Why You Shouldn’t Dermaplane Sunburns + What To Use Instead

In case you didn’t know: You can’t heal sunburned skin. Sure, you can slather on soothing hydrators and emollients to relieve some of the discomfort, but once the skin is burned, there’s nothing you can do to revive the dead skin cells. (That’s why your best bet is to prevent burns in the first place by practicing safe sun care.) 

The good news is that your skin heals itself—the damaged skin cells naturally slough off during this process, which is why sunburns tend to peel. To speed up said process, you might think to pick at the flakes with your fingers or reach for an exfoliator (or in the case of this TikTok user, a dermaplaning tool). Best to scrub the dead, damaged skin off and jump-start the healing process, right?

Wrong! Oh-so-wrong! “Please don’t use your dermaplaning tool to help scrape away at your sunburn,” says board-certified dermatologist and mbg Collective member Whitney Bowe, M.D., in a duet video. Here’s why dermaplaning does more harm than good and what you should use instead.