9 Natural Sunburn Remedies
Summer brings clear blue pools, floaties, beaches and of course, the dreaded sunburns. Read up on these completely natural ways to remedy your burnt skin this summer! The sunburn remedies are as follows:
1) Cold Milk for sunburn remedies.
This is definitely one of the cheapest easiest ways to relieve your poor burnt skin. It doesn’t get much easier than the walk to your fridge. Choose to make a bath of milk, or if you’re not burnt all over, you can make a milk compress. Simply soak a washcloth in your milk and press and hold onto your affected area. The cooling will feel amazing and the protein from the milk will help to rebuild your skins protective layer.
2) Water.
Although this is probably common sense drink up! Just like any other dry skin you need to re-hydrate it. Make sure you’re keeping a bottle of water with you at all times to heal that skin.
3) Mint & Green Tea.
Green tea is known to relieve pain and heal skin with its ingredients like tannic acid and theobromine. Green tea is a well known soothing and cooling method. For this natural remedy simply brew green tea like normal, add in several mint leaves and let sit about an hour. Strain the mixture and chill it. Once chilled use a wash cloth or cotton pad to apply to your burn.
4) Aloe Plants.
While you can buy aloe liquid at just about any store NOTHING beats out fresh aloe straight from the plant. It’s cooling soothing and seemingly sucks the pain right out of your burn. Aloe plants are extremely easy to maintain and keep alive and will keep you from running to the store after every time. If using a plant simply slice the leaves down the center, not cutting all the way through, and lay them directly on your burn. You can choose to squeeze the aloe out if you have larger burn areas.
5) Vinegar.
Another ingredient straight out your kitchen to make it easy for you. Apple Cider Vinegar is the choice vinegar for this method. Simply fill a spray bottle with vinegar and spritz your burn after your shower. You can also use a washcloth to compress or cotton balls.
6) Oatmeal Bath.
The polysacchrides in the oatmeal coat will heal your skin while the water will keep you cool and your skin hydrated. Make sure your bath is on the cooler side to begin. You can fill a tall sock with oats and tie it off before placing it in the bath and letting it soak for a while before getting in. Squeeze the sock every couple of minutes to make the water cloudy. This method keeps the oats from clogging your bath tub drains.
7) Plain Yogurt.
Make sure for this method you are using plain yogurt with probiotics, not flavored yogurt! Apply the cool yogurt to your burns and let sit for as long as you feel necessary; about five minutes will do, then simply rinse off with cool water and pat dry.
8) Witch Hazel.
Witch hazel is found in any cosmetics aisle in its distilled liquid form. If possible get a bottle that also has lavender mixed in. The lavender will provide extra soothing.
9) Prevention!
The best natural remedy for sunburns is the prevention of them all together! Sunburns increase your chances of skin cancer tremendously and are a pain in the butt to deal with! Choose to stay inside or in the shade between the hours of 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. If you can’t avoid the sun from these times, cover up and apply sunscreen before going out and then reapply at least every hour. Prevention is key!
