Living in Shade

Skin care is a big issue with people and that’s one of the main reasons that this blog was created. I think its accepted as fact that people need to think about and take care of their skin. That being said when I looked at a recent list of the top ten skin cities, I felt that the locations left a lot to be desired.

I came across the list over on the Fox channel out of Lubbock, TX’s website. In their article entitled “Top 10 Best Skin Cities”, they make a list of the top places to live taking into account pollution levels, amount of sunshine, tanning beds per capita, humidity, number of smokers, stress, diet and more.

I’m sad to say that even though I care a whole lot about my skin, most of the places on the list are not in my top choices of places to live. I do try and protect myself from the sun as much as possible, but that being said I do love the sun and all the good times it has to offer.

Some of the list I did find quite surprising. The one I was surprised at the most was New York City managing to crack the list at #6. You would think that with all the pollution that comes naturally with living in the biggest city in the country that it would be very harmful for your skin to live there. They imply that this fact is cancelled out by their lack of tanning salons, low levels of sunshine, average humidity, and low prevalence of skin cancer. This may be true, but I still don’t think my skin would be throwing me a parade for living there anytime soon.

The best place in my opinion is sitting at #3, Honolulu, Hawaii. Now that’s a place that my beach loving self could see myself living. They say that despite the strong sun that exists there in Hawaii, the fact that the weather there doesn’t change much causes your skin to get used to the conditions. All you have to do is remember to bring your sunscreen with you. That’s somewhere where I think my skin and the rest of my body could be happy. Unfortunately, I don’t think my pocketbook would appreciate it that much as the cost of living there is astronomical.

#1 on their list is the lovely city of Anchorage, Alaska. That place has got it all. It has almost non existent pollution levels, modearte humidty, and an extreamly low rate of skin cancer. The only problem is that its freezing most of the time. That to me seems to be quite a big problem. I also do like at the least seeing the sun a lot of the time and on average Anchorage is only sunny 41% of the time.

The full list of cities on the list is….

#10 – Cheyenne, Wyoming

#9 – San Francisco, CA

#8 – Washington D.C.

#7 – San Antonio, TX

#6 – New York, NY

#5 – Billings, Montana

#4 – Flagstaff, Arizona

#3 – Honolulu, Hawaii

#2 – Bismark, North Dakota

#1 – Anchorage, Alaska

So, I’m sorry skin, but it looks like where I live can not be based solely on what’s best for you. I tend to be jealous that way. My two favorite states of Florida (where I live now) and California managed to have a single city on the list between them. That being the northern California city of San Francisco. Guess I’ll just have to stick with sunscreen and protective clothing as the best way to keep my skin safe and living in harmony with my friend the sun.