Know your skin type
The UK population includes people with a wide variety of skin types. Your skin type is determined by the genes you get from your parents. It affects both your likelihood of burning in the sun and your risk of skin cancer.
Knowing your skin type will help you work out when to protect yourself. As a general rule, the lighter your skin, the more careful you should be in the sun.
What skin type are you?
Experts identify six different skin types. Colour and tone vary a lot within each skin type, but it is a useful guide.
Match your natural hand colour to one of the photos in our skin type table. Then check the description matches your hair and eye colour and what happens to your skin in strong sun.
Type I
Often burns, rarely tans. Tends to have freckles, red or fair hair, blue or green eyes.
Type II
Usually burns, sometimes tans. Tends to have light hair, blue or brown eyes.
Type III
Sometimes burns, usually tans. Tends to have brown hair and eyes.
Type IV
Rarely burns, often tans. Tends to have dark brown eyes and hair.
Type V
Naturally black-brown skin. Often has dark brown eyes and hair.
Type VI
Naturally black-brown skin. Usually has black-brown eyes and hair.
What next?
When you know your skin type you can work out your burn risk and when to protect yourself.
To do this you need to check the UV Index for the day. When you know the UV index rating you can check how risky this is for you on our burn risk table.
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