I'm ashamed to admit this, but for most of my teen years, I didn't wear sunscreen. Not only would I skip the SPF, but my friends and I happily tossed the tanning oil to each other while joking: "Black don't crack!"

The belief that black women don't get age spots, wrinkles, or skin cancer from sun damage was just one of many African-American beauty myths that I lived by. That is, until I become a beauty editor.

Skip ahead to see the 5 biggest African-American beauty myths now.

Spending every day talking to top beauty experts is the quickest way to suss out African-American beauty fact from fiction, and I quickly discovered that "rules" like dark-skinned women can't wear neon makeup, blonde hair never looks natural on us, or nude lipstick never complements our skin tone are totally bogus.

So, to put an end to these African-American beauty myths once and for all, I chatted with some of the top experts in the field of black hair, makeup, and skin care to get the low down on the biggest African-American beauty misconceptions.

Keep reading to see which "rules" you need to start breaking, too.