These Are the Two Ingredients a Derm Wants You to Load up on After a Sunburn



Welcome to 'Dear Derm,' our brand-new series in which dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD shares serious skin-care realness. In each episode, she'll answer your most burning beauty questions and give you all the tools you need to take your glow game to the next level. 

I'm going to drop a hard truth on you here: Even the most diligent sunscreen wearers will, at some point, wind up dealing with a sunburn. If you've ever come back from a run with a sports bra burn, or woken up from a beach nap in your sunnies with some raccoon-style redness, you—like me—have learned this lesson the hard way. Because no matter how dedicated you are to protection, as board-certified dermatologist Mona Gohara, MD, puts it, "it's hard to be perfect at applying sunscreen."

In the first ever episode of Well+Good's new beauty series, Dear Derm by Beauty Geek, Dr. Gohara explains how to rescue your skin if you've had a little too much fun in the sun this summer. "Every sunburn—or tan for that matter—leaves damage to the skin," she cautions, pointing to the instantaneous redness, plus more longterm problems like fine lines, pigmentation, and of course, skin cancer. But if you've found yourself looking slightly more crispy than you'd like, she's got some advice on how to handle it.

"If you’re dealing with a sunburn at present, the thing you’re going to want to do is focus on hydration," she explains. "Skin that’s been sunburned tends to be severely dehydrated, so look for ingredients that will replenish moisture." Catch the video above to get the full, derm-approved brief on how to save stressed summer skin.

And one more thing? Resist the urge to peel it (which, I know, is so hard considering pulling off a good skin flake is one of those gross #oddlysatisfying things, like popping a mirror-splattering zit), because you'll only make things worse.

Catch the video above for more on how to keep your skin happy, and be sure to subscribe to the Well+Good YouTube Channel to get the latest dermatologist intel of your dreams.

These are the best drugstore sunscreens to slather on this summer, according to derms. Plus, why the spots where you're skipping out on SPF are also the most likely to show aging.