns and diminish the risk of skin cancer. To help keep your skin protected, use Theraderm’s Platinum Protection Facial Sunscreen. With broad-spectrum protection and SPF 43, this facial sunscreen is an essential part of your daily skin care routine.