Look, who spent too much time in the sun and got a sunburn? Hey, it’s totally alright. One needs to spend time outdoors, breathe in some fresh air, and soak in the much-needed Vitamin D.

While a little sunshine never hurts, too much exposure to the sun can be harmful to your skin and lead to sunburn. Your skin is sunburnt when excessive contact with UV rays leaves your skin red, inflamed, and irritated. The sun rays enter the inner-most layer of the skin and go on to damage skin cells. Our body can handle this much intrusion of the sun, however, things can go way beyond control if the excessive sun gets into our skin.

There is a plethora of home remedies to calm and cool down irritated and inflamed areas. Before we explore some, let’s understand how you can prevent sunburn from happening in the first place.

Prevention is better than cure

There are a lot of ways to prevent sunburn from occurring. Follow these tips to keep your skin protected from the wrath of the sun:

  • Make it a habit to apply generous amounts of Sunscreen SPF to your face. Dermatologists advise people to use sunscreen that’s SPF 30+. A great sunscreen recommendation would be Face The Sun Broad Spectrum Daily Face Protector from Colorbar Cosmetics which is a sunscreen with SPF 50+. This sunscreen is for both men and women in India. Its incredibly lightweight and water-resistant formula provides increased protection to your skin from the sun and also gives it a healthy glow.
  • To buy this sunscreen at a discount, you could visit the official shopping website of Colorbar Cosmetics.
  • When under the sun, always make sure that you are covered. Try to wear full sleeves or full pants. A hat is also a great way to protect your face from UVA/UVB rays.
    Minimize the time spent under the sun especially between 10 am and 3 pm, since the sun’s rays are at their peak during this time period.

Now let’s move on to home remedies to treat sunburn.

Home remedies to treat a sunburn

1)  Showering with cold water

The first and foremost thing an inflamed, irritated skin requires is coolness and healing, which a cold shower can provide. Although showering will not instantly get you rid of sunburn, it will definitely soothe down the affected areas and accelerate the healing process. You could also gently run some ice cubes over the affected areas to give them direct coolness.

2) Applying aloe vera

Aloe vera is the reservoir of all things hydrating and calming. So when we are dealing with angry and swollen skin, it’s a no-brainer that aloe vera would be one of the top home remedies to deal with it. The antioxidant properties provide intense repair treatment to the skin as the water levels in it can supply generous amounts of hydration to the sunburnt skin.

Instead of going for packaged aloe vera gels in the market, try extracting gel from the aloe vera plants stored in your garden. The gel which directly comes from nature is devoid of preservatives and artificial fragrances and will not dump your already irritated skin with unnecessary harmful substances.

3) Oatmeal paste

Dermatologists tout oatmeal as one of the most spot-on treatments for sunburns owing to its anti-inflammatory properties. If your sunburn is severe and there’s a constant urge to scratch the affected areas, then oatmeal has to be your top choice.

Make sure that the oats you choose are unflavoured. Grind them to make a thin powder. Dairy products like raw milk also are very effective in soothing sunburnt skin, so adding a quarter cup of raw milk to the powder is a must. Mix the two ingredients to make a paste and topically apply to the affected areas. Keep it on for 20 minutes.

4) Cucumber paste

The cooling properties of cucumber are unknown to none, and it’s only fitting that it makes an entry while talking about home remedies to treat sunburn. The antioxidant and analgesic content present in the cucumbers work effectively in soothing pain, swelling, and itching. The best way to use cucumber to get rid of sunburn is to make a paste out of it. So take some chilled cucumber slices and blend them to make a paste. Apply the cold paste onto the affected areas and see all the sunburn gradually disappearing upon the onslaught of all that chilliness.

Conclusion:

If you are suffering from sunburn, don’t worry. Happens to the best of us. Put these home remedies to use and see all that redness and discomfort gradually fading away. But like we said prevention is always better than cure. So to keep sunburn at bay, ensure that you get in the habit of applying sunscreen SPF 50+ during the daytime.