Life Hack: How to treat sunburn and help it heal as fast as possible

Spent too long enjoying the recent sunshine before reapplying SPF? Here are some tips to help you heal quickly

Here are some tried-and-tested ways to treat your sunburn and have your skin looking and feeling healthy as quickly as possible.

If you didn’t know we recently had a heatwave, our internet activity will inform you pretty quickly.

Part of my day job involves monitoring trends on social media and search engines. Last week, I noticed a spike on Google Trends with people searching for ways to treat sunburn as quickly as possible.

Despite all the weather warnings and knowing we should stay in the shade and wear a high-factor SPF to protect our skin from cancer and accelerated signs of ageing, it’s likely many readers of this column will also have slipped up in the sunshine and are now sporting some painful patches.

There’s no judgement here: in the minutes between a dip in the ocean and reapplying suncream, my shoulders got burned too last week. Sometimes we just aren’t quick enough to prevent it.

So, if you were unlucky and have the red stripes to prove it, here are some tried-and-tested ways to treat your sunburn and have your skin looking and feeling healthy as quickly as possible.

First steps

As soon as you realise you’re burning, get out of the sun. Drink plenty of water to ensure you don’t become dehydrated (and remember, beer and alcohol will not hydrate you).

To cool down your skin, don’t use ice or an ice pack. Instead either hold a damp towel against your burn or have a cool shower or bath. 

Slather on an aftersun cream, such as aloe vera. Do not use petroleum jelly on sunburn as this can actually trap heat into the skin, making it worse.

Keep your burned skin covered until it fully heals to protect it from direct sunlight and if you have any pain, you can take a painkiller such as paracetamol or ibuprofen. Never pop any blisters that may form and do not scratch or try to remove peeling skin.

Remember, severe sunburn is very serious and could lead to heat exhaustion or heat stroke. Contact your GP if your temperature is high, if you feel dizzy or sick, or if you have a headache and muscle cramps.

How long until it heals fully?

As well as feeling painful and uncomfortable, you can feel quite self-conscious after suffering sunburn.

Sunburned skin usually gets better after a week, but you can help it heal as fast as possible with a few extra steps, with most being quite intuitive.

As mentioned above, moisturising sunburn immediately can help to soothe it, but continuing to moisturise the area liberally can also help it to heal and fade faster. The best moisturisers for sunburn and irritated skin are the simple, unscented ones.

Many skincare brands make aqueous cream, a gentle emollient moisturiser that you can buy in a pharmacy for about €5. As well as hydrating the skin as a moisturiser, it can also be used as a cleanser.

Another cream I swear by for sunburn is La Roche Posay’s Cicaplast Baume B5+, a repairing and soothing balm that helps to repair the skin barrier. I have used this on sunburn in the past and found it cleared up faster than usual.

You can also mix aloe vera into your usual lotion for a moisturising boost for dry and sun-damaged skin.

Hydration from the inside out is also key to healing. Continue to drink plenty of water while your skin recovers, around eight glasses a day. When we are properly hydrated, the body’s healing process quickens, shortening recovery time. It can also help to regulate a higher body temperature caused by sunburn.

Another important consideration is knowing when to leave your sunburn alone. Ignore the itch and the urge to peel any flaking skin away — the skin underneath is healing and needs that layer to stay in place for now.

Constantly scratching at your sunburn will slow down your body’s healing and can also increase the risk of an infection, setting you back even further on the recovery timeline.