The First Sunscreens in History: How People Protected Themselves from the Sun Long Before SPF

When we think of sunscreen, we usually imagine a plastic bottle in our beach bag, next-generation fluid textures, and chemical filters tested in high-tech laboratories. We live in the era of awareness about photoaging and the daily importance of photoprotection. However, this leads us to a fascinating dermo-historical question: Did you think sunscreen is a purely modern invention?

The scientific and historical reality is that the need and concern to protect our skin barrier from the aggressions of solar radiation have existed for thousands of years. Obviously, ancient civilizations lacked knowledge about ultraviolet A and B (UVA and UVB) radiation, but they perfectly observed the immediate effects of the sun: erythema (sunburn), dehydration, and pigmentation alterations. Long before pharmaceutical indexes coined the term SPF, our ancestors were already sharpening their ingenuity by using the botanical and mineral resources that nature provided them.

🍿 Watch the summarized history in an express format! I tell it with historical images in this Reel on my channel:

Ancient Egypt: The Dermocosmetic Use of Rice and Jasmine

If we travel back in time to the hot and imposing Ancient Egypt, we will discover that skincare was a matter closely tied to medicine, religion, and social status. In a land where the sun was worshipped as a god (Ra), but where its radiation index was extreme, the Egyptians needed urgent topical solutions to prevent skin darkening and spots caused by the sun, since a fair complexion denoted nobility and not working exposed to the open air.

Medical papyri reveal that they prepared ointments combining very specific botanical ingredients whose plant chemistry still surprises us today:

• Rice Bran: Naturally contains ferulic acid, a powerful antioxidant that modern dermopharmacy continues to isolate in high-end serums for its ability to absorb ultraviolet radiation and boost skin defenses. Interestingly, this ingredient shares prominence with traditional Asian routines, just as I tell you in the post "The secret of the rice powder used by Geishas" to keep their skin flawless.
• Jasmine Extract: Traditionally used for its repairing and soothing properties on the skin barrier, helping to repair sun-induced cellular oxidative stress.
• Lupins and vegetable oils: Formed an occlusive emollient layer over the face that, although it lacked chemical filters, exerted a slight physical barrier that dispersed solar rays and kept the skin deeply hydrated under the desert climate.

Greece and Rome: Shadows, Hats, and Mechanical Photoprotection

As we advance toward the periods of classical Greece and the Roman Empire, the approach to sun care became much more pragmatic and mechanical. Greek Olympic athletes, who trained under the Mediterranean sun, used a very popular mixture called strigil, composed of a dense layer of olive oil combined with fine sand from the gymnasium. Although this mixture moisturized and created a very rudimentary physical shield against sand and heat, its UV ray absorption capacity was practically anecdotal.

For this reason, both in Greece and Rome the true pillar of photoprotection was based on what we know today in dermatology as physical protection measures and sun avoidance habits:

• Use of protective clothing: Dense linen tunics and mantles that covered the shoulders and back from direct exposure.
• Wide-brimmed hats: The use of the Greek petasos (a wide-brimmed straw hat) spread among travelers and field workers to cast shade on the face.
• Management of exposure time: It was a common social rule to seek shade in porticoes or take shelter inside buildings during the central hours of the day, when solar radiation reached its maximum verticality and danger.

1938: Franz Greiter and the Mountain Burn That Changed Everything

Despite these thousands of years of natural and empirical remedies, dermocosmetics did not experience a true scientific revolution until well into the 20th century. The definitive turning point occurred in the year 1938 and, curiously, its origin did not take place on a tropical beach, but on the freezing peaks of the Alps.

A young Swiss chemistry student named Franz Greiter, a mountaineering enthusiast, decided to climb the Piz Buin mountain, located on the border between Austria and Switzerland. During the expedition, Greiter was exposed to massive solar radiation multiplied by the mirror effect of snow (which reflects up to 80% of UV rays). The result was a severe sunburn on his face that caused intense pain and erythema.

Far from lamenting, this accident sparked his scientific curiosity. Greiter set the firm goal in his laboratory of creating a chemical substance capable of preventing that skin damage in mountain athletes. After several years of galenic experimentation, he managed to formulate a protective cream that he commercially baptized as "Gletscher Creme" (Glacier Cream), unanimously considered the first modern sunscreen in history. In parallel, pharmacist Benjamin Green developed the famous "Red Vet Pet" (a red petroleum jelly) in the US to protect World War II soldiers, but Greiter's formula laid the foundations for mass-consumer cosmetics.

From Mountain Ointment to the Current SPF Concept

Franz Greiter's impact on your current skincare routine did not end with the invention of that first cream. Over the years and with the advancement of medical science, the Swiss chemist understood that creating a barrier cream was not enough; consumers and dermopharmacists needed an exact metric to know how long a dermocosmetic product actually protected against erythema.

Thus, in the year 1962, Franz Greiter formally introduced the concept you read daily on any sunscreen container into the industry: the SPF (Sun Protection Factor). To give you an idea of how much galenics and molecular filter synthesis have advanced, it is estimated that Greiter's mythical and revolutionary original Gletscher Creme had an equivalent to an SPF 2. A minuscule figure compared to the SPF 50+ we consider the minimum health standard today, but which opened the door to modern photoprotection.

NIVEA SUN Luminous 630 Facial Sunscreen SPF 50+View productBELLA AURORA Anti-Dark Spot Sunscreen SPF50View productISDIN Fusion Water MAGIC Repair SPF 50View productEucerin Sun Face Pigment Control Fluid FPS 50+View product

Conclusion: An Ancestral Need That Has Evolved to This Day

Analyzing the history of sunscreens shows us that the instinct to preserve our skin's health and integrity against the sun is not a social media aesthetic fad, but a biological and evolutionary necessity that has accompanied us since the pharaohs' dynasties. Egyptian rice bran and Greek straw hats were the seeds of what is today one of personal care's most complex scientific disciplines.

Today, thanks to pioneers like Franz Greiter, we are immensely lucky to have organic, mineral, and biological sun filters capable not only of preventing us from burning our skin in the mountains, but of actively protecting our cellular DNA from premature aging. The next time you apply your regulatory two fingers of fluid sunscreen before leaving home, remember that you are applying thousands of years of evolution, scientific curiosity, and dermopharmaceutical history to your face.

Discovering the secrets of the past helps us understand the value of current cosmetic science.