September 18, 2026 · Creamed

Sunscreen for Men: A Simple Daily Routine

Melanoma is not distributed evenly between men and women, and the gap is not small. The American Academy of Dermatology puts it in plain numbers: by age 65, men are twice as likely as women of the same age to develop melanoma, and by age 80, three times as likely. Men are also more likely to die of it, at any age.

Some of that is biology. A lot of it is a daily habit that men were never really sold on. Here is the short version of what to do about it.

The gap is mostly behaviour

The AAD attributes higher melanoma rates among men in part to lower rates of sun protection. Women apply sunscreen more often, and women more often wear cosmetics that carry SPF on top of that. Men are also less likely to examine their own skin or to see a dermatologist for a skin check.

An AAD survey found the knowledge gap runs alongside the habit gap: 56% of men compared with 76% of women knew there is no such thing as a healthy tan, and 54% compared with 70% knew that a base tan cannot protect you from the sun.

The scale is worth sitting with. The AAD estimates 8,510 melanoma deaths in the United States in 2026: 5,500 men and 3,010 women.

The spots men miss

The AAD specifically names the places people forget: the tops of your feet, your neck, your ears, and the top of your head. On men, those four are where coverage usually fails, because they are exactly the places a short haircut, an open collar and a pair of trainers leave exposed.

Lips count too. The AAD recommends a lip balm or lipstick containing sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher.

Shaved heads and thinning hair

A scalp with less hair over it is skin with less shade on it, and it sits at the angle that catches the most sun for most of the day. The AAD's instruction to cover the top of the head applies to everyone, and it applies more obviously once the hair is short, thinning or gone. A hat does the job better than sunscreen does on a scalp, because it stays put and does not need reapplying. Sunscreen is what covers the ears and the back of the neck that the hat brim misses.

Facial hair is not coverage

A beard sits above skin, not in place of it. The skin underneath is still skin, and the same logic that has the AAD telling people to cover the scalp under their hair applies to the jaw under a beard. If you wear one, work sunscreen down to the skin line rather than over the top of the hair, and do not skip the cheekbones and the bridge of the nose, which get the most direct sun on a face and usually have no hair on them at all.

What to look for on the label

The AAD's three criteria for choosing a sunscreen are broad spectrum protection, which covers UVA and UVB, SPF 30 or higher, and water resistance. That third one is a condition, not a universal rule: it matters when you will be swimming or sweating heavily. For a workday that runs from a car to an office, the first two are what the choice comes down to.

How much, and how often

Most adults need about one ounce of sunscreen for the body, which is roughly enough to fill a shot glass. For the face, the AAD says to use at least one teaspoon, which is about the amount that covers the length of your index and middle fingers. Those two figures are the same instruction measured two ways, and almost everyone applies less than either.

Apply to dry skin 15 minutes before going outdoors, and reapply about every two hours, or after swimming or sweating, following the directions on the bottle.

The whole routine is one step

The reason a lot of men skip sunscreen is not that they have weighed it up and decided against it. It is that it reads as a fourth product in a routine that already has zero products in it. That framing is wrong. A moisturizer with broad spectrum SPF in it is one thing you put on in the morning, and it replaces nothing, because there was nothing there before.

One step is also the only routine that survives contact with a Tuesday. A protocol you follow in June and abandon in October does very little, and UV does not take the winter off.

If you work outside

Trades, construction, landscaping, delivery, coaching and anything on a boat put you in a different category: hours of exposure, in the middle of the day, every working day. The CDC advises protection whenever the UV index is 3 or higher, and notes that UV is strongest between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. daylight saving time, and that it reflects off water, cement, sand and snow. For that kind of day, sunscreen is the backup to shade, a long sleeve and a wide brim, not the whole plan, and reapplication every two hours is the part that actually decides the outcome.

Check your own skin

Since men are less likely to do it, it is worth saying directly: look at your own skin, including the back, the scalp and the back of the ears, and get anything new, changing or not healing looked at by a dermatologist. Prevention and detection are two different jobs and sunscreen only does the first one.

Where Creamed® fits

Creamed® is a broad spectrum SPF 50 mineral sunscreen and moisturizer in one balm. The only active ingredient is 20% non-nano zinc oxide, so there are no chemical UV filters in it. There are ten ingredients in total, it is vegan, and it is made in small batches in Los Angeles. The tub is net wt 1.7 oz / 50 mL.

The reason it suits the argument above is structural rather than promotional: it is one step, not two, which is the only version of this most men will keep doing. Shake well, apply a small amount to face and body in the morning, 15 minutes before sun exposure, and reapply at least every two hours.

The balm and the single-use day pack are both in the mineral SPF 50 sunscreen and moisturizer collection.