Your skin can burn if it gets too much sun without proper protection from sunscreen and clothes. To help heal and soothe stinging skin, it is important to begin treating sunburn as soon as you notice it. Follow these dermatologists tips to help relieve the discomfort.
Your skin can burn if it gets too much sun without proper protection from sunscreen and clothes. To help heal and soothe stinging skin, it is important to begin treating sunburn as soon as you notice it. The first thing you should do is get out of the sun—and preferably indoors.
Once indoors, these dermatologists’ tips can help relieve the discomfort:
Although it may seem like a temporary condition, sunburn—a result of skin receiving too much exposure from the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays—can cause long-lasting damage to the skin. This damage increases a person’s risk for getting skin cancer, making it critical to protect the skin from the sun.
For questions about your sunburn or to learn how to better protect your skin from the sun, see a board-certified dermatologist.
Discover the benefits of seeing a dermatologist.
Contents
how to get rid of dry skin from sunburn
› sunburn-peeling
1. Use a cold compress or take a cool shower
Applying a cold compress or taking a cool shower wont necessarily stop the peeling. However, if your sunburn feels especially warm, swollen, and uncomfortable the cool temperatures may provide temporary relief.
Its also important to avoid using loofahs and scrub brushes when showering, as these can pull on or irritate peeling skin, Lipner says.
You can make cold compress at home by adding ice cubes to a sturdy plastic bag. Never apply ice directly to sunburned skin because the severe cold could damage the skin farther and potentially worsen peeling and delay the healing process.
2. Apply aloe vera or a moisturizer
Using the right moisturizer may help speed up the healing process and reduce peeling.
Joshua Zeichner, MD, the director of cosmetic and clinical research at Mount Sinai Hospital, recommends using a product containing aloe vera gel, as aloe can help hydrate your skin and has anti-inflammatory compounds that can reduce swelling and promote healing.
“It is rich in water and skin-soothing sugars that form a protective seal over the surface of the skin,” Zeichner says.
When choosing a moisturizer, make sure to avoid petroleum or oil-based creams, as these may trap the heat coming off of your skin and make your sunburn even more irritated.
How to Stop Peeling Skin: 7 Ways to Stop Peeling Once It Starts
If your skin has started peeling after sunburn, there are things you can do to stop it from getting worse. As tempting as it is, don’t pull your peeling skin off. Instead, allow it to slough off your body on its own.
Buy now: Shop for a cool compress.
If your skin has started peeling after sunburn, there are things you can do to stop it from getting worse. As tempting as it is, don’t pull your peeling skin off. Instead, allow it to slough off your body on its own.
Sunburns — even ones that aren’t severe — can cause severe damage to your skin. Sunburns substantially increase your chances of possibly deadly skin cancer and put you at risk of premature aging.
Avoid rubbing your skin with a towel after you bathe. This can make peeling worse. Instead, pat your skin dry with a towel.
Why does sunburn cause the skin to peel?
Sunburn occurs when you have spent time under the sun without proper protection from UVA and UVB rays. Depending on the severity of the burn, this will first be red and hot to the touch and then will peel later on, explains Dr Kaywaan Khan, medical doctor and aesthetician at Hannah London.
This is because although your skin cells are constantly dying and being replenished, the sun damages your outermost skin cells at once, resulting in a visible reaction of peeling to slough off the dead cells, he adds.
Sunburn = skin damage, and so getting rid of these layers that can no longer live becomes important.
Why? Well, damaged skin cells that do remain have a chance of becoming cancerous – which is why layering up the best sunscreen is so vital, if you are wondering why do I burn so easily?
If you are worried after a stint under harsh rays, go and see your GP.
How to treat sunburn
When it comes to treating the skin, plenty of people say they have expertise. Only a board-certified dermatologist has these credentials.
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