How do I stop peeling?

Aloe Vera

First, stop exfoliating. That is only going to make your skin raw and cause you to peel more.
Use one of those scrungies when you bath. Don’t stress out. Let it take its course.
Did you have a good time in Costa Rica? The price we sometimes have to pay for a good time.

Keep it lotioned up & moist. Eventially your skin will rejuvinate itself & even out.

If you try taking it off yourself it will turn brown

buy some of this, use it, and stop exfoliating for a while. next time, use sunscreen.

Exfoliating won’t do any good for your skin, or stop the peeling. Just let it clear itself up over a week or two and it’ll be good as new. When I sunburnt my legs a while back, it took almost three weeks for the skin to stop peeling.

Ewww, that’s one of my worst fears! It gives me the creeps!

Definitely use a lot of lotion. You are going to peel, though. It’s normal, try to keep your skin covered as much as possible, for one, to keep from getting any more sun damage (once you’re burned it’s really easy to burn again) and number two because it’s just going to peel, and you’ll feel uncomfortable around people if you feel like they can see it (well i do anyway). it looks gross. sorry you got burned, but look on the bright side, at least this hasn’t been happening to you every summer your entire life, like some people (ahem, me) because it sure is a bitch.

I got sunburnt on my arms, shoulders face and chest at a rock festival on Randall’s Island in NYC in my late 20s. I’m part black as well, so it isn’t just in the equatorial areas where people should be wary! I used a lot of aloe vera gel and took a lot of gentle sponge showers until nature took its course. That was about a week and a half’s worth of peeling and itchiness.

I never leave the house without sunscreen now once the end of May rolls around or I’m somewhere where there’s a lot of snow on the ground that reflects the sun back up.

Stop getting sunburned. This is a foolproof method to end the peeling woes.

Aloe Vera gel and/or moisturizer and time are your solution. My kids are both half black and they both wear sunscreen so they can avoid the problem.

I totally read this question as “How do I stop peeing?”

Silly Augustlan :)

@augustlan. Me too. I was actually going to mention using a cork as a solution but I got around to reading the questions details just in time. =)

Why does race matter when it comes to sun burn?

@Facade: It matters only because the greater the amount of melanin you have in your skin the longer it will take for you to get a sunburn. The truth is that everyone can get sunburned, but the lightest skinned people (and animals) have only minutes before they burn, while the darkest may have an hour or so.

Wear sunscreen everyone!

@Darwin I know that. But people seem to be shocked if they get a sunburn and aren’t considered “white”

@Facade – Yes, I know. Perhaps their parents should have set them straight a long time ago. It’s just another one of those things that have resulted from staying separate from each other over the generations.

My son, who is much darker than his sister, fights me on the sunscreen deal, but I win only because he has indeed gotten sunburned in the past. It just takes him several hours to feel it, while my daughter only needs about an hour to burn. It is also harder to see the red flush of sunburn on him, but it is there.

OTOH, my nieces are so pale that they almost look blue, and they sunburn in about 10 minutes.

@Darwin Right. That guy over there <<< got burned a few weeks ago. I bet he’ll listen to me now lol

@Facade – I dunno. After all, he is a guy (although a cute one).

If we can’t be racist, can we be sexist?

I was told whenever I went for the sunscreen at Walgreens as a teen that I was “trying to be white” and “you’re just trying to not get darker” by various people, and since I didn’t want to upset those particular people, I didn’t do the right thing by myself. I’m glad that time has passed and such ridiculous sentiments are being done away with.

@Darwin lol of course!

when u first get burned put aloe vera on it and if you dont have any try some vinegar on a rag it pulls out the heat and sting of the burn and later helps with peeling but if you start to peel put lotion on it right away and let it be

but put on lotion everyday

I was just going to ask a question similar to this. I just returned from a whitewater rafting trip and I forgot to use sunscreen. I have the worst sunburn on my face right now. The first day my face was purple, the second day the blisters on my face were oozing, the third and fourth day my face was rock hard with dried blisters. Today is now the fifth day and it is starting to peel. I tried aloe and lotion and it just didn’t seem to help. The aloe made my face feel really stiff and the lotion made it itch. I just bought vitamin E oil and it’s the only thing that has given me any comfort.

I will never forget the sunscreen again! :)

@jonsblond That sounds worse than mine!! was it painful?

I don’t know if it was worse but it was very painful. Every time I took my sweatshirt on and off it would scrape my nose and open up my blisters. ouch My face is fine now but my arms have started to peel. I’m trying my best to not pick at them. If you ever get another burn (hopefully not) try the vitamin E oil. It really helps to soothe the pain.