It goes without saying that the weather has perhaps failed to live up to our hopes recently, given the time of year.

Though you may have seen some bright days, the chances are that things haven’t been feeling very warm for you most of the time recently when you’ve been out and about. 

And the less said about the unseasonal snow that turned up before Easter the better!

We may not have yet been having the sort of weather that people associate with cracking out the sun cream for.

As the British Skin Foundation’s Hermione Lawson explained recently, a lot of the time people don’t remember to cover themselves up or put on sunscreen on cooler, cloudy days.

“However, not only can the weather change quickly, but you can still burn on a cloudy or windy day, so it is still important to protect your skin,” she warned recently.

She said that sunburn is connected to ultraviolet radiation rather than how warm it is. UV rays from the sun can get through clouds.

Ms Lawson’s expert advice for the late spring, summer and early autumn periods was that it was “always better to be safe than be sorry.”

She advised that people should cover themselves up using loose garments, wear a protective hat and put on sunscreen with a high SPF - sun protection factor. She recommended using cream of at least SPF 30.

Last year the British Skin Foundation’s Bevis Man explained how skin care was important throughout the year.

He recommended “putting on sunscreen during the warmer months [and] moisturising regularly during the winter months.”

A lot of the time, people forget the fact that skin is actually the biggest organ the body has, he suggested. They take their skin for granted. People should put more effort into protecting skin properly, he advised.

“We know that getting sunburnt substantially increases the risk of developing skin cancer at a later stage, so if there are ways in which we can protect the skin, we ought to,” he warned.