Summer time is finally here. It’s time for lazy beach days, late night campfires, and family vacations. But amongst all the fun comes the downside of summer as well—harsh sun that can irritate skin and leave areas forgotten by sunscreen scorched and painful. Sunburn is one of the worst parts of summer and not only is it painful, but it can also leave you feeling self conscious and afraid to wear certain clothing items. Not to mention the every lingering fear of dry flaking skin and blisters.
But there are plenty of things you can do to quickly eliminate sunburn heat and redness. Sure you can slap some Aloe Vera lotion for soothing on the spot, but is that the only thing you can do? Definitely not. There are actually a lot of different things you can do to reduce redness and burn from the sun. Today I want to share with you my method to quickly eliminate sunburn.
Moisturize
Moisturizing is probably the most important step to controlling sunburn. Since over exposure to the sun dries the skin due to the destruction of lipids (which form the outermost layer of your skin) the best thing to do to keep the skin underneath healthy and moisturized.
Applying an oil such as avocado, almond, coconut, or even kukui nut oil helps to keep skin moisturized and promotes healing of the area. Kukui nut oil is specifically labeled to help skin that has been damaged by the sun, and it is definitely my favorite thing to use.
Shea butter also has great healing properties and is a super moisturizer. It’s very effective when it comes to soothing pain from sunburn and it also helps to heal the area and promote healthy skin filling in where the dead skin once was.
Shea Butter has many healing properties and can be great sunburn relief. Photo: lifecellproducts.com
Aloe Vera also works well to soothe skin, and in a lotion form it is able to also help keep skin moisturized.
When I am facing a nasty sunburn, I like to first use a generous amount of oil on the area (I use kukui nut oil) and work it into the affected area for 2 to 3 minutes. I then use a significant amount (if you think it’s too much, it probably isn’t enough) of Shea butter and work that into the skin. I like to keep my Shea butter somewhere cold so that way it provides an extra bit of relief when I use it. I do this two times a day, sometimes three if the burn is more red and painful.
Medicate
Sunburn causes inflammation of the skin, so it is a good idea to take a medication that will help with the inflammation and the pain such as ibuprofen or Advil. This will also help with redness and soreness. Keep in mind that Tylenol will only treat the pain, so it’s not as useful. A dose of Advil twice a day should help significantly reduce redness and irritation.
Stay hydrated
As important as it is to keep your skin hydrated while you are working on healing, it is also important to keep yourself hydrated. Sunburn draws water from other parts of your body and leaves a risk of heat stroke and heat exhaustion, so it is very important to stay hydrated while you work to reduce your burn. It’s also a good idea to be drinking extra water in the summer months to avoid heat exhaustion when you are out and about.
Keep it covered
As much as you might want to wear that tank top by the pool side the day after you get a bad burn, extra exposure to the sun could make your burn a lot worse. Exposing the same skin to the sun could cause a minor burn to become more severe and could set back any attempts towards healing you’ve already started. The best thing to do is to keep the area covered until the burn has mostly healed, or to stay out of the sun if you want to have those areas exposed.
Exfoliate
Once the skin stops feeling sensitive to the touch and the redness has gone down significantly, it’s not a bad idea to exfoliate the skin. Since the burn has left a lot of dead skin, you want to get that out of the way to let the healthy skin underneath come through. This is an especially good idea if your skin is starting to peel, however even if it’s not, the dead skin is still probably present and exfoliation is needed.
I find a cheap, homemade sugar scrub using coconut, avocado, or almond oil along with kukui nut oil (or lavender oil is said to be extremely healing) highly useful and gentle enough that it removes the dead skin without causing irritation and still leaves the skin moisturized. A small amount of sugar scrub goes a long way for this, so don’t feel the need to work at your skin until it is irritated and red. Also, again, make sure you only do this once the skin is no longer red and painful. You should only have to exfoliate once or twice total to remove all the dead skin and you certainly should not exfoliate more than once a day.
Finally, continue to moisturize the skin a few days after the redness has reduced to ensure that the skin is healthy. This should reduce your sunburn significantly within just a few days, however all skin varies so some methods that work for me might not work as easily or quickly for you.
What do you do when you have sunburn? Let me know in the comments below.
Until next time,
Kat
Kat Classics 