What's best to help heal minor burns without darkening, scarring?
- Thread starter Anjou
- Start date
Aloe vera gel in the beginning and then pure Vitamin E oil.. best to prick open a capsule and spread the thick oil on the newly forming scar.
Eventually, if it's a "minor" burn, it will fade no matter what you do and disappear but the above will definitely help.
Summerthyme
Eventually, if it's a "minor" burn, it will fade no matter what you do and disappear but the above will definitely help.
Summerthyme
cliff dweller
Contributing Member
Summerthyme is correct; keep the aloe gel in your first aid kit, BOB, car ect. But I would add -- as soon as you get home, break off a piece of the living plant. The plant 'grows like a weed' - it will be fine. This piece should be big enough to cover the minor burn, keeping the air from getting to it. The oxygen causes the burn to continue hurting [and damaging the tissue more]. OH the relief!! dittos to the vit E.
rugmaker
Veteran Member
Have you tried coconut oil? It's funny, but all my burn scars turn white. I'm fair skinned, but these are lighter. I have burned my hands several times taking things out of the oven and hitting my hand on the upper rack. I now have a white cross burned into my hand at the base of my thumb.
My husband swears that when he was little he had a pot pie right from the oven fall on his body. The pie burst and all the gravy scalded him. His brother cleaned him up and lathered vaseline all over it. It healed well and never scarred a bit.
I would have thought that it would keep the heat in, but it worked on him and he never forgot. Still swears by it to this day.
My husband swears that when he was little he had a pot pie right from the oven fall on his body. The pie burst and all the gravy scalded him. His brother cleaned him up and lathered vaseline all over it. It healed well and never scarred a bit.
I would have thought that it would keep the heat in, but it worked on him and he never forgot. Still swears by it to this day.
cliff dweller
Contributing Member
butter on a burn
jlee -- Yes that is why the old timers put butter on a burn -- it kept it from hurting. Problem is it does not remove the heat from the burn so the tissue stops being damaged
The aloe cools the tissue down while keeping the oxygen from touching the burn causing it to hurt. Fire = heat, oxygen and fuel. 
Aloe vera
jlee -- Yes that is why the old timers put butter on a burn -- it kept it from hurting. Problem is it does not remove the heat from the burn so the tissue stops being damaged
The aloe cools the tissue down while keeping the oxygen from touching the burn causing it to hurt. Fire = heat, oxygen and fuel. Aloe vera
Actually, don't put ANYTHING on a burn until you've run cold water over it for at least 20 minutes for a shallow second degree burn (reddened and looks like it will blister) or 40 minutes to an hour for a deep second degree (blisters immediately) burn.
That will do the most for pain relief you can manage at home, and will cool the deep tissues, stopping the burn from progressing deeper...
AFTER THAT, put aloe vera gel, or better yet (but not as handy, or cheap, usually) a gel called "Burn Free" (I got it at a company called Emergency Essentials). It contains tea tree oil as well as other things and it is very, very good at stopping the pain of nasty minor burns.
A couple of years ago I was carrying boiling maple syrup (218 degrees- just a couple degrees short of "finished") up from the basement to finish of on our kitchen stove. Naturally, I tripped on a stair... and poured that boiling, sticky syrup all over me. I stripped off my soaked jeans fast enough that I only had first degree burns on my legs, but one hand took the brunt.. the entire hand was blistered, and the small and second fingers looked like boiled hot dogs. The pain was really indescribable. We didn't have health insurance, and except for pain relief, there wasn't much to be done with it at the hospital anyway.
I did have some codiene at home, thankfully. Took a double dose (60 mg)... which didn't do much except make me sleepy. And sat up all night with the hand soaking in a big bowl of cold water. As long as it was in the water, the pain was pretty minor. As soon as I'd take it out- agony.
About 2 am, it finally stopped screaming when I'd take it out of the water, so I applied the Burn Free gel and wrapped it all in gauze... the fingers had to be wrapped individually because they would have stuck together. It wasn't pretty. Took about 2 weeks to heal to the point where I didn't need it wrapped constantly, and another 2 for most of the swelling to go down and the new skin to harden. But there isn't a mark there today...
Summerthyme (Who doesn't carry boiling syrup up or down stairs anymore)
That will do the most for pain relief you can manage at home, and will cool the deep tissues, stopping the burn from progressing deeper...
AFTER THAT, put aloe vera gel, or better yet (but not as handy, or cheap, usually) a gel called "Burn Free" (I got it at a company called Emergency Essentials). It contains tea tree oil as well as other things and it is very, very good at stopping the pain of nasty minor burns.
A couple of years ago I was carrying boiling maple syrup (218 degrees- just a couple degrees short of "finished") up from the basement to finish of on our kitchen stove. Naturally, I tripped on a stair... and poured that boiling, sticky syrup all over me. I stripped off my soaked jeans fast enough that I only had first degree burns on my legs, but one hand took the brunt.. the entire hand was blistered, and the small and second fingers looked like boiled hot dogs. The pain was really indescribable. We didn't have health insurance, and except for pain relief, there wasn't much to be done with it at the hospital anyway.
I did have some codiene at home, thankfully. Took a double dose (60 mg)... which didn't do much except make me sleepy. And sat up all night with the hand soaking in a big bowl of cold water. As long as it was in the water, the pain was pretty minor. As soon as I'd take it out- agony.
About 2 am, it finally stopped screaming when I'd take it out of the water, so I applied the Burn Free gel and wrapped it all in gauze... the fingers had to be wrapped individually because they would have stuck together. It wasn't pretty. Took about 2 weeks to heal to the point where I didn't need it wrapped constantly, and another 2 for most of the swelling to go down and the new skin to harden. But there isn't a mark there today...
Summerthyme (Who doesn't carry boiling syrup up or down stairs anymore)
HeliumAvid
Too Tired to ReTire
When I burned my hand pretty bad the Plastic Surgeon had me applying Colloidal Silver paste to the burn. It healed very nicely and you can hardly see any scarring.
HeliumAvid
HeliumAvid
HA- I suspect it wasn't COLLOIDAL silver. Likely either silver nitrate or a cream called Silverol, which is silver sulphadiazine.
But given what I've seen of colloidal silver (which I hadn't experimented with when I had the bad burns), I'd probably use IT as my "cold water bath". It's an amazing anti bacterial. Mixed with a little aloe vera gel, you could have your own, homemade "silver gel"... good idea to remember in the prep file.
Summerthyme
But given what I've seen of colloidal silver (which I hadn't experimented with when I had the bad burns), I'd probably use IT as my "cold water bath". It's an amazing anti bacterial. Mixed with a little aloe vera gel, you could have your own, homemade "silver gel"... good idea to remember in the prep file.
Summerthyme
Herbmountain
Inactive
Aloe is great. But on myself, I found that a little dap of lavender essential stops the pain fast. The oil also creates a little covering that protects the burn. As Summerthyme says, I also run the burn under cool water first to cool down the tissue. Then I drop the essential oil on it. Burns heal really fast. It does not leave an oil residue like one things. It evaporates in a few seconds.
This was discovered by a chem guy years ago who was distilling lavender in the fields. He burned his arm severely on one of the pipes and had no water near. So he plunged his arm in the distilling cool lavender oil and felt immediate relief. It healed in a couple of days and no scaring. Gattefossi is believe was his name. Grandfather is Aromatherapy.
Lavender officinalis is best. Besides..it makes me smell good.
This was discovered by a chem guy years ago who was distilling lavender in the fields. He burned his arm severely on one of the pipes and had no water near. So he plunged his arm in the distilling cool lavender oil and felt immediate relief. It healed in a couple of days and no scaring. Gattefossi is believe was his name. Grandfather is Aromatherapy.
Lavender officinalis is best. Besides..it makes me smell good.
Vere My Sone
Inactive
cold water for quite a while
then aloe continually squishing to keep the born moist and covered, then we cut open a piece which will cover the burn, and cover it with tape or bandaid to keep it on, replacing it as it dries out
there are burn bandages out there which we used when dd got a bad burn from a HOT glue gun--that's another story..why any craft leader would be using the old HOT glue guns with a group of kids is beyond me....but, I digress
after keeping it in cold water for ever, covered it with the burn bandage
keeps it moist and air sealed out
she had a huge blister, but ended up without a scar
the bandage worked really well
then aloe continually squishing to keep the born moist and covered, then we cut open a piece which will cover the burn, and cover it with tape or bandaid to keep it on, replacing it as it dries out
there are burn bandages out there which we used when dd got a bad burn from a HOT glue gun--that's another story..why any craft leader would be using the old HOT glue guns with a group of kids is beyond me....but, I digress
after keeping it in cold water for ever, covered it with the burn bandage
keeps it moist and air sealed out
she had a huge blister, but ended up without a scar
the bandage worked really well
I have very little experience with burns, but I will pass on what I have been told. This came from Adele Davis, who has been known to make things up, so try it yourself to see if it works.
First you want something cool to remove heat from the skin, and you want something to reduce skin damage and prevent infection. So you make a spray bottle with water and vitamin C. Let the patient use it freely. Do not apply any oil or grease unless a doctor orders it. After the pain has gone down, apply vitamin E to prevent scarring.
I have always used vitamin E on my cuts and scrapes to prevent scarring. It works very well, and sometimes even erases an old scar. It is sold in drug stores as "Pure Vitamin E Skin Beauty Oil" for about $8 an ounce. They also offer a cheaper product which is cut with salad oil.
First you want something cool to remove heat from the skin, and you want something to reduce skin damage and prevent infection. So you make a spray bottle with water and vitamin C. Let the patient use it freely. Do not apply any oil or grease unless a doctor orders it. After the pain has gone down, apply vitamin E to prevent scarring.
I have always used vitamin E on my cuts and scrapes to prevent scarring. It works very well, and sometimes even erases an old scar. It is sold in drug stores as "Pure Vitamin E Skin Beauty Oil" for about $8 an ounce. They also offer a cheaper product which is cut with salad oil.
Trasael Adnepos
Inactive
You will NEVER get better relief or faster healing for a burn, than slicing a nice juicy onion and slapping it on there QUICK. No water, no nothing else, just get that onion on there, and squeeze a little juice to the surface as you do. Re-apply at intervals, and it will make a believer out of you. If it's a really big nasty deep burn, sure, you may want to get some ice or cold water on there to take the heat out completely, but get that onion on first, and leave plenty of onion juice on the burn. Ideally, a cold onion, but whatever is handy.
Burns that would have been a nasty blister will often settle right down, and it takes a lot of the pain out also. I'm not saying if you caught on fire and need the burn unit here, but hot oil splatters, scalds, flame or hot cookware contact - you can literally sear yourself on the oven and you will be amazed at the result.
The aloe is great for healing, and the E is good for the scar, but get that onion on there, friends. Just do it and you'll never go back.
Tras
Burns that would have been a nasty blister will often settle right down, and it takes a lot of the pain out also. I'm not saying if you caught on fire and need the burn unit here, but hot oil splatters, scalds, flame or hot cookware contact - you can literally sear yourself on the oven and you will be amazed at the result.
The aloe is great for healing, and the E is good for the scar, but get that onion on there, friends. Just do it and you'll never go back.
Tras