Why does my chest sunburn so much more easily than stomach?

Factual Questions
1

I just got back in from about 40min at the pool. As I already have some sun on the shoulders and chest, I applied 30 SPF sunscreen to those areas as well as upper arms and face. (Oh–may be notable that I am fair-skinned and rarely in the sun.)

I sat, slightly propped up (stomach flat) and reading, the entire time. Regardless of flat stomach position and sunscreen, I cam back with noticeable darkening (not burning) on the chest and shoulders–and only the most faint tan line perceptible on my stomach. Why is this?

I can think of a few hypotheses:

  1. My shoulders and chest regularly receive more exposure to sunlight than my stomach (and have since childhood–my shoulders always seemed to burn), and so there is some sort of connection to previous exposure enhancing current.

  2. Somehow the position of my body puts my head, shoulders, and chest at higher levels of exposure–so much higher that even the sunscreen cannot compensate.

  3. I am destined to look like Neopolitan ice cream…red, white, and brown all over.

And BTW, I am NOT a sun person. At ALL. I hate being hot and cannot stand to be in the sun for more than an hour, and even then use sunscreen. (Despite living in SoCal, I rarely go to the beach during the day–I hate heat, sun, saltwater, sunburns, and sand…yuck!) So–no lectures, please. :slight_smile:

2

Aw c’mon! I can’t have TWO dead threads in one day, can I? :frowning:

3

Whatsa matta, your shoulder twitchin’ again?

I don’t have any idea about what prevents your stomach from darkening. Your chest and shoulders were a few inches closer to the sun, maybe? :cool: In my case, if my stomach gets any sun, it burns fast, but rarely tans. My shoulders are more often exposed, so they are a little more resistant. My skin is as white as a dead fish belly, so all I can do is cover it all up with tattoos. (They can burn too, of course.)