Katrina Frye suffered from two cases of skin cancer from too much exposure to the sun. As a young girl, Frye and her family lived along the Florida beach, where Frye spent much of her free time enjoying the sand and sun.

When she was in her early 20s , Frye, who now serves as a bilingual family advocate for the National Head Start Association, noticed a dry, itchy, red patch on her leg. Doctors subsequently diagnosed it as the early stages of Basal Cell Carcinoma- skin cancer.

Summertime outside is not all about fun and relaxation; it also demands caution. Unprotected exposure to the sun can lead to wrinkles, sunspots, a suppressed immune system, eye damage and skin cancer. The most damaging solar radiation comes in the form of the sun’s ultraviolet rays, commonly known as UV rays. Even UV rays coming through a glass window can damage the skin.

Tanning beds are no safer said Lisa Her, a professional make-up artist behind the popular Promuanetwork Channel on YouTube. She said tanning bed bulbs emit mostly UVA rays, which make it more likely for a person to develop melanoma, which accounts for over 75 percent of deaths resulting from skin cancer.

Removing the cancerous tissue does not provide full protection for skin cancer victims. After doctors removed the cancerous cells from Frye’s leg, they told her to report anything that seemed abnormal, such as a mole changing shape, as that could be a sign that the cancer had returned. When a dark patch began to develop on Frye’s shoulder, it turned out to be skin cancer returning for a second time.

“This can happen to anyone, so always use skin protection, always,” Frye said.

One way to protect oneself from such dangers is by identifying the appropriate skin protection and using it consistently. According Her, the severity of a sunburn has to do with not only the amount of time spent outside, but also the amount of pigment in one’s skin. The darker the skin, the higher the protection one naturally gets from the rays.  However, dark skin is not enough to completely protect the skin; sunscreens or sunblocks offering the right amount of protection, which is measured in a sunscreen’s sun protection factor, or SPF, should always be used when heading out.

“The best is around SPF 50, but if you do not need as much protection, you should use SPF 20 or 30 for regular days,” Her said. “During the summer, I would suggest for the products you use to all have SPF, such as lip balm, sunscreen for the face and all over the body. It should be applied every two or three hours.”

Her also recommends that sun lovers drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.

One of Her’s favorite sun protection brands is Neutrogena, an affordable brand that dermatologists like Dr. Fernando Puente of Raleigh Dermatology also recommends.

“Drugstore brands like Neutrogena works just fine,” Puente said. “If you buy more expensive brands, you are buying the cost for how cosmetically elegant the product is, such as how it smells and how it spreads on your skin.”

According to Puente , the highest SPF consumers should go for is SPF 50. He said researchers have found that sunscreens claiming an SPF higher than 50 do not provide a significant increase in sun protection.

Aside from applying sunscreen, there are other ways to protect oneself from the sun, most notably wearing protective clothing. While the conventional wisdom is that lighter-colored clothing helps cool the skin and darker-colored clothing absorbs heat, the type of cloth is actually more important than the color. Puente recommends the brand Solumbra, which tests its fabrics for UV protection.

Sun can damage more than the skin. It is possible to develop cataracts in your eyes from overexposure, so be sure to wear sunglasses on a sunny day and, if possible, a hat to shade your face.