What I did to prevent a burn from scarring
– tips from someone who’s been there
-This post contains affiliate links. These links don’t change the price for you at all but they do enable us to keep creating helpful free content. Thank you as always for your support!|ad|-
Three months ago I spilled a mug of scolding hot tea over myself when sat on the sofa. I was left with a 2nd degree burn which was incredibly painful and took quite a while to heal. After a few weeks, the blisters had healed and new skin had developed over the burn, but I was still left with quite a nasty scar.
I couldn’t find a lot of information about how to care for a burn past the initial emergency stage, so I decided to write this post in order to help others out there in the same position.
Here are the steps I took to prevent a burn from scarring, and I’m pretty happy with the results!
IMPORTANT: If you are looking for emergency burn treatment, please see the NHS guidelines for treating burns.
This article is not a substitute for professional medical advice.
How to Prevent a Burn From Scarring
WATCH: My Burn Story and At Home Treatment
Video Timings:
How I got my burn – 01:44
Photo of my Burn – 03:30
Dressing my Burn – 04:10
Silicone Gel – 07:18
Helping the Scar to Fade – 08:46
How My Scar Looks After 10 weeks: 10:40
You can see my burn in the video above, but be warned it’s pretty gross! It was about the size of my palm with all the blisters and it was in a tricky position. But with the steps below I managed to help it heal really well and the scar is barely visible now! There’s also a shot of how it looks after 10 weeks in my video above.
Initial Burn Dressings
These gauze burn dressings were a game changer when healing my burn and I honestly think it healed so well because of these. We started using them on day 3, but I would suggest having some in your First Aid Kit and begin as soon as the burn has been cooled down.
We used a padded dressing over the gauze as it’s wet, to make sure it stays in place and protects the wound. You’re also going to need some tape to hold it all down if your dressings aren’t already sticky.
TOP TIP: My burn was quite big so we found it useful to have big pads that we could cut to size and tape down, instead of relying on the pre-sized adhesive ones.
Silicone Gel
Next, once my burn had healed over I started to use a silicone gel to cover it and prevent the burn from scarring. You can get these in re-usable sticky pads or gel form. Again because my burn was quite big I used the gel as I was able to cover it all evenly and easily.
I applied this 2-3 times a day for a few weeks and I let it dry before putting my clothes back on.
Skin Colour Correction
Once my scar had healed and was starting to fade, I still had some purple discoloration with the damaged skin. So I have been using this Zinc Serum to help with healing and fading. And also this Retinol serum to help fade the scar and help with colour correction.
I put the zinc serum on in the morning after my shower and the retinol on at night before bed and let them both sink in before getting dressed. These two have been great and they can also be used on your face to help treat and heal blemishes too – win win!
Of course everyone heals differently and I’m sure with even more time my scar will disappear completely. But hopefully this helps if you find yourself in the same position.
Don’t forget to make an appointment with your GP if you’re worried about how your burn is healing.
PIN THIS FOR LATER
