Ten Easy Home Remedies For Sunburn

No matter how careful you are to slather on the sunscreen and to keep track of your time in the sun, chances are that eventually you will get a sunburn. Although incidents of sunburn actually peak in the early days of spring, when people aren't expecting to have a problem with sun exposure, by the time summer rolls around sunburn gets to be an issue for the whole family. Fortunately homemade sunburn remedies that really work are easy to make and easy to apply. Here are 10 of the best.

1. Cold milk compress.

The famed Egyptian Empress Cleopatra was said to bathe her sun-stressed skin in giant tubs of fresh milk, and even 2000 years ago, she was on to something. Milk is a natural source of lactic acid. It removes dead skin, and stimulates the activity of blood vessels just beneath the skin. Increased flow of blood helps to oxygenate and nourish the skin and carries heat away, cooling and soothing as it starts the healing process.

Pour some cold milk into a clean bowl, and dip a clean cloth in the milk. Apply to sunburned skin for 10 to 20 minutes, and then put the cloth through the laundry before reuse. Buttermilk works even better than regular milk, and whole milk works better than skim milk.

2. Take an Aspirin.

If you can take Aspirin, even an 81-mg baby Aspirin (or the larger, adult version) will relieve sunburn pain in two ways. The Aspirin relieves pain, and it also short-circuits the ongoing inflammatory process in your skin by stimulating the circulation of blood underneath the skin and stimulating the production of new skin cells. Ibuprofen and Tylenol relieve pain but don't do as much to rejuvenate the skin.

3. Slather on cold aloe vera gel.

Aloe vera is a plant anyone can grow and harvest for the healing sap. Just cut across a leaf and let the sap flow out. It is perfectly safe to apply to unbroken skin. Even better, keep a bottle of aloe vera gel on hand for skin care all the time in your refrigerator. The cool gel with soothe your skin, and complex carbohydrates in the aloe vera gel help the skin "knit" and fight infection.

4. Drink a glass of water.

When you're out in the sun long enough to get a sunburn, you are usually out in the sun long enough to get at least a little dehydrated. Drinking a glass of water when you come in with a sunburn will rehydrate your skin and help it stay just a little more supple and just a little less itchy later.

More Home Remedies For Sunburn

One of the easiest home remedies for sunburn can backfire if you don't do it the right way.

5. Take a bath.

A cool bath in alkaline water can stop the inflammatory process caused by sunburn and relieve pain and itch--provided you don't stay in the water too long. Staying in the bath long enough for your skin to start to shrivel up like a prune will actually slow down healing from sunburn, and using soaps or bubble bath can injure sunburned skin so that you have to deal with dry, flaky, itchy skin later. Alkalize your bath water with two tablespoons (about 30 grams) of baking soda, thoroughly mixed in the bath water before you go in.

6. Treat your skin with oatmeal.

Oatmeal mixed with water (not hot, cooked oatmeal!) is a great treatment for sunburned skin, although it's for after-care, not immediate care of sunburn. When the pain and redness have started to subside, place a thin layer of damp oatmeal on burned skin and allow to dry. The oatmeal's fibers form a protective barrier on the skin, and the sensation of the slightly scratchy oatmeal overrides lingering sensation of itch and burn. Rinse off in cool or water water in the shower after the oatmeal pack has been on the skin for an hour or two.

7. Prevent chafing with cornstarch.

Elastic bans in undergarments can cause pain and inflammation when worn over sunburned skin, but sometimes you just have to wear them. To reduce the problems caused by friction on your skin, pat down with cornstarch after the skin is dry. Don't use talcum powder, which has been associated with increased risk of ovarian cancer in women.

8. Try a potato pat down.

Chopped or ground raw Irish potato is a well-known home remedy for skin pain. You don't use the peel. Just mince some raw potato, or make a raw potato puree in your food processor, and apply to sunburned skin for 20 to 30 minutes. Chemicals in the potato interact with white blood cells to reduce the intensity of the inflammation they generate to kill harmless bacteria on the skin.

9. Wear your tea instead of drinking it.

Black, white, and green tea are useful for controlling flaking and itch. Their natural tannins "tan" the skin in a healthy way, crosslinking proteins so that skin doesn't flake in tiny bits all the time. Just apply a warm (not hot) damp tea bag to affected skin until you feel relief.

10. Moisturize!

Chances are you already have some kind of moisturizer around the house. Applying moisturizer to sunburned skin accelerates the healing process, provided the product is made with water or even oil, but not alcohol. Alcohol-based "moisturizers," essentially anything that leaves your skin feeling cool and tingly, actually make sunburn worse.