A natural cure and treatment for sunburn.

As the editor of this lovely site I decided to write this page for sunburn treatment for a very good reason, and that is that at the ripe old age of 62, having travelled and camped all over the planet, I am still stupid enough to get something akin to terminal sunburn whenever we go away.

Up to now I have been fortunate enough not to have been so badly burned that hospital treatment was necessary, but only by a whisker I can tell you. One thing that we must stress is that if you or a friend/relative is badly sunburned then it is always wise to seek assistance from either a pharmacist in the first place and then hospital if they advise it.

Now then, we must first state our lack of liability should any of these treatments not cure your acute sunburn so please don't unleash your legal eagle onto us because though we have tried most of the "cures" for this self administered ailment they may not suit your skin or pigmentation. Part of the reason why so many Brits suffer from sunburn is because we see so little of the great golden orb in the sky that when it makes an appearance, or when we are away somewhere warm on holiday we tend to over indulge.

Without doubt the best treatment for sunburn is to either keep out of the sun or wear something white which will reflect the sun's rays to a certain extent, but if you do become terribly burned, and I mean far worse than just an application of After Sun cream will cure then try something I was shown in Spain some years ago by an old lady who saw my predicament but who spoke no English at all.

It was yonks ago when I went jobbing round southern Spain, sleeping in a tent or any accommodation the employer could supply. This particular day I was late for work and mistake No 1 was that I didn't put any sun cream on at all. Mistake No 2 was getting to work (outside) and immediately taking off my shirt. Mistakes 3 and 4 were not drinking enough water and spending far too long under the burning sun. One of my Spanish colleagues noticed at about 3 pm that I was very red, and indeed, I also felt sick as a dog and everywhere hurt like crazy - virtually 2nd degree burns. Anything that touched the skin was agony.

The old lady of the house was told and she took me inside to her vast old kitchen and went straight to the fridge for a big beef tomato. All I could do was stand there with legs apart and arms away from my body because touching was too painful.

She sliced the beef tomato and began to rub it gently over all over, throwing away the slices as they became drier. We got through 2 toms that way and a great deal of her patience. I was covered in dried tomato juice and pips by that time, and all I could do was to pray that her sunburn treatment would have at least some effect.

Night time was Hell on earth and thinking about it now 40 + years later I can still feel the dreadful pain. However, on waking the next morning I felt more or less normal and what should have been near enough a hospital case where they would have kept me in for a couple of days or so covered in whatever they use to treat acute sunburn was more or less cured overnight by one old lady and her grandmother's treatment with beef tomatoes.