News from SolSpring

Milk
Milk may relieve pain and discomfort. The milk should be at, or close to, room temperature. Using a clean bowl, pour a small but sufficient amount of milk into the bowl and allow it to reach room temperature. It is acceptable for the milk to be slightly cooler than that if you feel you cannot wait longer. However, you should never use the milk straight from the refrigerator since that is much too cold.

Take cotton gauze and dip it into the milk. Apply it to the sunburn and allow it to sit for 20 minutes or so. After this time, remove the milk compress and gently rinse your skin to remove any milk residue. If you do not rinse your skin, the milk residue will develop a sour odor (and so will you). This home remedy is also suggested for other types of burns as well. Repeat this scenario every two to three hours for as long as the pain of your sunburn persists.

Earl Grey Tea (with caffeine)
Another one of the suggested home remedy cures for sunburn is to use tea compresses. Boil a pot of strong tea and allow the tea to cool in the refrigerator for a few hours. If you need to cool the tea more quickly, keep the tea bags in the pot of water as you cool it with ice cubes. Use cotton gauze or a clean cotton towel or cloth to make a tea compress. Since whatever you use to apply the tea is going to become permanently stained, use something that is dark in coloring or that you simply do not care about.

Gently place the tea compress on the sunburn to draw the heat out, relieve inflammation and to set the burn to a tan. Typically, the sunburn will still result in peeling of the skin. The tea compresses should remain on for at least half an hour. Repeat this procedure as desired every two hours or so. Additionally, one can place some of the cold tea in a spray bottle and spray it directly on the affected areas of the skin. The tannic acid in the tea is the essential ingredient for this cure. If desired, the teabags can be placed on closed eyelids to relieve the discomfort of sunburn in that area.

Aloe Vera
The leaves of the Aloe Vera plant contain a thick, sticky substance that can provide relief from sunburn discomfort. Gently remove one of the thickest leaves from the plant. Split the leaf open and gently place the inner substance on your sunburn. It should provide a coolness to your sunburn that is soothing and offers you some relief from the pain.

Preventing Sunburn
Avoid exposure to the sun during the peak hours that tend to burn us more quickly than any other times of the day. The hours between 10:00 am and 3:00 pm are notorious for providing the strongest and most harmful UV (ultraviolet) rays of the sun. If you stay indoors or limit your exposure to the sun during those hours, you will reduce your risk of getting a sunburn. Rather than worrying about trying to find cures for sunburn, the best thing is to simply try and avoid it in the first place.

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