Looking For Sunburn Relief?  Find it Here With These Helpful Remedies

sunburn relief

If you recently spent too much time in the sun without protecting your skin, we’ve been there and know the pain and discomfort you’re feeling right now.  Fortunately, we can show you how to relieve sunburns fast with home remedies for sunburn.  If you don’t know what to do for sunburn, you can try some of the methods below for quick relief.

Tips and Remedies For Soothing a Sunburn

There are tons of different ways to get sunburn relief with natural remedies for sunburn.  You can probably find most of these ingredients somewhere in your home or kitchen.  If not, you can easily find them at a local grocery store and even treat severe sunburn with these methods.

Cucumber

Chilled cucumbers are best for sunburn.  Place your cucumbers in the refrigerator, so they get nice and cool.  Slice one or two fresh cucumbers and place the slices on top of your burned skin.  When the cucumbers start to warm up from the burn, flip them over, so the cooler side touches your skin.  You’ll get quick pain relief with this sunburn remedy.

Plain Yogurt

You can learn how to treat sunburn on your face with plain yogurt.  Simply take a half-cup of plain yogurt and cover your face.  Leave it on for about five minutes and rinse it off with cool water.

DIY Burn Cream

You can create a burn cream as a home remedy for sunburn.  Mix two tablespoons of water with a table spoon of witch hazel and a teaspoon of aloe vera gel.  Stir the ingredients in a bowl and then cover the top for about two hours while they infuse.  Next, add two to four teaspoons of cornstarch and two cups of chopped mint leaves.  

Pour the contents into a jar and let it sit in a dark and cool place for at least 24 hours until it forms a cream.  Apply the cream to your burns as needed.

Witch Hazel

Witch hazel contains tannins, which are chemicals that help fight bacteria, reduce swelling, and restore damaged skin tissue.  Take about three tablespoons of witch hazel, or more if your sunburn is covering a large portion of your body.  Soak cotton balls or a clean washcloth in a bowl of the witch hazel and dab it directly on your burns.

Oatmeal

Want to learn how to heal sunburn by taking a bath?  Place uncooked oatmeal into a clean tube sock and tie the end so the oatmeal can’t fall out.  Throw the sock into a bath of warm water.  Submerge your body in the tub.  Squeeze the sock every three to five minutes to get the water cloudy from the oatmeal.  Gently pat your skin dry with a clean towel when you’re done.

Aloe

Does aloe vera help sunburn?  Yes, you can use aloe vera for sunburn pain.  It has cool and soothing properties that will feel great on your damaged skin.  You can use an aloe plant to extract fresh juice from the leaves or buy gel from the store.  Cover your sunburn with the fresh juice or gel to ease your pain and heal your skin.

Vinegar

Pour a cup of apple cider vinegar into a spray bottle.  Rinse your body off with only cool water in the shower.  Next, spray the sunburn with the bottle of vinegar.  Alternatively, you can soak cotton balls in the vinegar and dab them on your body to the affected areas.  Let the apple cider vinegar dry on your skin.

Mint

Boil one quart of water.  Add five bags of green tea, and three cups of fresh mint leaves to a pan and pour the boiling water over it.  Cover the pan with a lid and let it sit for about an hour so the mint and tea can extract.  Strain the water into a bowl and place it in the refrigerator to cool off.  Use cotton balls or a wash cloth to apply the liquid to your sunburn.

Cornstarch & Baking Soda

What takes the sting out of sunburn?  The cool and smooth texture of cornstarch provides sunburn relief.  If you don’t have cornstarch in the house, baking soda is an acceptable replacement.

Mix some cornstarch in a bowl with cool water until you create a paste with the two ingredients.  Spread it on your sunburn until the pain goes away, and then rinse it off with cold water.

Potato Paste

You can make a potato paste as a DIY sunburn relief option.  Take two potatoes and scrub both thoroughly under cold water to wash them.  Next, use a knife or grater to cut the potatoes into a bowl.  You can leave the skin on.  Put the potatoes in a blender until they reach a liquid form.

Soak cotton balls or gauze in the paste and apply it to your sunburn.

Milk

You can create a compress with cool milk to achieve natural sunburn relief.  Pour cold milk from the refrigerator into a bowl.  Next, soak a clean and soft washcloth in the bowl.  Place the cloth on your sunburn and gently press against it.

Continue this process until you feel some relief.  Make sure the milk stays cold, so that you can put the bowl in the refrigerator between soaks.

Peppermint Oil

Peppermint and other essential oils for sunburn can provide you with sunburn relief.  Peppermint oil contains menthol, which has a natural cooling and numbing effect.  The hydrating properties of peppermint release heat and hydrate your burned skin.  You can mix a few drops of peppermint oil with aloe vera gel and rub it on your burns.

Lavender Oil

You can use lavender oil for sunburns.  It has anti-inflammatory properties that will help remove the redness from your damaged skin.  The compounds in lavender oil help speed up your recovery process, which makes it an effective sunburn treatment option.  Add five to seven drops of lavender oil to a warm bath and submerge your body in the tepid water.

Chamomile

Chamomile tea has anti-inflammatory properties that can provide sunburn relief.  Brew chamomile tea and pour it into a bowl.  Place the bowl in the refrigerator until it cools.  Next, soak a clean washcloth in the cold tea to create a compress.  Apply the cloth to your burns several times each to soothe your pain and speed up the healing process.

Ice

You can use ice to ease the pain from your sunburn.  Don’t put the ice directly on your skin.  Take handfuls of ice from your freezer and place them in a zip-lock bag.  Alternatively, you can wrap the ice in a towel or washcloth.  Just be aware that as the ice melts, you may get slightly wet.  Apply the cloth or bag on your sunburn to ease your pain.

Drink More Water

Do you know how to take the sting out of a sunburn with water?  Simply put, you need to drink more of it.  Your body gets dehydrated as the sun dries out your skin.  When this happens, you need to get yourself hydrated.  Keep water with you at all times throughout the day when you have a sunburn to make sure you’re getting enough water.

Eat Foods With Anti-Inflammatory Properties

Anti-inflammatory foods can help heal your sunburn faster.  Try eating more potatoes, green tea, oatmeal, pomegranate, strawberries, cucumbers, lettuce, guavas, white vinegar, tomatoes, calendula, aloe, and milk.  Adding these foods to your diet while you have sunburn is an effective treatment method to heal your damaged skin.

Tips For Avoiding a Sunburn

Now that you know how to heal sunburn, we’ll give you some tips on preventing sunburn in the first place.

Use SPF 30 or Higher

If you’re going out in the sun, use sunscreen.  It may sound like common sense, but you would be surprised at how much of a difference it can make.  Always use a minimum of SPF 30 sunscreen.  The lower SPF levels are inefficient.  

Re-apply the sunscreen every 90 to 120 minutes, especially if you’re going in the water.  

Stay in the Shade

The sun is strongest between 11 am and 3 pm.  It’s unrealistic to avoid going outside during those hours, but you can take precautions like staying in the shade.  In addition to wearing sunscreen, try to seek shade as much as possible during the mid-day hours.

If you’re planning a trip to the beach, bring an umbrella.  Do not fall asleep under an umbrella, because the sun will shift and the shaded area will move as the hours pass.  Trees are another great shaded source.  If you’re outside in the park, try to spend as much time under the trees as possible.

Know When Enough is Enough

You can start to feel when you’ve had enough sun.  If you enjoy spending time outside and sun tanning, stay aware of the time.  If you’ve spent 30 to 60 minutes in direct sun without any shade, it’s probably time for you to get inside or put a shirt on.

When to go to the Doctor for a Sunburn

It can be hard for many of us to know when is a good time to head to the doctor because of serious sunburn. If you are anything like me, you are probably interested in using all the home remedies to cure your sunburns. But what if I told you that there were cases that this was so severe that it needed medical professional attention? There is no doubt that we go to the doctor too quickly, too often, and for things that had other fixes all the time, especially in the USA. But there are cases where this is best! So what are they?

Has this burn made you utterly sick? This is one of the biggest signs that it has gone too far and needs professional help! Things like throwing up, feeling queazy, passing out, having diarrhea, getting a fever, having chills, getting a migraine, feeling disoriented. If any of these things characterize your experience with a burn, go to the doctor and see what is happening. The sun is no joke!

Are you confused as to why the symptoms are not getting better after a few days of dealing with the redness? Is there no lighter color or are you not peeling yet? This may be a sign. If none of the natural remedies have worked, this can be a good time to head to the doctor’s office.

Are you worried this burn is infected? You won’t have to do much guessing to tell. Tons of pain, yellow liquid oozing out of it, watching it swell up and be painful to the touch, all these can give you a good idea of if it is infected or not.

Make sure you go to the doctor if need be!