Sunburn is not pleasant, but you may not want to use any over the counter treatments for this. Fortunately, there are a lot of natural remedies that you can use to treat sunburn and get your skin healthy again. Of course, not all of these remedies will work for everyone and you need to keep this in mind.
Cool The Skin
The first natural remedy for sunburn is to cool the skin. One of the best ways to do this will be to place a cool compress on the affected skin. This will provide you with immediate relief from the pain and will sooth the sunburn. When creating a cool compress, you can use ice or frozen vegetables which have been wrapped in a towel. You should never place the ice or vegetable packet directly onto the skin.
Another method of cooling the skin will be to take a cool shower or bath. If you are going to take a shower, you need to use gentle pressure. You do not want the water to hit your sunburn too hard as this can cause discomfort.
Apply Some Aloe Vera
One of the natural remedies for sunburn that most people are aware of is Aloe Vera. The gel from this plant will soothe the pain from the sunburn and help to moisturize the skin. If you are buying Aloe Vera products over the counter, there are some that contain lidocaine. This is an anesthetic which helps with the pain from sunburn.
If you have Aloe Vera plants, you can apply the gel from the leaves to the skin. Some people find that this offers instant relief and will help to treat the burns. This remedy can also be used to moisturize your skin when it starts to peel.
Apply Cool Milk
A natural remedy that few people know about is to apply cool milk to the affected area. The cool milk will need to be applied to a clean cloth and then applied to the skin. When using this remedy, you should not use cold milk.
The milk will create a protein film on the skin. This will help to ease the discomfort and the coolness will work as a compress. If you do not have cool milk, you can also use cool yogurt to soothe the irritation and pain.
Apply Vitamin E Oil
Vitamin E is a natural antioxidant which will help to reduce the inflammation associated with sunburn. You can apply the vitamin E oil to the skin, but you do need to be careful. The type of oil you have will determine whether you need to dilute it first or not.
If you have purchased vitamin E capsules, you can generally apply this directly to the skin. However, if you have a more concentrated oil, you might need to dilute it with a carrier oil. Vitamin E oil can also be rubbed into peeling skin to help the skin become healthy again.
Apply A Cornstarch Paste
If you have cornstarch in your kitchen, you can create a paste which you apply to the affected area. To make the paste, you need to mix the cornstarch with some water. The paste can then be applied to the sunburn where the starch will help to draw out the heat from the skin. It is also believed that this can help with the healing of the skin.
There are many natural remedies for sunburn that you can try. However, not all remedies will work and most of them will only help with the side effects of the burn. Your body will need to handle the healing of the skin, but you can boost this with certain oils.