Sunburns are nasty, we can all agree. Sometimes we just want to get some much-needed Vitamin D from the sun, or acquire a tan. Getting unpleasant burns on our skin seems to be the price we pay in exchange!

When that happens, pretty much your only option is to just wait for your skin to heal. This isn’t really the most enjoyable process as your skin will peel off its sun-damaged bits, which hurts quite a bit.

If only there was some way you could soothe your skin and make the healing less of an unpleasant ordeal.

Well, if this Facebook couple’s evidence is anything to go by, it seems like Menthol-based shaving cream should do the trick. Cindie Allen Stewart, the woman who made the viral Facebook post, writes :

“First, buy you some Menthol foam shaving cream. It has to be the foam and it has to have menthol in it. We found Gillette shaving cream on Amazon since we had problems finding menthol foam in stores. We ended up buying 6 cans of it, but it works out because we live in Texas and sunburns happen a lot. (Plus, we have given a couple cans to friends.)”

Shaving foam is intended for use on your skin (specifically, your face) to alleviate any shaving burns or cuts. So it isn’t unusual to find that it has similar benefits for sunburns.

Cindie Allen mentioned that her grandmother had heard the method from a doctor in her youth, which is how they know about it.

Is this method encouraged or safe though? Dermatologist William Huang MD has expressed his thoughts on Cindie’s proposed treatment of sunburns. While he acknowledges that it isn’t a lab-tested method, he thinks we shouldn’t dismiss it too hastily either.

“The number one ingredient in shaving cream is typically water, so it’s very hydrating. But also there are a lot of oils, usually palm or coconut oil, which are very soothing and nice to help replenish damaged skin.”

No surprise, Cindie’s Facebook post is making the rounds and currently has over 200 thousand shares.

We can confidently guess that the idea of treating such a common problem with an abundant, inexpensive resource is what drove the popularity of the post.

Sunburns, and in addition, their severity and long-lasting effects, will vary from person to person depending on our skin type. Perhaps not everyone knows this, but we don’t all share the same kind of skin.

There’s folks whose skins are way more prone to oiliness, while some may have more burn or UV-sensitive skin. In fact, Cindie’s own husband has skin that’s allergic to Aloe. We’re sure you know someone who has slightly oilier or dryer skin than you.

Though just because we know shaving foam might do the trick for a sunburn, this isn’t an excuse for you to be careless about how much UV you’re skin is exposed to.

Repeated or regular damaging of your skin by UV exposure makes you way more prone to skin cancer in the future. Treating the burns with shaving foam definitely isn’t going to help in that regard. Even Cindie herself stresses that using sunscreen and trying to avoid getting sunburned is more important.

Nonetheless, the knowledge provided by Cindie is incredibly useful

She proceeds to clarify that she and her family have been treating sunburns with shaving foam for over 10 years, and never had any problems or harmful side-effects. This is good news for any of us who have our doubts.

While no one has tried to investigate this method scientifically (yet), it’s not some baseless snake-oil treatment either! Hundreds of thousands of folks are probably thanking Cindie for bringing this to their attention. Beach-goers, in particular, might have the biggest thanks to extend to Cindie.

Source: [Cindie Allen Stewart/Facebook]

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