Why does the sun make our skin darker but out hair lighter?

Question

I always wondered about this

Answer 1

It does seem weird that the sun bleaches our hair and darkens our skin. This mostly has to do with hair being dead and skin being alive.

The sun bleaches and destroys the melanin in your hair giving you lighter hair. Since hair is dead, the hair will stay that color until new hair comes in.

When sun shines on your skin, it destroys the melanin as well. But since your skin is alive, it can respond to the sun’s damage. Your skin cells make more melanin and your skin becomes darker. That’s the simple answer, now let’s get into the details.

Special cells in the skin, called melanocytes, make two different types of melanin, eumelanin and pheomelanin. Eumelanin has a brown or black color while pheomelanin is yellowish-red. How much of each kind of melanin we make determines the exact shade of our skin and hair color.

Answer 2

Skin turns darker because it is the bodies defense mechanism from getting burned. Hair gets lighter because it gets bleached by the sun and unlike skin doesnt have a running supply of pigment so it fades.

Answer 3

Good question!
Sometimes the sun made my hair brown this is because of the reflection it shine on the hair and when we see the mirror it's different colour. But if you pull it out, It's still in your hair colour right now .

Skin will be darker because our skin is smooth outside and inside it's easily get black.

Answer 4

Skin is live tissue that produces melanine to darken and protect itself. Hair is dead kerotin cells that fades with the suns exposure.