You’ve been looking forward to your beach holiday for months, so the minute you saw the beach, you headed straight to a lounger to bask under the glorious sun. Although you loved every single minute of sunbathing and believed that you were sufficiently protected against the sun’s harsh rays, you found that you got sunburnt. What now? The only thing you can do is to treat your sunburn to keep it from spoiling the time you have left on your holiday.
How Did I Get Sunburn?
You’re probably aware that you should use broad-spectrum sunscreen with at least an SPF of 30 and avoid exposing your skin to the sun when it’s at its highest, so you might be wondering why you got sunburnt. Essentially, you probably weren’t aware of how potent the sun’s rays were when you were sunbathing. Likewise, you can develop sunburn after 15 minutes of being exposed to the sun, but you might not notice it since sunburn symptoms don’t typically show until hours later. In addition, the reflection of the sun on the water and the sand, especially if the sand is on the lighter side, boosts the amount of heat you’re exposed to.
Effective Sunburn Treatments
When you get sunburnt, your symptoms could worsen in a day or two, plus the discomfort and pain you feel could stay with you for five days to a week. Fortunately for you, there are a couple of treatment options that can help ease your discomfort and pain:
- Stay under the shade. To prevent further damage to your sunburnt skin, stay under an umbrella and wear protective clothing if you really must venture under the sun. If it’s particularly hot out or you’re feeling pain, try to stay indoors for a day at least, where there’s air conditioning.
- Soothe your sunburnt skin. One of the most commonly used treatments for soothing sunburnt skin is aloe vera gel. Try Aloe Vera Gel from Kedma Skincare Philippines. Aside from aloe vera, this gel contains Dead Sea minerals and chamomile extract to help alleviate pain, itching, and swelling.
- Hydrate yourself. Drink lots and lots of water and refrain from drinking caffeinated and alcoholic drinks that can dehydrate you.
- Take painkillers such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs. Continue taking them as your skin recovers because they can also help minimize your other symptoms such as pain, headache, or fever.
- Keep cool. If you are especially uncomfortable of the heat and pain radiating from your sunburn, apply cold compresses to your sunburnt skin and take cool baths to get some much-needed relief.
In some cases, sunburn might be too severe that it should be checked out by a doctor. That being said, if you experience symptoms such as intense pain, heat, blistering, fever, facial swelling, headache, chills, confusion, stomach issues, dizziness, and dehydration, get emergency care as soon as possible. If this isn’t the case for you, keep the tips in mind to treat your sunburnt skin and do so quickly so that you can get your beach trip back on track.