Natural Remedies To Treat A Sunburn

This past week I went to Destin, Florida with my sister, aunt, and grandmother. While I was there my face and arms got a bit sunburned. It's been three days and my skin is already mostly healed, so I thought I'd share some things I did to help my sunburn heal and some other things I've heard works (I wish I was able to try, but couldn't because I was on vacation).

#1. Drink plenty of water: We all know to drink a lot of water while you're at the beach, but when you're sunburned you should up your intake significantly. It doesn't have to be just water though, green tea, for example, will hydrate and give your body nutrients it needs to heal.

#2. Aloe vera: I know, I know.. This is a no-brainer, but not all bottles of aloe vera are the same. You need to make sure you're buying aloe that is free from any chemicals that will damage your skin. Try to find 100% aloe vera, or do what I did and just take an aloe vera leaf from your plant at home. I skinned a leaf, blended it with some water, and froze it in ice cubes to rub on my sunburn.

#3. Oil cleanse: After my sunburn was healed enough to touch without me screaming and it started to peel was when I started oil cleansing my face. It just helps the skin to peel faster and less painfully. Oil cleansing also helps moisturize the skin which is desperately needed after a sunburn.

#4. Moisturize, moisturize, moisturize: As soon as I noticed I was burned I applied coconut oil to my burn as fast as my skin could soak it up. Not only will this soothe your irritated skin, but it'll help it to heal a bit faster.

#5. Eat better: Specifically eat foods high in water like watermelon, cucumber, tomatoes, etc. Also anti-inflammatory foods such as turmeric will help your sunburned, inflamed skin.

#6. Hydrating face mask: As I'm writing this I have a turmeric + Manuka honey mask on my face. The turmeric and honey both lighten, and soothe the sunburn. The turmeric helps with inflammation, hyper pigmentation, and it gently exfoliates. The honey Hydrates the skin and kills bacteria that cause pimples (which are not fun to have along with a sunburn).

#7. ACV: I've been spraying a mixture of apple cider vinegar and water on my face since day one of the sunburn and no, it doesn't sting (until you start peeling that is, but it's not that bad). The vinegar is very soothing to the skin.

#8. Oats: This one I haven't personally tried, but I've heard of people grinding some oats and mixing it with water to make a paste and applying that to relieve a sunburn, or rash. It's worth a shot.

#9. Be gentle: At least for the first day or two. It's extremely important to be gentle with your sunburned skin because you could cause more swelling. Trust me, rubbing my sunburned lips together with chapstick just made my lips swell so much more than I think they would have if I had just left them alone. Eating a spicy dinner that night didn't help my lips either.

#10. DON'T GET THE FREAKING SUNBURN IN THE FIRST PLACE: Okay, I'm not saying to never go outside, or use chemical filled sunscreen... BUT I am saying you should prevent it naturally. Here are some ways to:

#1. Cover up: it's crazy how well clothing can protect you from the sun, even thin clothing. Don't think I'm telling you to wear jeans and a long sleeve shirt to the beach, but you can bring a shawl, sun hat, thin beach dress, etc. Just to use if you feel you're getting too much sun.

#2. Go out more: The more sun you get on a regular basis, the less sunburned you'll get when you're at the beach all day long. It's simple, go work in the garden, take your dog on a walk, go sit outside and read for an hour, JUST GO GET THAT SUN.

#3. Eat sun protecting foods: There are plenty of foods that help protect you from the sun. Some of these foods are tomatoes, broccoli, green tea, watermelon, salmon, the list goes on. These foods contain antioxidants that fight free radicals that cause aging, lycopene a compound that protects you from uv rays, and omega 3s that fight inflammation (a sunburn is inflammation of the skin) and protect you from uv rays.

#4. Use a natural sunscreen: They're out there, you just got to find them.

#11. Oh, and one more! Dry brush: When your skin isn't sensitive anymore it's time to start dry brushing (not your face). This will exfoliate the burned, dead skin off and rejuvenate skin cells.

Those are all my tips for treating a sunburn. I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe learned something new.

Now go and enjoy some sun

-Amy