What does the skin type say on the Fitzpatrick scale?
The most widely used scale to indicate skin types is the Fitzpatrick scale, named after Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, who defined it in 1975. A person's skin type indicates how sensitive the skin is to the sun, that is, how quickly it burns. Contrary to popular belief, it doesn't just mean how light the skin is. Other factors are taken into account when determining skin type.
Thomas Fitzpatrick measured the UV dose at which people were burned and derived distinguishing features from this (see also UV doseto understand the values). The Fitzpatrick scale differentiates between six skin types, with skin type 1 standing for very sun-sensitive skin and skin type 6 people are hardly sensitive to the sun.
The Fitzpatrick Scale
| Skin type 1 | Skin type 2 | Skin type 3 | Skin type 4 | Skin type 5 | Skin type 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sunburn UV dose | 166 UVIm | 200 UVIm | 266 UVIm | 333 UVIm | 533 UVIm | 1000 UVIm |
The most exact method for determining the sunburn UV dose of a person is as follows: The test person is exposed to a UV lamp and observes when the skin burns. However, since this is time-consuming and dangerous, various methods have been developed to infer the approximate skin type from the external appearance features and the previous history of a person. These two methods are the most common:
- Questions about skin color, hair color etc: Different calculation methods are used to calculate the skin type with the help of external characteristics such as skin color, number of birthmarks, hair color and eye color as well as with the personal and family history of skin cancer.
- Sunburn and tan questions: This is the original method Fitzpatrick used to define skin types. It is based on the two questions: How quickly do you burn yourself in the midday sun? and how easy is it for you to get tan ?.
In the end, it doesn't really matter which method you use to gauge your skin type. On the one hand, because it's only an estimate anyway. On the other hand, because things can change over the course of the year.
Important: Even if you know your sunburn dose, that doesn't mean that every UV dose below that is safe for you. UV exposure, even without sunburn, can cause damage to the skin that will build up over a lifetime. The skin type and thus the sunburn dose are only intended to give you a clue so that you can protect yourself better.
With the sun-a-wear we use the Fitzpatrick method to assess your skin type. So you only have to answer two questions and get an initial estimate for your UV dose limit.
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