First Aid for Sunburns

Whether you’ve been sunbathing intentionally or just absentmindedly wandered outside without sunscreen, sunburns happen. Getting burned is absolutely no fun, but if you deal with the burn quickly oftentimes you can significantly reduce the pain, discomfort, and length of time a burn will last.

After you get burned, you might think you’ve got to run off to the store and buy up a lot of burn creams and first aid supplies to deal with it.

These smelly, expensive creams turn your sunburn into a sticky, uncomfortable mess. They’re so filled with water, emollients, and mineral oil that very little of the cream is actually able to penetrate and help your skin heal.

As for first aid supplies, even for extremely severe burns where your skin has blistered badly, the best first aid remedy is not wrapping the burn in gauze and tape. This will only pull and tear at your new skin, reopening the wound and prolonging the time it will take for your skin to heal.

The best first aid medication for sunburns that everyone should have in their first aid kit is not burn creams, gauze, or sticky tape - it’s aloe. Pure Aloe Barbadensis Jelly is far more potent and healing than any water based cream could ever dream to be. If you slather Aloe Jelly on a burn it not only soothes your hot skin immediately, the gel actually soaks into skin and begins healing the damaged tissue on contact.

You don’t need to bandage a wound covered by Aloe. Using the first aid method of moist wound healing you can effectively heal your skin without ever covering the sunburn. Slather on enough gel to cover the area completely. Extend the coverage of the Aloe to 2 inches surrounding the whole sunburn. This ensures that the skin around the damage stays calm and is soothed as well. Continue to reapply Aloe as needed to keep the sunburn moist and cool.

In some situations you might not be able to keep the area moist all the time. Where possible, avoid tight straps, belts, and shoes if they impact your sunburned skin area. If you can, stop wearing clothing over the area at all and try to sit comfortably without leaning against the sunburned area. This might be difficult, as sunburns typically stretch across several planes of the body.

There are a lot of Aloe Gels and Jellies on the market these days. Most are bright green to make them look natural and Aloe rich. This is just coloring or the effect of grinding the whole Aloe plant up when they manufacture the gel.

Look for Aloe that is completely clear and odorless.

This means that you’re getting more Pure Aloe Jelly and less dyes, pigments, and fragrance. Aloe that’s been cold stabilized is also essential because heat cooks the goodness out of aloe. Also check out the look of the bottle. Do you have any information on how old the Aloe Jelly is? No, it’s not going to rot, but fresher is better in terms of the healing benefits to your skin.

So here’s a quick sum up for those searching for the best first aid for sunburns:

DON’T - Use water or oil based creams, lotions, gauze pads, tape, or band aids on your sunburn!

DO - Use Pure Aloe Jelly and moist wound healing techniques to heal your sunburn quickly!

DON’T - Buy Aloe Jelly that’s green, smells bad, or looks like it could be 18 years old!

DO - Wear sunscreen when you go outside for longer than 15 minutes so you don’t get burned in the first place!

This is first aid advice for dealing with a sunburn, but use common sense. If you’re really hurting and seriously burned it’s probably a good idea to consult a physician too. This is just my opinion on the first aid methods I would use on a sunburn and is not meant to diagnose or prescribe treatment. Be smart about your health and your skin care!

To fun in the sun,

Leah Day

Custom Search