Terrible Terrible sunburn

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I'm a redhead and very pale so I burn really easily. Anyway, today me and my aspie group went to the beach. It was awesome! We had the best time there. I slathered my self with the highest spf of sunscreen possible, literally coated myself. I was there for 5 hours. in the sun. having a blast. So I tell my friend (who also is on WP, YAY WP!) "I know i'm going to burn." I didn't think i'd be there so long, or have so much of a burn.


anyway, I look terrible.

I have one large spot on my face that looks like a kid got into his mothers rouge, bright red.
My Lips look like a bad shade of lipstick, burned. The other side of my face, burned.
The very tip of my nose, literally red like a clown nose.
The backs of my hands burned. (even though I put sunscreen, and I never sunscreen my hands, and they've never been burned before!)
The front of my feet are burned.
tons of random splotchy red marks all over my arms.
My chest is streaked with red. (sixth time this year for my chest to burn, and the worst. ) even down my chest places that were covered.
The backs of my arms, up the side, and by my shoulders. a HUGE long streaked patch of sunburn, with finger marks where the sunscreen got. literally looks like a lobster.
My knees are also lightly burned though they were covered.
Now I have freckles everywhere, and I'm not freckly usually.

This stinks. My lips are dry and puffy, everything itches and is red and dry. my eyes feel like after you cry all night and the tears dry up. I haven't had a burn this bad in years.

I've been slathering on aloe vera to help with the pain and the burn, and i've popped several tylenol to get rid of the burn. it's lightened slightly but it still really hurts.

any tips?

I was once sunburned to second degree in Florida needless to say blisters formed on my back and my shoulders, wasn't a pretty sight... Cold showers everyday helped soothe the pain. Some lady at a campsite once proposed white vinegar, it smells badly, but it did help, the burning sensation was gone and the skin wasn't as sensitive about the burns as it had been. The blisters didn't go away instantly though (ofc) but at least they wouldn't hurt anymore. So well, try this on one region or two and uh, come back and tell us. =/

Taking a lukewarm trending on cool bath with a few peppermint tea bags in it (peppermint is cooling) can help.

You might also want to slather on some aloe vera when you get out of the tub, and have your sheets changed to something not so abrasive feeling on your sun damaged areas.

Prevention should be a top priority of yours, the next time you spend a whole day outside when it's sunny. The last time I was at a beach, I wore a hat with a big brim in addition to the sunscreen. Unfortunately I didn't put any sunscreen on my feet, and paid the price for it. Because of that one day of sunburn, I couldn't wear anything on my feet for the next ten days. The rest of my skin was fine though. So go get a big-brimmed hat.

Been there!

I can sympathize. The last time I was sunburned I got 2nd degree burns on my left leg and I put sunscreen on about 4 times during that day. It hurt like nothing I had ever experienced before. I couldn't walk for two days because the skin on my leg kept on pulling and every time it pulled my eyes teared up because that's how much it hurt.

I read that adding vinegar to your bath can help take the sting out of your sunburn, although I'm not sure how much to put it. I couldn't try it for my burns because I don't have a bath tub. Other than that just do the usual things like take cool showers (not cold because your body can go into shock) or you can also apply a towel soaked in cool water to the burns if you don't want to take a cool shower. Keep putting aloe vera on it too and if you get any blisters, don't pop them because then the burn underneath might get infected.