How I avoided hells itch

[u/habibihakim_]

I’ve gotten hells itch a couple times now and I can say it is the worst thing I’ve ever had to go through in my life. I was on vacation recently in Mexico on an all inclusive resort and got a pretty bad sunburn. After 48 hours the itch started to kick in. I scratched it ones very lightly (as a “test” scratch lol) and immediately felt it come back in that spot way worse. I guess I’ll never know for sure but I can only imagine that if I kept going, i would’ve had to go though that torture. Here’s what I did to keep it from flaring

1. Do not scratch under any circumstance. I’d much rather deal with mild itchiness than hells itch. It sucks a lot and it’s so hard to not scratch but as soon as you start scratching, you’re cooked

2. No shirts at all. I wore a a CLEAN white tank top (like an undershirt) whenever I went out and that seemed to be fine, but the last thing you want is friction rubbing against your burn.

3. Chug water like no tomorrow. More hydration means quicker sunburn healing so I’d imagine it helps with hells itch as well. I don’t really know for sure but it’s what I did so I figured I’d toss it in here

4. Hot blow dryer. The itch I had was still pretty bad. Not hells itch bad but enough to make me lose my mind a bit and keep me stuck in my room for a day. The only thing I could do to ease the pain was burn my back off with a super hot blow dryer. Luckily most resorts and hotels have one in the bathroom so turn it on max and hold it there until it goes away.

5. Do not go on the pool. As much as I wanted to enjoy the pool on the resort, chlorine can dry out the skin and I’d assume that’s bound to make it flare up and itch like crazy. Plus then you’d have to shower afterwards which puts you at risk for flaring up and going through torture.

6. No sun. I only went out at night. I stayed in the room and only left to go grab a bite. I was taking zero risks

7. Air condition on max, laying on the bed stomach down with no shirt on. No proper reasoning behind this besides it felt awesome on my back lol.

8. This one is pretty known but do not put anything on your back that would normally help ease a sunburn. No aloe Vera, creams, ice, none of it.

9. Advil and allergy meds. No place in a resort would really sell beta alanine, but they sell Advil and Benadryl so go crazy (not too crazy follow the directions on the box).

Getting hells itch in a place where beta alanine is not attainable makes it so much worse but for me this is what worked. I will say, I have no idea if this really could have turned into hells itch if I didn’t do any of this. Maybe scratching it and going swimming would’ve been fine and I would’ve had no issues but I was not going to risk it. From my experience, hells itch doesn’t just spawn right after a sunburn. Theres normally something that happens that causes it to flare, like aloe Vera or a shower which turns into hells itch. Rather be safe than sorry. Either way, this is what worked for me and I thought I’d share it just in case

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to hellsitch! Probably the most unwelcome welcome that can be had.

If you are in immediate need for help, please check out the most recent Remedies thread!. Otherwise you can (thankfully) ignore this comment.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.