How to Treat a Sunburn

1. The first step to treating a sunburn is to immediately get out of the direct light of the sun. This will prevent your skin from being damaged any further, and will hopefully reduce the pain and intensity of the sunburn.

2. If you realize that you're burnt as soon as you get out of the sun pop an aspirin or an ibuprofen immediately. There are plenty of people who receive sunburns but don't realize it until one or two days later, so at the first sign of pain take a pain reliever until your pain subsides.

3. To treat the sunburn it's important to cool down the skin. A simple cold compress with cold water or ice cubes applied to your skin for 15-20 minutes several times throughout the day will suffice. If you're looking for extra relief you can soak a towel, according to www.webmd.com in "equal parts of milk and water." Or you can soak cotton balls in milk and gently pat (not rub) right onto the injured skin.

4. You can also apply aloe vera directly from an aloe plant leaf right onto your sunburn. If it's more convenient you can just buy aloe vera gel from the store which can last you the entire summer. Just make sure the aloe vera gel is rather pure and doesn't contain a ton of artificial ingredients or chemicals which can further irritate your sunburn. Lily of the Valley makes a fantastic gel that also contains Vitamins A, C, E which are great for the skin.

5. Whatever you do, don't apply an oil to your skin until the burn is healed, because it will only hold in the heat of your burn. If you want to moisturize your skin you can do so with a very mild moisturizer or hydrocortisone cream.

6. Next just try to keep your hands off of your skin as much as you possibly can. Don't try to help your skin by scraping off dead layers that appear to be peeling off and don't bust blisters. Your skin will heal itself if you allow to and by interfering you can cause further damage to skin, make the healing process even longer, and make yourself susceptible to an infection. So apply your cold compresses and aloe vera and then hands off.