Dry, cracked hands.

[JumboBeef]

I suffer from dry, cracked and bloody painful hands. Normally at this time of year but can happen any time.

I do the usual stuff: keep my hands dry, make sure I dry them correctly when wet and use girly hand lotion but still I get the problem.

I have seen my GP and he referred me to a dermatologist, who basely said 'oh I get that, just have to live with it old chap'.

Any ideas please!

[Spice_Weasel]

I suffer from this a bit this time of year. The best stuff I have found is this: http://www.boots.com/en/Neutrogena-Concentrated-Ha...

[jmorgan]

I use e45. Not perfumed so not big girls blousy......

[chichee]

Or, if you can stand going into The Body Shop, try their Hemp Hand Protector. Similarly to you, I suffer from very dry hands and it works a treat.

[wattsie_2004]

I've used this which seems to work and it's also good for after shaving: Vaseline hand lotion

Also I wear gloves on cold rainy windy days now and try to keep irritants like engine oil, strong detergents and similar off my hands altogether.

[pharmvrs]

If the skin is dry, hard and cracked and is not dermatitis/eczema i.e red or flaking then it may be worth trying snowfire ointment stick. Its available in most good pharmacies

[drivin_me_nuts]

I can't abide the pain of cold hands. I use neutrogena fast absorbing hand cream and their concentrated lip balm.

[jas xjr]

Try almond oil. It is a available from Asian supermarkets.
Works better than water based moisturiser type products as it does not dry out as quickly

[redtwin]

Aqueous cream, those cheap Home Bargains/Poundland type shops sell it cheap enough so don't pay Boots prices. It can also be used as a hand cleaner so you could probably get away with less hand washing which is usually what causes my hands to dry out most.

[Pvapour]

moisturising is good (I've also found neutrogena best) but used with a barrier cream as well & it completely solves the problem.

1) moisturise last thing at night with the thick neutrogena (not really suitable for during the day)
2) moisturise first thing in morning with a light cream, wait for it to be absorbed & then put on a barrier cream (I use a builders one sold by swarfega)

works a treat but you need to reapply the barrier cream during the day if you wash your hands.

hth

[Flat6er]

My girlfriend had this for a few years until she was diagnosed as wheat intolerant. after cutting out wheat, the skin cleared up within weeks.

[balders118]

I've had dry hands all my life, to do with my washing them too much! Best way to combat it that I have found is to use a thick moisturising cream at night and maybe once or twice in the day. Neutrogena Norwegian Formula Ultimate Day is very good. Also what really helped me was having a molton brown style soap/hand cream on my sink. So everytime I'm at home and I wash my hands, I dry them then use the hand cream which is light and absorbs very quickly. The molton brown stuff is very good, but very expensive - I think we've got evelyn something at the moment.

[Lemmonie]

Argh this will sound really girly but I am a Nail Technician in my defense!

Before applying any hand cream (there are lots out there and different products work for different people) you need to remove the dry flaky layer of dead skin first. Otherwise you are simply moisterising dead skin that will fall off.

I am going to assume you are male and dont fancy applying some flowery hand scrub so a manly version will invlove making your own. Dead easy. A small squirt of handwash, a tablespoon of either salt or sugar and a glug of oil. Anything will do, veg, olive oil etc. Then rub like mad all over your hands, front back, each finger for a couple of mins then rinse off, dry and apply lotion. Do this every day for a week and you'll soon need to exfoliate just once a week.

No amount of just cream (even very expensive professional stuff i sell) will soften skin that really needs to be removed. Same applys to feet.

[Pvapour]

manly version..


bucket of sand, dive hands in & out for a couple of minutes smooths off all the dead skin , then moisturiser, then barrier cream

[Use Psychology]

a bucket of sand? pfft,

a quick once over with this

and then i'm ready to moisturise.

Edited by Use Psychology on Monday 30th January 10:09

[Pvapour]

pfft back at ur, I didn't mention for when its REALLY bad, my heavy duty planer does the trick

those shaving are not bois

[stackmonkey]

JumboBeef said:

I suffer from dry, cracked and bloody painful hands. Normally at this time of year but can happen any time.

I do the usual stuff: keep my hands dry, make sure I dry them correctly when wet and use girly hand lotion but still I get the problem.

I have seen my GP and he referred me to a dermatologist, who basely said 'oh I get that, just have to live with it old chap'.

Any ideas please!

check out the eczema thread elsewhere in this section.
Loads of diffeent people's recommendations for creams etc.

[Mobile Chicane]

Palmer's cocoa butter moisturiser:


I have road-tested this against mega-expensive creams and the Palmer's works better. It smells a bit of 'vanilla', but there's an unscented version if this is too much.

£3-odd for a 250ml bottle.

Use it every time you wash your hands and also last thing at night.

[parakitaMol.]

I suffer from eczema and contact dermatitis on my hands and get this quite often, nothing 'works' in terms of hand cream.... only helps...

Apart from this stuff, it is brilliant - I can only describe it as super glue nail polish! you paint it on and it alows your hands time to heal, as far as I know it's not available in UK - my husband brings it back from USA but you can get it on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Nexcare-Skin-Crack-fluid-oun...

[Nightmare]

OP would you be prepared to try wearing a pair of gloves at night.....?