How to handle sunburns?

Short guide to understanding sunburn and how to help

Disclaimer: This is meant for general skincare advice and sharing of knowledge. This is not medical advice.

Welcome back! As we continue on this journey of diving through the most common skin problems, today I want to talk about an extremely common problem that will eventually affect everyone at some point in their lifetime. Today is all about sunburns. We all love the sun and I will never tell you to not enjoy the sun but there are ways to be smart in the sun so today is all about sunburns. Sunburns are about as frequent as they come when it comes to sun related problems. I will add an additional post later to dive into the world of skin cancer so stay tuned for that.

Todays big question: What to do to help minimize sunburns and what to do after I get sunburned?

First thing to understand is what is a sunburn? A sunburn is essentially erythema (redness) and edema (swelling) as a result of excessive exposure to UV radiation emitted from the sun. The sun typically emits UVB and UVA radiation which both have different effects on the skin.

1. UVA light reaches the surface of the earth more than UVB. It typically penetrates the dermis and subcutaneous fat layers of the skin (2nd and 3rd layers). Excessive UVA light is what is responsible for wrinkles and aging of the skin.

2. UVB light is more potent at causing redness of the skin as it is mainly absorbed in the epidermis (1st layer) of the skin. Your skin responds by causing an inflammatory response which leads to a sunburn

Who is at risk for sunburn?

The Fitzpatrick Skin type scale shows how certain skin tones are categorized and their predisposition to burn. You can see below that type 1 is light skin and type 6 is darker skin:

So long story short: the closer you are to type 1 the most likely you are to burn.

Other factors include:

1. Areas at higher altitude increase your chance of burning

2. Time of the day you receive sun mainly between 10am-2pm

3. Clear skies without clouds or pollution

4. Areas closer to the equator

If you do have a sunburn, you may experience redness, swelling, tenderness, blistering in severe cases, and skin feeling hot to touch.

Here are a couple pictures of an acute sunburn:

As you can see, sun exposed areas are red and likely mildly edematous. Nothing too severe but annoying nonetheless.

How do we take care of this and decrease symptoms?

1. Cool baths can help to alleviate the tenderness and burning sensation of a sunburn.

2. Aspirin can help with the inflammation, tenderness, and edema

3. Aloe vera can act as a soothing agent to those with sunburns while also providing a moisturizing effect. If you do nothing else to help a sunburn, I recommend using this every time.

How to prevent a sunburn from occurring?

I know this is slightly unpopular but there are some healthy sunscreen options out there. When I buy sunscreen, I look for the following:

1. SPF 30 or higher

2. Broad spectrum (it helps block UVA and UVB light)

3. Mineral based containing titanium dioxide or zinc oxide. These tend to be more gentle than other types of sunscreen.

Other ways to prevent sunburn involve wearing protective clothing, wide-brim hats, and decreasing your time in the sun between the hours of 10am-2pm. Again, I love the sun and I enjoy it as much as anyone but I always try to keep in mind some of these things to reduce my chances of a sunburn.

I hope this short guide helped you understand a little more about sunburns and why they occur. Stay tuned for another post that will dive into the more dangerous aspects of the sun, skin cancer. If you enjoyed then subscribe below and check out some of my more detailed posts if you become a paid subscriber. Thank and have a great week!