Sun and vitiligo: do they fit together? Certainly! Sunlight is actually good, as long as you avoid getting sunburned. And any sunscreen will do. 

Staying indoors because you have vitiligo? That's a myth. This advice may have been given in the past, but it is now known that this is unjustified. With vitiligo you can simply go into the sun, as long as you make sure that your skin does not burn. You do this by applying sunscreen. Some people burn faster than others, and this also applies to people with vitiligo. But it applies to everyone: it is better to apply factor 30 more often than once with factor 50. Because sunscreen 'wears' on the skin, so you have to reapply regularly.

Natural light therapy
In addition, by using factor 50 you deprive yourself of the opportunity for natural light therapy. Because UVB radiation helps any pigment cells still present to grow. After all, treatment with light is also based on that principle. The sun offers you a free natural light bath, and who knows, maybe that will result in a little repigmentation. However, with factor 50 you almost completely close the skin off from sunlight. Dermatologist and pigment specialist Wietze van der Veen therefore advises people with vitiligo to use factor 30 and reapply every two hours.

It doesn't matter which brand of sunscreen you choose. Because a test by the Consumers' Association a few years ago showed that all sunscreens, whether expensive or cheap, score well on UV protection. So you can just choose which brand you like. From one more recent research it turned out that the protection factor stated on the bottles is not always correct. One more reason to reapply every two hours.

Read the interview with Dr. Van der Veen about sun and vitiligo here, which was published in June 2016 in the members magazine Spotlight! from VItiligo.nl.