vinegar takes the sting out of sunburns. you'll smell like a pickle but you'll feel a lot better.

Have you got an aloe vera plant? That stuff is sticky, but feels so good on your sunburn.

Bo, the first thing I do is take a bath with water as hot (OUCH, I know...) as I can stand it. Soak in it. Then before you towel off, put baby oil on. You don't have to use half a bottle. I just put some in the palm of my hand and rub my hands together and rub in on all over. THEN towel off. This will help take the burn out of it and it also helps prevent peeling.

I don't know why or how it works, but it does help me. And actually I use baby oil like that everytime I shower. It's been great for my sun abused skin :).

Kristi

I second the vinegar suggestion. If possible pour a cup or two in the tub and soak. It helps take out the stinging and burning sensation. You still might peel, but at least you won't be in pain. Also, you can put some in a bottle and spritz yourself with it throughout the day.

Kristi, why didn't I think of that? I do that exact thing all winter long to prevent dry skin, but the thought never occurred to me for sunburn moisturizer. My mind automatically associates baby oil with *winter*. I'm putting the bottle of baby oil back on the tub, where it will now live year round.

I've never heard of the vinegar trick--I'll have to give it a try. I'm not going anywhere today but the garden, and my plants don't care what I smell like! :-)

I have found that aloe vera is the best for any kind of burn. The plant; not the stuff in a bottle.

Interesting to hear there's a difference between the aloe vera gel from the plant and the bottled stuff. I thought I didn't need to mess with the sticky plant goo if I could simply pour non-sticky goo from a bottle. Does the plant goo have a smell? (Is it better than the smell of pickles?) ;-)

Any kind of oil seals in the heat and makes a burn worse. Think of a basted turkey...

The fresh aloe vera is definitely MUCH better than anything you can buy in a store. One spring I got a bad burn and I actually slept with some of the leaves plastered to my arm. While I looked better overall just from applying the juice, I will say the spots where the leaves stayed overnight looked like they had never seen the sun. I was absolutely amazed. Must be something in the skin of the plant. I've tried it again, and it only seems to work the same day you get the burn. But truly amazing.

Having lived in 9a for 20 yrs. in LA, FL & now TX, I always grow aloe for sunburn. It's messy, but it works! I harvest leaves & put them in a zip-loc in the freezer. Sunburn (or minor kitchen burns/rashes/some bug bites) get an ICED slather. Just slit the skin with a knife and rub it on!

For sunburn, I use Noxema. It works very well and won't stink as vinegar.

Vinegar is good for burns also. Once, I've spilled a pan of hot grease on my hand. Immediately, I rinsed with cold water and soaked my hand in vinegar for 15-30 minutes. Besides, having a little pinkish skin tone for a few hours, there was no pain, puffiness or any other symptoms as if it didn't even happened.

I use vinegar for many things and always buy it by the gallon. Recently, I was told to put vinegar mixed with some water in a spray bottle. Spray around the bushes to kill and drive mosquitoes away. I tried and it works too :o)

Years ago, I had a friend whose sunburn was bad enough to require a to visit his doctor, a doctor who would use simple solutions when possible. He had the friend keep himself coated with menthol shaving creme until the redness was gone. He didn't even lose the top layer of skin. I have since used noxzema, and it works overnight on minor sunburn, and takes several applications on worse ones.

DW and I keep aloe vera handy for minor kitchen burns, etc., and using ice (quickly) and aloe vera really works!

An amazing fix for a kitchen burn is yellow mustard...just slather it on, let it dry in no blisters no redness, it rocks, I'm guessing that it would work for sunburn as well but can't imagine that's a look you'd want to sport!

Some of the above remedies do work, but I still say that aloe vera is the best. Whenever I burn myself, weather it be a sunburn or an oven burn, I rub the aloe vera plant directly on my burn, and I won't blister.

When I was younger, my grandma was carrying a tray of hot tea to the dining room table, and she tripped and spilled the hot tea all over my cousin that was about a year old at that time. They immediately got her covered in aloe vera, and she never received one blister.

And keeping it in the fridge or freezer makes for a very cooling sensation compared to some of the other remedies. As you can tell, I'm a die-hard aloe vera girl! HA!

Do NOT put oil on there! Kristi I'm gonna drive up and BEAT you! Oil on a burn is a nonononononono!! The oil will hold in the heat and can actually convert your first degree sunburn to a third degree burn!

Do the vinegar, it helps take out the sting, keep your aloe/panama Jack in the fridge, lots of fluids. Go immediately to the Dr. if your burn worsens.
Tally HO! (used to work in Burn Intensive care)

My dad always used A&D ointment on his sunburn and he didn't peel. I guess he figured if it works on a baby's rash covered behind, it will work on a sunburn! Although after reading Tally's comments above, she would probably say no to that too since it is petroleum based.

I know from expierence the healing affect of vinegar. Years ago my legs from knee to ankle were burned badly. I soaked several thicknesses of paper towel in vinegar and covered my legs. As they dried I replaced with more. I could feel the heat leave the burn. Also it never peeled.

The best home remedy for sunburn I know is a mixture of equal parts of lime juice, Controy and Sauza Gold. Salt on the rim is optional. About 6-8 of those ought to do the trick. The pain will be gone in no time!

LOL Thanks for the recipe, olphart!

Tally, thanks for setting us straight! My treatment plan would've had me ending up in the ER looking like a lobster, but smelling like a deep-fried, turkey-basted pickle! ;-)

Seriously, though, my hat's off to you for working in the burn unit. I feel more sorry for those patients than for anybody else in the world.

I never liked the look of aloe much when I was growing up, because it didn't seem to fit with all the other plants my mother grew. Now that I'm learning more about its healing properties, it's becoming more attractive! I'm definitely getting some. Can it be grown as a perennial outdoors in zone 7? I have about the same growing conditions as Ft. Worth, except we're a little more arid.

Thanks everybody for your input. I'm healing nicely, thanks to you!

In zone 7, I'd grow it outdoors in a pot and take it into shelter if you get any hard/prolonged freezes. It will withstand light freezes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Aloe vera

Whenever I burn myself, weather it be a sunburn or an oven burn, I rub the aloe vera plant directly on my burn, and I won't blister.

Duh! I guess I was worried about the weather yesterday morning when I typed this. What a dummy I was? "Whether" was what I meant to type.

Bo, you can't go wrong with growing aloe. I have a big pot of it that has been growing for about 20 years. I got it from my Mom, put it in a pot in my greenhouse and totally ignore it.

I'm sorry to hear that you ended up in the ER. Glad to hear that you are doing better.

A year or so ago, I found a sun screen that really, really works. It is a powder that won't wash off and really protects. I used it last Thanksgiving while visiting our daughter and her family in Hawaii. We went out on a whale watching boat, and I put it on everyone including my granddaughter. Not one of us burned, including my kids and DH that went snorkeling. Everyone else on the boat got bright red.

OK, it isn't a home remedy, and it is expensive, but worth every dollar: Sunforgettable Brush Refill (SPF 30).

Wow! I've never heard of this stuff before, and if it hadn't been for your testimony, I wouldn't have believed it would work. I mean, I trust the active ingredients to do the job, but how can a powder effectively stick to your skin and cover as well as a cream? I LOVE this idea and I'm really hoping it works for my kids and me. Thanks for the info!

Glad to help. I was skeptical at first too, but I bought it from someone that I've known for 20 years. I trusted that she wouldn't sell me something that wouldn't work. So I bought one, and I was so impressed that I bought another and gave it to my daughter for her to use on her daughter. We have been very happy with it to date.

BTW, while on the boat in Hawaii, I put it all over including my ears to make sure that they didn't burn. Later that night when I took a shower, I was washing my ears with a washcloth, and the powder came off and looked like the red dirt of Hawaii. I thought that I just had dirt in and on my ears, and actually it was the powder. HA!

I'm going to try this stuff too. After 3 bouts of skin cancer I'm getting much better at using it!
And yes, I would say no to A & D, though the zinc oxide in it should help.
Once I took care of a little guy whose parents slathered him with butter after he got burned. We had to hold him down and scrape all the butter off of him.
Tally HO!

Tally, I've heard that old wives' tale that says to smear butter on a burn. My dad caught me doing it once and wisely asked, "Did that help?" I answered that it didn't. Then he explained why I should NEVER do that. The older I get, the smarter that guy gets.

Vinegar and aloe.

That looks like a cool product, LT! Where do we get it for a dollar? Maybe Lowe's has it on clearance!

The ultimate home remedy is to let nature do the healing. This should appeal to the organic crowd. Nature has a wonderful way of healing sunburned skin if given time.
don

Well like a dummy, at the last minute on Wednesday we went to eat and sat outside on the water. And my sunscreen was at home. Boy did my face burn. I got home and took a bath and smeared aloe all over my face. It helped with the pain, and by the next morning, the red was gone.