Summary
Pain is one of the main symptoms of sunburn along with redness and itching. They appear about 5-8 hours after sunburn. Sunburn usually heals after a few days, but in the case of severe burns, healing can take between 2 and 3 weeks.
In the acute phase after sunburn, adequate cooling, for example with the help of curd cheese wraps, can relieve the pain. Applying moisturizing and soothing lotions and creams, which contain aloe vera among other things, provides additional relief and calms the skin. Creams containing glucocorticoids combat inflammation and thus improve the symptoms of sunburn.
Such creams contain small doses of hydrocortisone, for example. Painkillers such as aspirin and ipubrofen, which also have an anti-inflammatory effect, effectively help to relieve the pain within minutes. However, the best way to avoid sunburn is to carefully protect yourself from damage caused by sunlight.
Exposure prophylaxis is clearly in the foreground. This means that one should generally not expose oneself to the intense midday sun for too long. Furthermore, you should make sure that the sun protection factors of protective products such as sun creams are sufficiently high.
These should not be applied too sparingly. Especially sensitive skin areas, such as the face, should not be forgotten. The protection should also be refreshed from time to time (approximately every half hour). You must also protect yourself sufficiently in the shade or in water, as sunburn can quickly develop there as well.
