Chapped, Dry & Cracked hands/fingers in the winter - What do YOU do about it?

[Locoweed]

I've tried all of that stuff in the past with minimal results. The best thing I have found is to wear latex gloves inside your leather gloves. The leather & other types as well, just wick what skin oil you have out of your hands. Putting some sort of lotion on immediately after you wash will help some.

 

[texasjohn]

Bag Balm.

 

[Car Doc]

We tried all sorts of stuff over the years my wife has a house cleaning service and I am around harsh chemicals that dry hands out and I wash hands 20 times a day with pumice hand cleaner. Wife even uses little prophylactics (for lack of a proper term for them) on her fingers she gets it so bad. I think what she uses are actually called finger protectors I dont know for sure but you get the idea.

We used some stuff called Working Hands last for a couple years (it worked better than bag balm for us anyway) and bag balm before that and now she got some creme from Mary Kay that she likes so far its a petroleum base but JMHO there is nothing that will fix it we just have to suffer thru it. hth

 

[Biggreenavalanche]

Bag Balm your hands then put latex gloves over the Bag Balm and your leather gloves on top...do it for about a week...worked for me in the past when mine hands got real bad...if you wash alot make sure you use lotion each time...if you're using an alcohol based hand sanitizer make sure it has something along the lines of lanolin in it, not all of them do...

and yep, another vote for Bag Balm...

Rich

 

[CalG]

I have also had the worst cracking of hands and fingers in winter. Until this year!
In winter, I always seem to have some building project going on, vehicle or tractor repairs, plus the work in the machine shop, (Lathes mills and metal)
On week ends, I ski patrol which means working around the mountain and helping injured skiers, often with gloves removed to handle ropes, medical equipment, bandages and dressings etc. Cold and raw!

Though I have bag balm on my desk, (I live in Vermont for pete's sake, doesn't everyone have a can of Bag and Udder balm? ;-) I seldom use it. It's 99.7% petroleum jelly with a bit of coal tar antiseptic at a fairly high price. Bag Balm used to have camfor in it as well, but that was not approved for humans, the real market for BB.

I also keep a jar of Vaseline in the drawer. That I use regularly on both hands and FEET . Yup. my feet get dry in winter too. My wife gives me a tube of wussey hand and body lotion that I use daily. It has aloe. borage, and shea butter, (whatever those are) so if it fails to help my hands, I can use it for salad dressing.

Even with all these therapies and treatments, that I have been using for years, I would still had cracked,split and broken skin.

So let me get to the suggestion.

GET A HAND & NAIL BRUSH! Put one at every hand washing sink. and USE them. I like the natural bristle rectangular wooden handled ones, about 1" x 5".

Fill the sink bowl with very warm water, soap up. Scrub and scrub until there is only tender red skin. Dip into the hot soapy water often to soften the skin. Not even a dark shadow of dirt in the callouses should remain. Clean out those cut and splits too! It will hurt, but it won't hurt you! Hand washing should take as long as it takes to sing a couple stanzas of "Old MacDonald". (To yourself!)

Get that Skin Clean! If you get my point.

Chapped, cracked and broken skin is the product of bacteria that thrives on debris attached to your skin. Putting "healing lotions" on top is like "throwing bra'er rabbit into the briar patch".

I wash my hands just about whenever I complete the task that get's them dirty, even if that is just meal times or at the end of a full day outdoors.

Doctor tested! and it's working for me! One tiny crack on the outside of the right thumb just above the nail, not even open or red. ;-)

Try it! Hand and nail brushes are cheap!

 

[deepNdirt]

As a carpenter and working outside quite allot, I first start noticing dry cracking skin around the Fall months, when the climate changes will start the process, When Winter comes and from wearing Jersey gloves my hands really dry out, For years I used many of the things already mentioned, Corn huskers (mostly) would do the trick and sooth quickly though I was having to use it frequently and many of the other products I would try, No matter what the label read, was for only temporary relief, other things I'v tried are (Badger Healing Balm) ( Blue-Goo skin softener) ( Burt's Bees healing lotion )only a few to mention, again all of these work to an extent helping sooth and moisturize dry cracking skin but healing results were 3 to 5 days later, But let me tell you what works immediately,
Now my wife always has her ears and eyes open for the "right stuff" to try , This is what we've narrowed it down to... 1- Gold Bond triple action foot cream and 2- Sally Hansen cracked heel repair creme, I use this on my feet/heels and of course on my hands as well when applying to my feet, I suppose by these being for feet has a much stronger healing formula, so I continue to use it on my hands as well to prevent from cracking, You can read about them and decide for yourself if you care to try it, But I can tell you either one works good for me:thumbsup:

 

[SLHawkins]

David,
I have some stuff made from soybean oil. It has been doing my hands a world of good. They are much softer (the Mrs. can vouch for that:thumbsup And no cracking. I will bring you some the next time I am doing that way.
Hawk

 

[Scooby074]

Good stuff:

 

[charlz]

This is what you want: CO Bigelow No 1012 Chapped Hands Remedy Medicated Skin Protectant Lotion



I have tried many and this is the best I have tried that is still currently available. Put it on at night and your hands are sooooooo much better the next day. For deep cracks/splits I use superglue. Glue it shut and then put a coat or two over it. By the time the superglue wears off it is usually healed.

 

[Deere Dude]

I have cracks from the edge of my thumb and fingernails, a couple of them anyway that are unbearably cracked from September until May probably. I tried Walgreens Therapeutic moisture cream, Heavy duty hand lotion from other places and do it as often as I can and it does most fingers pretty well. A concrete man and a foundry man told me to dip my finger in Vaseline and put it in a latex glove over-night. I tried this but didn't seem to me do any good, plus i couldn't sleep with it on.

Mine especially gets cracked to where it bleeds lightly, and then it hurts so much I can't touch anything with my thumb. I tried Super-gluing the cracks but that wears off in a couple days and they still hurt. I can't seem to fix it long term other than to put a dab of hand cream on the crack and then wrap it with this Elastikon. This tape forms to the finger and sticks in place very well. I have tried maybe a dozen different tapes but they all are stiff or don't stick well, but I found this stuff about 15 years ago from work and found they sell it at Walgreens.

I use about a 5" piece on a thumb and am good for a couple to three days. Then I take it off and work off some of the sticky tape residue and them I am good for awhile just using hand cream, until it starts being unbearable again. If I am going to do some work where I will use my hands harshly, I put this tape on the susceptible thumbs and fingers and put on the gloves. Even without gloves this tape gives a lot of protection.

After putting this on like I told you, the finger won't be susceptible to hurt from bumps and hits. I can type with it quite easily, of course I am not a speed type anyway. I type for quality.

I usually bought a few rolls of 1" tape at a time at about $3.00 a roll and finally a couple months ago I got this box. One roll lasts me a few months using it quite a bit. It says reorder #5172 on the box.

Good luck