Sunburn Support
My favorite remedy is a good ole jug of Aloe gel. It is so cooling and hydrating to the skin! If you have a big enough plant then squeezing the gel out of a plant and spreading it on the skin is lovely. It can be a bit stickier than the gel.
Herbs that are helpful for sunburns – Plantain, Comfrey, Lavender, Chamomile, White Oak Bark, Burdock, Prickly Pear Pad, and various seaweeds.
How to use these herbs.
- Add 2 Tbsp of each or some of these herbs to make about ½ a cup of herb to 32oz water. Add all to a pot and bring to a boil and simmer for 20 min. After it is cooled down a bit, add the pot to the freezer to cool down faster or fridge if not in too big of a hurry. Keep the herbs in while cooling. Let it be cold for 20 more min. Then strain the herbs out and soak soft linen cloths or paper towels in the prepared tea and lay over sunburn.
- You can take turns using tea and aloe.
- The tea can be added to a spray bottle and sprayed on.
- Hyrdosols of any of these herbs are lovely to spray on also.
Don’t apply oils or lotions to a sunburn until AFTER the skin is not hot to the touch. This can trap the heat.
Do Drink LOTS of Water to rehydrate yourself.
FOODS IN YOUR CABINET THAT CAN BE HELPFUL:
- An oatmeal bath can be soothing.
- Apple cider vinegar sprayed on to a sunburn is soothing or soaked cloths
- Cucumber slices
- Green tea.
- Witch Hazel
After the heat is gone is when I like to apply lotions or salves. A salve of plantain, comfrey, and lavender makes a lovely post-sunburn care to help prevent peeling.