You looked good in July. Tan, rested, a little sun on your face. Then somewhere in the last two weeks you caught yourself in the bathroom mirror and thought: what happened.
The second half of summer is the half when you notice the damage you did over the Fourth of July weekend, and most people, men and women both, do the wrong thing to correct it.
Sun damage runs on a delay
The first thing happening is sun damage. And sun damage does not show up when you get it.
The pigment that turns into a dark spot gets made at the bottom of your skin, and it has to work its way up before you can see it. Your skin turns over every 28 to 40 days. So that Fourth of July weekend at the beach lands in your mirror right about now.
There is a second reason August is when it hits. All summer, an even tan covers the unevenness underneath it. As the tan fades, the patchy part is what's left. You are not developing new spots. You are finally seeing the ones you already had.
And if you want the fact that ruins a day in the sun: a 2015 study in Science found that UV damage keeps forming in skin cells for more than three hours after you have left the sun. Your face is still taking hits on the car ride home.
August is not the off-ramp
Most guys treat sunscreen like a summer product. Beach, pool, done by Labor Day.
The UV index does not agree. In Boston, the monthly average UV index peaks at 6 in June, July, and August. Same number all three months. In Phoenix it averages 8 across that same stretch and never drops below 3, even in December. Across most of the continental US the index stays above 6 from May through September.
August is not the wind-down. It is the third of three peak months, and it is the one where men quit early because the calendar says summer is ending.
So our first recommendation is the most boring one: keep the SPF on. Everything else you do over the next six weeks is undermined if you are still adding damage while you try to fix damage.
Your barrier is more beat up than you think
The other half of the August problem has nothing to do with pigment.
Heat, sweat, chlorine, saltwater, smoke, and three months of a stripped-down warm weather routine all degrade the lipid matrix that holds your skin together. The result is transepidermal water loss, which is the technical way of saying your face cannot hold onto water anymore.
You might be thinking, hydration isn't my problem but my skin has sure been oily lately. Well, dehydrated skin often looks oily.
When the barrier is compromised and water is escaping, your skin compensates by producing more oil (aka sebum). So you are simultaneously tight and greasy. You might also be breaking out in places you do not normally break out, and reacting to products that never used to bother you. It reads like oily skin. It is actually thirsty skin overcorrecting.
If your face feels tight after washing, gets shiny by noon, and has been more reactive than usual since July, that is the signature. It is barrier damage, not a skin type change.
Slow down. Don't panic.
The natural reaction when we see the spots is to raid the medicine cabinet and start layering acids and retinol onto a barrier that is already compromised.
Do not do that. A damaged barrier plus aggressive actives is how a cosmetic problem becomes an irritation problem.
Repair first. Correct second. In that order, because correction on a broken barrier does not hold.
The six week plan
Weeks one and two: stabilize
- Gentle cleanser, twice a day. Nothing foaming and stripping.
- Hydrate aggressively. Moisturizer morning and night, and look for hyaluronic acid to pull water in and ceramides or niacinamide to help the barrier hold it. Niacinamide is the workhorse here because it supports your skin's own ceramide production, calms inflammation, and regulates oil at the same time.
- Keep the SPF on.
That is the whole protocol. Boring on purpose.
If you want one product for this stretch, COMUNE's Vita Boost Serum uses three molecular weights of hyaluronic acid so it hydrates at surface, mid, and deep layers rather than just sitting on top. Follow it with whatever moisturizer you already trust.
Weeks three through six: correct
Once your skin stops feeling reactive, bring in vitamin C in the morning. Ascorbic acid, the pure form of vitamin C, is the most studied brightening ingredient there is. It inhibits melanin production, which fades what is already there, and it works as an antioxidant against new discoloration.
Also, with vitamin C consistency beats concentration by a wide margin. A moderate formula used every single morning for eight weeks will beat a high-strength one you use twice and abandon because it stung. Dark spots took a summer to form. They are not leaving in a weekend.
Our recommendation is Blu Atlas' Vitamin C Serum because it pairs vitamin C with ferulic acid and vitamin E, which is the combination that actually keeps vitamin C stable long enough to do something.
Exfoliation is optional and it is last. If your barrier still feels fragile at week four, skip it entirely.
What this is actually about
The sun isn't the villain here. The beach, the golf, the grill, it's all part of living.
And hey, if you're down with the weathered look then ignore all of this.
But if you realize a little bit of self-care now will pay dividends later, then take my advice and, if you don't have one already, get a routine so that next summer this isn't an issue.
Confidence is built. And it's usually about six weeks before you notice.
Tom Henkenius is the founder of Henkey's, a curated men's grooming shop built around the Henkey's Standard: solid ingredients, delivers on its promise, builds confidence.
The research behind this piece
- Premi et al. "Chemiexcitation of melanin derivatives induces DNA photoproducts long after UV exposure." Science, 2015. Link
- The Skin Cancer Foundation. "The UV Index: Know Your Risk." Link
Your Summer Is Showing
You looked good in July. Tan, rested, a little sun on your face. Then somewhere in the last two weeks you caught yourself in the bathroom mirror and thought: what happened.
The second half of summer is the half when you notice the damage you did over the Fourth of July weekend, and most people, men and women both, do the wrong thing to correct it.
Sun damage runs on a delay
The first thing happening is sun damage. And sun damage does not show up when you get it.
The pigment that turns into a dark spot gets made at the bottom of your skin, and it has to work its way up before you can see it. Your skin turns over every 28 to 40 days. So that Fourth of July weekend at the beach lands in your mirror right about now.
There is a second reason August is when it hits. All summer, an even tan covers the unevenness underneath it. As the tan fades, the patchy part is what's left. You are not developing new spots. You are finally seeing the ones you already had.
And if you want the fact that ruins a day in the sun: a 2015 study in Science found that UV damage keeps forming in skin cells for more than three hours after you have left the sun. Your face is still taking hits on the car ride home.
August is not the off-ramp
Most guys treat sunscreen like a summer product. Beach, pool, done by Labor Day.
The UV index does not agree. In Boston, the monthly average UV index peaks at 6 in June, July, and August. Same number all three months. In Phoenix it averages 8 across that same stretch and never drops below 3, even in December. Across most of the continental US the index stays above 6 from May through September.
August is not the wind-down. It is the third of three peak months, and it is the one where men quit early because the calendar says summer is ending.
So our first recommendation is the most boring one: keep the SPF on. Everything else you do over the next six weeks is undermined if you are still adding damage while you try to fix damage.
Your barrier is more beat up than you think
The other half of the August problem has nothing to do with pigment.
Heat, sweat, chlorine, saltwater, smoke, and three months of a stripped-down warm weather routine all degrade the lipid matrix that holds your skin together. The result is transepidermal water loss, which is the technical way of saying your face cannot hold onto water anymore.
You might be thinking, hydration isn't my problem but my skin has sure been oily lately. Well, dehydrated skin often looks oily.
When the barrier is compromised and water is escaping, your skin compensates by producing more oil (aka sebum). So you are simultaneously tight and greasy. You might also be breaking out in places you do not normally break out, and reacting to products that never used to bother you. It reads like oily skin. It is actually thirsty skin overcorrecting.
If your face feels tight after washing, gets shiny by noon, and has been more reactive than usual since July, that is the signature. It is barrier damage, not a skin type change.
Slow down. Don't panic.
The natural reaction when we see the spots is to raid the medicine cabinet and start layering acids and retinol onto a barrier that is already compromised.
Do not do that. A damaged barrier plus aggressive actives is how a cosmetic problem becomes an irritation problem.
Repair first. Correct second. In that order, because correction on a broken barrier does not hold.
The six week plan
Weeks one and two: stabilize
That is the whole protocol. Boring on purpose.
If you want one product for this stretch, COMUNE's Vita Boost Serum uses three molecular weights of hyaluronic acid so it hydrates at surface, mid, and deep layers rather than just sitting on top. Follow it with whatever moisturizer you already trust.
Weeks three through six: correct
Once your skin stops feeling reactive, bring in vitamin C in the morning. Ascorbic acid, the pure form of vitamin C, is the most studied brightening ingredient there is. It inhibits melanin production, which fades what is already there, and it works as an antioxidant against new discoloration.
Also, with vitamin C consistency beats concentration by a wide margin. A moderate formula used every single morning for eight weeks will beat a high-strength one you use twice and abandon because it stung. Dark spots took a summer to form. They are not leaving in a weekend.
Our recommendation is Blu Atlas' Vitamin C Serum because it pairs vitamin C with ferulic acid and vitamin E, which is the combination that actually keeps vitamin C stable long enough to do something.
Exfoliation is optional and it is last. If your barrier still feels fragile at week four, skip it entirely.
What this is actually about
The sun isn't the villain here. The beach, the golf, the grill, it's all part of living.
And hey, if you're down with the weathered look then ignore all of this.
But if you realize a little bit of self-care now will pay dividends later, then take my advice and, if you don't have one already, get a routine so that next summer this isn't an issue.
Confidence is built. And it's usually about six weeks before you notice.
Tom Henkenius is the founder of Henkey's, a curated men's grooming shop built around the Henkey's Standard: solid ingredients, delivers on its promise, builds confidence.
The research behind this piece