Dry hands during winter.

Anyone found a way to keep your hands and fingers from cracking open during the winter?

- I use hand lotion about 5 times a day and it does not seem to help during the winter. The tips of my fingers crack open often. If I am working on a project like even tying trout flies, the problem gets worse. It seems like the older you get, the dryer the skin.

[Ol_Rancher]

Gloves

Originally Posted by Ol_Rancher

Gloves

You can't tie flies with gloves on!

[paradiseken]

CT, are you using a humidifier in your home? It would help.

[Martha]

Do what the farmers do. Don't use lotion. Lotion is for pussies. Use bag balm. Put it on after washing your hands when your hands are a bit damp.

Originally Posted by paradiseken

CT, are you using a humidifier in your home? It would help.

Yes. - But the air is still much drier inside and out compared to summer.

[wildcat]

Ever try Cornhusker lotion or Aveeno Intensive Relief Hand Cream?

Ol Rancher has a point. I do know some people who put the lotion on and then some plastic disposable gloves before they go to bed. Next day everything is fine.

[greg]

C-T:

This might work. I read about it (or a product like it) in Mother Earth News about ten-twenty years ago. It's used by dairy farmers, especially in the winter when they were dealing with their own cracked and dried fingers and rough udders. They slathered it on and as they . . . um . . . worked it was also spread on the cow parts, helping them both. At the time it came with very high recommendations by folks who handled teats a lot. I've never tried it though.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/cus...=3760901&s=hpc

[Dawg54]

Originally Posted by Martha

Do what the farmers do. Don't use lotion. Lotion is for pussies.

[crazy connie]

Do the dinner dishes by hand and your skin will be hydrated then use a heavy emollient type of product immediately after. I suggest vaseline or bag balm. This works very well for me for both hands and feet. Lotions are just fluff in my book. I also rub in a bit of olive oil whenever I am cooking and using it. Try not to rub yourself with too much garlic though!

[Goonie]

Originally Posted by wildcat

Ever try Cornhusker lotion or Aveeno Intensive Relief Hand Cream?

Ol Rancher has a point. I do know some people who put the lotion on and then some plastic disposable gloves before they go to bed. Next day everything is fine.

I had a friend who worked in maintenance at a petro-chem plant, that used this technique for years! It worked very well. Prior to that, his hands (esp. fingers) would crack and bleed.

[youbet]

Originally Posted by crazy connie

Do the dinner dishes by hand and your skin will be hydrated then use a heavy emollient type of product immediately after. I suggest vaseline or bag balm.

A more comfortable product than either traditional pretroleum jelly or Bag Balm is emulsified pertroleum jelly. It's basically petroleum jelly that's been whipped up to incorporate air.........it's sort of fluffy. It seems to penetrate skin better than straight petroleum jelly or Bag Balm, both of which seem to lay on top of the skin. We buy a CVS house brand of emulsified petroleum jelly which comes in a tube. Very small premium in price compared to straight petroleum jelly.

The Vaseline brand of petroleum jelly usually carries a significant price penalty and the house brands are excellent substitutes.

DW has some dry skin issues which require maintenance. Globbing on emulsified petroleum jelly and then wearing gloves to bed was recommended by her dermatologist and has been very effective.

[HFWR]

Originally Posted by Martha

Lotion is for pussies.

[Outtahere]

We use the Bag Balm for our hands too. Dh taped drywall as a living and that stuff sucks the moisture out of skin. I had him try the Bagbalm and he was amazed at how much it helped heal his cracked and dry hands.

[Baxter]

A dermatologist once told me to apply a thick lotion and put on some thin cotton gloves before sleeping. I do not remember the brand of lotion, but it was a lot heavier than the cheap stuff I had been buying.

I later solved the problem by moving 1,000 miles south.

Those of you recommending latex gloves, aren't you worried about your skin not being able to breathe? When I wear latex gloves for more than fifteen or twenty minutes, my hands get too moist and I have to dry them out.

[Nords]

Originally Posted by Baxter

I later solved the problem by moving 1,000 miles south.

That was my first thought too.

[BarbaraAnne]

My son has the same problem with his hands, C-T. They get dry and crack and bleed in the cold. We use Aquaphor, which is usually available from the pharmacist without a prescription, but behind the counter. It is petroleum jelly based but has additional ingredients that seem to make it more effective.

We have tried other products, but this is the only one that seems to work for him.

[astromeria]

My husband gives me a foot rub with Palmer's cocoa butter (from Eckard's Drug) once or twice a week. His hands get even softer than my feet--and I love the chocolate smell! His father used to get cracked and bleeding hands after he retired to Maine--wish we'd known about cocoa butter then.

[Michael Moore]

As with many things, preventative maintenance is a good idea. Use the treatment of your choice (and the bag balm is pretty effective but I also use Aquaphor) BEFORE things get bad.

It is interesting how it is usually a lot less bother to prevent a situation than to recover from it.

cheers,
Michael

[Bob_Smith]

Originally Posted by BarbaraAnne

We use Aquaphor, which is usually available from the pharmacist without a prescription, but behind the counter.

BarbaraAnne, I think we use the same thing, except here they call it Aquaphilic. A dermatologist recommended it to us. It really does work well for the type of thing Cut-Throat is dealing with. We, too, just ask for it at the pharmacy - they keep it behind the counter.

http://www.medcolab.com/prodaqua.htm

Cut-Throat, I have the same problem. The skin near the corners of my fingers cracks in the winter. Hurts like hell. It has also helped me to literally file those areas down with a nail file - the skin tends to thicken there when dry, which makes cracking more likely.

I also believe that many of us are dehydrated without realizing it. As we age, we tend to lose our sense of thirst - at least I have. I must force myself to drink more, and I don't keep it up as I should. Whenever I do drink more, I feel better in general.