As a Korean child, I grew up with women who wore UV-protective sleeves when they drove. My grandmothers, in true halmoni fashion, wore hats and visors whenever they left the house. Sunscreen? A given. And parasols — those chicer versions of umbrellas designed to protect you from the sun? A daily staple. A tanning bed would be a Korean grandmother’s worst nightmare. Admittedly, this cultural obsession with sun protection has as much to do with vanity (and let’s be real, colorism) as it does skin cancer prevention; Koreans notoriously idolize pale, snow-white skin, and many will do anything to achieve it, including purposely wearing sunscreen with a white cast to appear paler.

But you have to admit that when it comes to keeping UV damage at bay, Koreans (and the denizens of various othe

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