I think most people overuse and misuse sunscreen. I blame marketing. They have led you to believe that you need it all the time and have developed sort of an addiction/reliance to it.
I lived the first 21 years of my life in Tucson and almost never used it. I was in the sun all the time and never wore a hat. I grew up with the understanding that skin cancer is much more common in people that have had one or two very bad sunburns than in people who are exposed to the sun alot. I did have one bad sunburn ( at altitude, not in Arizona ).
I don’t use it in the winter at all and my philosophy is to use sunscreen pre-summer if I am going to be out for a long time but the goal is always to develop a tan because melanin is your body’s way of protecting your skin from the sun. So I manage my sunscreen use such that I get enough sun to tan but not burn. Late in the Summer, I should be tan enough to spend a couple of hours in the sun without getting burned.
I have blonde hair but am able to develop a tan. For those who just don’t tan and you need to / want to be outdoors in the sun, then sunscreen is the only way to go.
There are people who use sunscreen because they have fair skin but the reason they have fair skin is because they use sunscreen all the time.
