Fitzpatrick skin types: Types I–VI explained

The Fitzpatrick scale groups skin into six phototypes based on how skin tends to respond to UV — especially how readily it burns and tans. Type I tends to burn very readily with little tanning; Type II burns readily with limited tanning; Type III may burn and tans gradually; Type IV burns less readily and tans more readily; Type V burns less frequently and tans readily; Type VI has substantial baseline pigmentation and burns less frequently, but UV injury is still possible.

The most defensible way is to think about how your unprotected skin actually responds to sustained UV — how readily it burns, and how readily (or whether) it tans afterwards. Eye colour, hair colour and ancestry appear in many popular quizzes but are less reliable than actual burn/tan response. T&T lets you set your Fitzpatrick type manually, and also offers camera-assisted visual matching: the app opens the rear camera and shows the six Fitzpatrick reference swatches next to a live preview so you can compare your inner wrist and pick the closest match. It doesn't analyse the image — you make the call — and no photo is captured, saved or uploaded. Treat any single result as an estimate you can review and change.

No. The Fitzpatrick scale describes typical UV response — how skin tends to burn and tan — not skin color per se. Two people with visually similar skin tone may have different UV-response histories and different phototypes, and recent peer-reviewed dermatology literature specifically criticises the conflation of Fitzpatrick type with skin colour, race and ethnicity.

No. The Fitzpatrick scale was developed to describe skin's UV response, not race or ethnicity. Using it as a proxy for either is a well-documented misuse and is explicitly criticised in current dermatology literature.

Yes. No skin type is immune to UV damage. Higher Fitzpatrick phototypes tend to burn less readily than lower phototypes, but UV-related skin injury, damage and skin cancers still occur in people with darker skin. The World Health Organization treats solar UV as a known skin-cancer risk factor for all skin types.

Your underlying phototype — the way your skin fundamentally responds to UV — is generally considered stable. Your appearance can change with tanning or sun exposure over time, but that's a change in current tan, not a change in phototype. If you're unsure, err on the shorter side for session length and consult a dermatologist for skin concerns.

T&T uses your Fitzpatrick type as one of the three inputs to every personalized session estimate — alongside the live UV index for your location and the SPF you're wearing. Your type feeds into the timer estimate; it doesn't determine the whole result on its own.

No — a camera can't reliably determine your Fitzpatrick skin type. Any visual comparison can only provide a starting point. Lighting, exposure and the limitations of image-based classification all affect reliability. Recent research on image-derived skin-type classification under uncontrolled imaging conditions (Alipour et al., Skin Research and Technology, 2026) reported poor agreement with dermatologist-assigned Fitzpatrick labels and high sensitivity to lighting variation. That study did not test T&T. T&T's approach is camera-assisted visual matching: the app opens the rear camera and shows the six Fitzpatrick reference swatches so you can compare against your inner wrist and pick the closest one. The app doesn't analyse the image — you choose the match — and no photo is captured, saved or uploaded.