12 ways the sun is ruining your looks – from saggy boobs and dull eyes to thin lips and manky feet

THE weather was glorious this bank holiday weekend.

But while sunshine may lift your mood, if you believe a golden tan will make you more beautiful, think again.

Instead, a growing body of research is finding that, as well as causing skin ageing, the sun’s rays kick-start a range of unexpected changes to your body.

From top to toe, we reveal the surprising ways you may be sacrificing your looks for the sake of a temporary tan. 

Ratty dry hair

If your glossy locks feel more like straw by the end of the summer, it’s all down to sun overexposure.

Each strand of human hair contains around 18 different types of amino acids – or proteins.

Five of these are broken down by UV light, meaning too much sun leaves the hair shaft weak and brittle.

If your hair is bleached or dyed it will be even more vulnerable, as the cuticles that coat the hair are already damaged meaning the damage can infiltrate much deeper.

Dulls eye colour

If you have sparkling green or hazel eyes, your eye colour can darken if you spend too much time in the sun without sunglasses.

Your eye shade comes from the combination and concentration of pigmented melanin cells in the coloured part of the eye, the iris.

The more of this brown pigment your irises have, the darker your eyes will be.

While blue-eyed people don’t have this pigment, those with hazel or green eyes, have a small amount.

However over time exposed to sunlight, the level of this pigment can increase,  making their eye colour look darker.

Over time, your eyes can also become cloudier from too much sun.

The lenses on the surface of our eyes should be like clear glass to allow the light to pass through.

However over the years, too much UV light damages the proteins in this surface.

As a result, these proteins tangle up and clump together, making them harder to see through and making the eyes look cloudy.

In the short-term, just like your skin, the surface of your eye can also get also get sunburnt if you expose them to intense UV rays during a day in the sun or during a sunbed session.

Crow’s feet around eyes

Squinting is the reflex we’ve developed to stop too much sunlight getting into our eyes and damaging our sight. 

The skin around the eye is 40 per cent thinner than the rest of our face, to cope with the movement of the 22 muscles around the eye socket.

Over time repeated squinting in the sun causes crow’s feet at the corner of each eye. 

As UV light gradually breaks down the skin’s connective fibres – elastin and collagen – these lines can become permanent.

Acne and blackheads

Once the advice was to go in the sun to clear up your spots.

But while some sunshine might seem to dry up your spots in the short-term, the sebaceous glands – which produce the skin’s sebum – start to work harder to keep it moist.

This means when you sunbathe, the outer layer of the skin  – the stratum corneum – defends itself by getting thicker.

This creates a higher cell turnover which means there is more dead skin to block the pores, and the extra oil means this forms a sticky plug.

At the same time, the skin sweats more, creating an ideal environment for germs.

Your nose already has the thickest skin on your face – and this becomes even denser when exposed to UV light.

It also has the largest pores on your face, and extra oil which is produced when the skin gets dry in the sun fill up these larger pores forming blackheads.

Red cheeks

As you expose your skin to the sun, the warmth will dilate the blood vessels in your cheeks.

When you go back into the shade and cool down again, they will shrink back again.

Over time, this expansion and contraction can wear them out, leaving broken vessels which don’t go away.

One in ten people are particularly vulnerable because they already suffer from rosacea – a red rash that’s hard to get rid of.

Although the reasons are not completely understood, experts say it takes a few minutes of sunlight for rosacea-prone skin to flare up even more.

Lips will shrink

Lips already have some of the thinnest skin on our bodies.

They have only three to five layers of cells compared to 15 in other areas, to allow them to be flexible enough for talking, making facial expressions and eating.

This means there is less protection for the collagen inside the lips which gives them their plumpness.

Indeed, dermatologists have that found that among twins, those who have been exposed to more UV light over the course of their lives tend to have thinner lips than their siblings.

As the lips become less full and collapses inwards, the outer lip line also becomes blurry and vertical lines start to form around it.

Cold sores and blisters

Sunlight can also trigger cold sores, painful blisters on the lips caused by the herpes simplex virus.

Usually, the virus is kept in check by the body’s immune system which fights invaders.

However the sun’s UV light has been found to depress the skin’s natural defences, allowing the virus to surface, most commonly in the nerve endings at the edge of the mouth.

One study found that out of 38 patients who often suffered cold sores, 27 developed them after they had been exposed to UV light. When they applied sunscreen, none of them did.

Aesthetic doctor and GP Dr Ross Perry, Medical Director of Cosmedics UK, told Sun Online; “The inflammatory effect of sunlight radiation irritates the skin and as such makes herpes outbreaks more likely.”

Wrinkled chest

It’s not just your face that will show your age if you sunbath, say experts.

So will your décolletage – the delicate area between your neck and your boobs – because it’s more angled towards the sun when you’re on a sun lounger.

That means it’s often the first part of your body to show sunburn.

Dermatologist Dr Gabriel Serrano, founder of the Sesderma skincare range told Sun Online: “The delicate décolletage area can be more vulnerable to sun burn – the reddening of the skin which is often the first visible sign that the skin has had too much UV exposure and the skin has been irreversibly damaged.”

The fact that the skin on the upper chest area is thinner and women tend to sweat more in this area means that sun protection can also get washed away also makes this area more likely to get sun-damaged, adds dermatologist Serrano.

“As we age the collagen structure breaks down which when continually exposed to the sun, so this can lead to sun spots, wrinkles, and dilated blood vessels in this area.

“With repeated unprotected UV exposure, the skin here is also at a higher risk of moles, or malignant melanoma – a type of cancer that starts in the tan-producing cells in your skin.”  

Saggy boobs

If you sunbathe topless, sunlight may also contribute to saggier boobs. 

A pair of  C cup boobs together weigh around 690lbs, about the same at two cans of Heinz soup. 

However, they are only held in place by skin and a network of fine threads of connective tissue, called Cooper’s Ligaments.

Over time, the sunlight in skin can also break down the connective collagen fibres that keep the outer support of the  skin strong and help hold the breasts firmly in place.

Sunlight weakens and reduces skin’s density so over time your boobs end up drooping because they can’t withstand the pull of gravity – a process called ptosis.

Eczema and other rashes

You may be looking for golden glow when you back in the sun. But you may end up with rashes and other times of skin inflammation instead.

Skin expert Dylan Griffiths says: “Spending too much time in the sun without protection isn’t good for the skin, but when you suffer from conditions such as eczema, also known as Atopic Dermatitis, it’s even more essential to protect yourself.

“Eczema sufferers should try to reduce the amount of time they spend in direct sunlight as it dries out the skin increasing the risk of irritation or flare ups.

“The  excessive perspiration in hot weather will also increase the irritation.’

Other rashes may also break out, adds Dylan.

“Heat rash also known as Prickly Heat happens when the sweat ducts become blocked by lots of sweating.

“This leads the sweat  to leak into the skin, causing irritation.

“It generally appears in areas prone to sweating, with limited ventilation, like your back when lying on a sun bed, or in skin folds.”

Noticeable scars 

Sunlight doesn’t just turn your skin brown – it can harden and darken your scars too, according to Dylan Griffiths, medical manager at Eucerin.

This is because when a wound heals, the collagen fibres in the new skin are not as strong and cross-linked as the original and are more vulnerable to UV damage.

Dylan told Sun Online: “The combination of inflammation and sunlight can cause hyper-pigmentation, which can make the scar and the surrounding skin darken.”

Flaky feet

The sun makes your skin dry out so it loses its natural protective oils.

This combined with the constant trauma from wearing sandals makes your feet more prone to infection.

Athlete’s foot is a contagious fungal infection which you catch when walking barefoot somewhere where someone with it has already walked, like in changing rooms or showers.

If you are wearing sandals on sunny days, it can show up as sore flakey skin between the toes.

“It’s quite common in summer with sandal wearers,” says a spokesperson from the College of Podiatry.

“If left untreated, the fungus can spread to the toe nails, causing thickening and yellowing of the nail, which is much harder to treat.”