Categories: HEALTH & WELLNESS

Burn Scar Prevention With Lavender Essential Oil

Several years ago, I had never heard of essential oils. One day, I took a plate of manicotti out of the microwave, and while carrying the plate, with cheese and sauce so hot it was bubbling still, I tripped and spilled the entire plate against my bare chest. The resulting burn was so bad that when I wiped the sauce and cheese from my chest with a towel, it pulled skin off with it, leaving me with second- and third-degree burns.

A quick visit to the ER later, and I was sent home with some cooling gel and antibiotics as well as pain medication, narcotics. While the narcotic pain medication did help reduce the pain and allow me to sleep some at night, during the day, in the heat of West Texas where I lived, it did little to alleviate the pain and made my head fuzzy and concentration was difficult.

A friend of mine mailed me something she swore would be a magic cure for my pain. I was skeptical. It seems whenever you let people know there’s something wrong, everyone has their own ‘home remedy’ to ‘cure’ your condition. Well, this time, she was right. What she sent me was lavender essential oil, a 15ml bottle.

Lavender Essential Oil Topical Application

I had never used essential oils or even heard of them before this day, and now, I swear by them. Lavender essential oil has a variety of uses, from as simple as a natural fragrance to aromatherapy for rest and relaxation, and my favorite use for it: minimizing scars and reducing burn pain.

I didn’t know how to use essential oils, so I simply poured some of the lavender essential oil directly on the burn on my chest. For a few seconds, it burned slightly, a sting, and then for the first time in a few days, the pain went away completely. It was amazing the relief. I continued to apply lavender essential oil for a couple of weeks, and by the time the burns on my chest had stopped hurting, the scars were almost completely gone.

Lavender Essential Oil Scar Minimizing

I don’t know what is in the essential oil of lavender that makes scar appearance minimized, but it works on scars other than burns, though admittedly, burn scars seem to respond quickly to its healing effects. I have used it on small cuts and abrasions as well. Lavender essential oil can sting a little when a wound is still fresh, but once it’s scabbed over and has started healing, lavender essential oil, applied topically, can help minimize scarring while it heals.

Lavender essential oil also helps keep it healing wounds from itching and is said to have some antibacterial and antimicrobial properties as well.

Safety Considerations With Lavender Essential Oil

Lavender has a relaxation property, often used to fragrance products for bedtime, like lotions and satchels for bedrooms. WebMD warns that lavender essential oil can depress the central nervous system and cause drowsiness and sleepiness (especially good when used properly to treat insomnia and induce relaxation but dangerous when used for other properties and healing in which sleepiness is not a desired effect). Because of this tendency to induce relaxation, when I used lavender essential oil on my chest for the burns, it also made me quite sleepy. You shouldn’t drive or do other dangerous things until you know how lavender will work for you.