A new skincare debate is coming to your TikTok feed: healthy sun exposure. Considering how vigilant dermatologists and estheticians are about sun protection, this is quite the 180 for the larger skincare conversation, but a book released this June is destined (in fact, intended) to ruffle some feathers in the beauty community and beyond. In Defense of Sunlight by Rowan Jacobsen investigates the health benefits of going out into the sun. Across 250+ pages, Jacobsen includes research linking lack of sun to heart disease, dementia, autoimmune disease, and more. Beyond the familiar vitamin D discussion, he notes that these benefits may be connected to other biological reactions to sunlight. Most notably, he cites a 2020 paper by 15 scientists published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, which estimates (key word: estimates) 820,000 deaths a year in Europe and the US from sun deficiency. An eye-catching stat, to put it mildly.
Then there’s Jacobsen’s poke at America’s “campaign to prevent overexposure,” which he describes as “a kind of fundamentalism.” The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) recommends that all people should apply SPF 30 or higher to skin not covered by clothing every day you go outside and reapply after two hours if you stay outside, no matter your skin tone or the weather. Some dermatologists even recommend sunscreen while indoors if you work near a window since UVA rays can penetrate glass. Jacobsen frames the approach as “sunscreen absolutism” in his viral Atlantic article in 2024 which questioned the US’s anti-sun stance and earned him a stern response letter from the AAD. Now, two years later, he’s doubled down with this deep dive.
