BATON ROUGE — With people heading to the beach or hanging out around the pool this weekend, it is a good time to raise awareness about sun safety and the use of sunscreen. There are lots of options.

"At the end of the day, any sunscreen is better than none. But if you want to do the best job of protecting your skin, it would be picking a high SPF with your mineral sunscreens in it, which are going to be your zinc oxide, titanium dioxide. Also important, other things to look for on the label, an SPF 30 or higher, once you're kind of at that 30, you're protecting yourself from at least 97 % of the UV rays, and then look for broad spectrum, which means UVA, UVB,” Dermatologist Dr. Shilpi Khetarpal said.

Experts say you can pick a lotion stick or spray. It does not have to be expensive. What matters more is applying it properly.

Many people do not use enough. About a shot glass worth of sunscreen is recommended to cover your entire body head and ears included.

From there, it should be reapplied every two hours.

Water-resistant sunscreen should be applied at least a half hour before going in the water, otherwise, it will wash right off.

"For people who don't want to wear sunscreen, or they don't like the way it feels, you could look for great clothing options that have UPF in them. So, it's special fabrics that actually protect from the sun. So, they make UPF bathing suits, tops, hats, whatever it is. Because believe it or not, a cotton shirt is just an SPF of four," Dr. Khetarpal said.

Check the expiration date on sunscreen you have not used in a while. It may no longer be effective.