Personal Testimony: Lavender Oil for Burn Treatment

I'm still sort of a newcomer to the world of essential oils, though I don't feel quite as "Huh?" as I once did.  :-)  Lavender oil seems to be a go-to oil for many, many things; and this last week, I learned from personal experience just how good it is at healing the skin.  I've read that you can combine it with witch hazel to use on cuts and scrapes as a natural wash before bandaging, but you can also use it to treat burns.  Lavender oil is one of the few oils that you can put directly on your skin - never put an essential oil directly on the skin unless you have checked if it's ok first!  Many oils need to be put in a carrier oil such as olive or sweet almond.  Do your research!

That said, I just wanted to share my personal testimony to the healing power of lavender oil for a burn that graces my forearm.  I received the burn while cooking by iPhone light - Hubz and my dad were installing a new dining light fixture which meant lack of electricity to the kitchen.  I was pulling something out of the oven, and quick as a wink my forearm touched the 400+* rack.  I didn't think it was a terrible burn.  I put an ice pack on it for a few minutes and called it good.  Apparently, it must have been one of those burns where your skin was touching for a bit longer than you thought...  It blistered.  It was swollen, red, and irritated.  I made a tiny mixture of real aloe from my plant, sweet almond oil, and a drop of lavender oil.  I dipped gauze in the mixture, and then wrapped the burn.  It felt SO cool and soothing!  I did this for a couple of days, but the burn didn't really seem to be improving. If anything, it seemed to start feeling more painful and irritated.  I tried antibiotic ointment - which did nothing.  So, "Whatever...I'm getting desperate...I'll just slap some straight lavender oil on it."

Amazing things happened, folks.  By the next morning, there was zero pain, irritation, and inflammation (it was actually dipped below my normal skin level just a bit!).  It looked noticeably better, too.  I kept it loosely covered throughout the day just to keep fabrics and such from rubbing against the burn.  By night, I could tell there was a little bit of swelling around the edges.  I put another drop of lavender oil straight on the burn and wrapped it up for another night.  Next morning, again, a remarkable improvement!  I wish I would have taken a picture when I started using the straight lavender oil, but I did start documenting a few days ago.  Here is the progression of healing over the last five days (minus day 4 in which I did not put any lavender oil on the burn just to see if it would continue healing quickly after several days of treatment).  See for yourself!

After one night of treatment.  Ask my mom about the level of improvement!  She was here when the burn happened!  The burn went from blistery and angry looking to calm and smoothly scabbed overnight!

Day 2 - the scab is noticeably smaller and new pink flesh is appearing.

Day 3 - Again, the scab is remarkably smaller and the pink flesh is calming down in color.

Skipped Day 4 just to see what would happen.  This is Day 5.  WOW!  Only a dot of scab left, and the pink area is much less noticeable.  Can you tell I'm amazed and excited?  :-)

Hubz and I wonder how society has departed so far from natural remedies when clearly they work!  There is definitely a place for medicine (we're advocates of that, too!), but if you can keep it simple for simple things...why wouldn't you?