~How to care for sunburnt skin~

How do you know that you have sunburn?

When you have red, painful skin that feels hot to the touch.

Sunburn usually appears within a few hours after sun exposure and may take a day or more to know the full extent and severity of sunburn. It may take from several days to 2 weeks to fade away

If you often get sunburn, you are more likely to get dry, wrinkled skin (pre-mature aging), hyperpigmentation (freckles) and your risk of skin cancer increases.

You should prevent sunburn by protecting your skin with sunblocks or sunscreens whenever you are outdoors. If you do get sunburn, you can try my recommendation later in the post to relieve your pain and speed the healing of your skin.

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Signs and symptoms of sunburn include:

• Pinkness or redness
• Skin that feels warm or hot to the touch
• Pain or tenderness
• Swelling
• Small fluid-filled blisters, which may break
• Headache or fever if sunburn covers a large area

Any part of your body, including your earlobes and scalp, can be sunburnt.

After a few days, your top layer of damaged skin will be removed by this "peeling effect".

After peeling, your skin may temporarily have an irregular color and pattern. Depending on the severity, it may take several days or more for the sunburn to heal.

When should you see a doctor?

If your sunburnt skin is blistering and covers a large portion of your body; or you have a high fever, extreme pain, confusion, nausea or chills at the same time; or your skin does not respond to self treatment within a few days.

If your blisters show signs of infection, e.g. oozing pus, please see a doctor as well.

So what do you do after you sustained a sunburn?

• Apply cold compresses to the affected skin, or take a cool bath or shower.
• Apply 100% pure aloe vera gel to your skin to decrease pain and swelling.
  

You need to apply the aloe vera gel immediately on the same day that you get the sunburn. Or else your skin would not heal as fast as you want it to.

Why do I recommend Aloe Vera?
Aloe Vera contains natural moisturizers to nourish your dried up skin, helps in soothing the pain and has healing properties which helps your damaged skin recover faster.

The advice here is based on my personal experience. Had prevented a lot of pain from the sunburn I had last time because I applied aloe vera gel liberally on my skin a few times on the first and second days.

I have used both Jorubi and Fruit of the Earth brands before. I find both are just as good. But FOTE is cheaper cos the brand is not as established as Jorubi.
You can find both brands available in Unity pharmacies.
You can also approach the friendly pharmacists in Unity for more advice. =)