Okay, Okay...the hat's REALLY big!!! But for Sex and the City fans, has the character Samantha ever lived life on a "normal" scale? NO!

And the point of this column is to promote skin care! And, skin care with style! My husband just had a pretty good "scoop" taken out of one ear "shell" (what's that part called, top of the ear?) and the dermatologist said he needed to stop wearing baseball caps and start imitating the golfer Greg Norman's wide-brimmed "panama hat" style ... EVERY DAY!

My hubby, and lots of people "of a certain age" really haven't processed just how much the ozone has changed in the last few decades...the SUN IS SCARIER, MORE DANGEROUS than it ever has been before!! Why? It's dangerous rays are "getting through" our atmosphere and endangering our skins more thoroughly than ever before! And, as we age, our skin becomes thinner and even less able to endure sun damage without serious serious consequences! The skin cancer foundation recommends a brim of 3 inches MINIMUM!

And for the style-ish part...Marc Jacobs and Oscar de la Renta were among two designers that promoted the floppy hat as a "must have" for Spring/Summer 2008...and not JUST at the beach or pool!

But it's not just older folks that need the information, our society's ongoing obsession with tanning affects all age groups. Just yesterday at the neighborhood pool I saw a woman who seemed to be in her thirties -- though, enviously, great trim body -- and she was truly walnut brown! She was so dark by early May, I felt sorry for her! Why? Because I know firsthand that the years between her age and a decade from now will pass sooooo quickly! But her skin will age even faster!!! Ten years from now she'll so be wishing she'd taken a tip from Nicole Kidman because she won't look forty-something, she'll look fifty-something and be at her doctor's having hunks of skin scooped out, leaving scars, and anxiously awaiting her biopsy results!

In addition to Rene Russo's stylish sun hat in the movie Tin Cup (worn religiously while watching Kevin Costner's golf tournament), we've got to remember Pretty Woman! Julia Robert's sun hat with dress-matching trim was darling! But, think we'll ever wear gloves again? And, there are other venues promoting skin care/sun protection. Most women's fashion magazines are huge advocates of sun screen. Plus, they are great sources for reviewing, discussing, demonstrating the use of self-tanners, bronzers, etc. InStyle magazine, Allure, Vogue, are just a few I've seen that promote tans from bottles NOT the sun!

Allure magazine's May 2008 issue had an article about skin cancers written by a young dermatologist who herself has already had to have a skin cancer removed....Lots of great statistics there. The doctor is Ellen Marmur, M.D., Here is just one alarming bit of information from her column ..."Melanomas account for only 4 percent of skin cancers, but three quarters of all skin-cancer-related deaths. The fastest-growing segment of the population first diagnosed are women under 40-the sun-bed-tanning generation. (Indeed, a study in The journal of the National Cancer Institute showed that women who used a tanning bed at least once a month had a 55 percent higher risk of melanoma than nonusers, and for tanning-salon visitors in their 20s, the increase in risk was 250 percent.)"

Hopefully this column will have you donning a hat this spring and summer! And if the scariness of premature wrinkles, sagging and ugly-aging don't motivate you...let's hope the really valid worries about skin cancers keeps you in the shade!

AND if those aren't enough...economy! So many of us color our hair! Single Colors, Hi-lites, low-lites, grey coverage, male, female. AND the harsh light of sun will destroy that color!!! If you don't want to be running to the salon every two weeks to freshen up that expensive hair coloring, keep your locks under cover! BUT do it with Style!

The Beauty Editor at MORE magazine just wrote article about her own recent experience with basal cell skin cancer. Read her account at http://www.more.com/style/beauty/anti-aging/my-skin-cancer-shock/ It's candid information from the patient's perspective...and bettin' it'll convince you to find a great hat...and to wear it with style!