Working wood and using finishing materials leaves my hands pretty dry. Early winter finds them splitting and bleeding. Lotions containing petrolatum help- if I’m persistent, but greasy hands and wood don’t get along! Cow udder salves work, but have been known to cause nerve problems if used for extended periods of time.
Sanding/trimming off the dry skin on my fingertips and sleeping with vaseline and cotton gloves on has been the ritual for over 45 years ……. if you have a successful alternative that works for you, please share it. Thanks in advance,
John in middle Tennessee
Replies
Breaktime just had this discussion.
http://forums.taunton.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=tp-breaktime&msg=24185.1
Lots of good suggestions. Check it out.
Billy
And CooksTalk just had this one.
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-cookstalk/messages/?msg=14214.1
Edited 1/17/2003 8:21:05 PM ET by Uncle Dunc
Thanks a lot! More there than I can absorb, but several new ointments to try. In my case, physical dehydration isn't a contributing factor, it's more localized!
Thanks again,
John in middle Tennessee
As anyone in snow country can tell you, one of the best bets is Bag Balm. Look for it in a drugstore or animal husbandry store near you.
Seriously.
Scott
And ... NPR just had an interview discussing the problem with winter dry skin.
Problems:
Washing too much (takes away the skin oils)
Excessive heat (car heaters & localized heaters) dries skin
Lack of humidity dries skin.
Solutions:
Shower every other day or less. Recommended to take a whore's shower (washcloth on offensive areas RPN)
After shower or washing hands immediatly put on moisturizing lotion. This is time rather than product important.
Make sure you aim for 30 % humidity in the air with your humidifier (or max outside temp allows)
Drink a beer to wash away the pain ( I think they said that)
>> Cow udder salves work, but have been known to cause nerve problems if used for extended
>> periods of time.
I was going to recommend Bag Balm too, but this made it sound like you didn't want to hear about it. :) Do you know what was the active ingredient in the ones that caused nerve damage? I seem to remember that some brand has or used to have a mercury compound in it, which would be consistent with nerve damage. (Who remembers Mercurichrome?) I just checked my can of Bag Balm, and it says the active ingredient is 8-hydroxy-quinoline sulfate. In any case, I second the recommendation. I've used it for years and it works for me.
I have had good success with Burt's Bees Hand Salve. All natural, by the way.
RR
Who remembers Mercurochrome?
Tell me about it, I haven't heard of it or seen it in years.
les
Burts Bee's or Bag Balm...
Aveeno Lotion is the best ive ever used and i have dry skin in the humid summer time.....
John,
I've had the same problem--fingers drying out and skin splitting around the nails during cold weather-- for over 30 years. Mine is on my right hand only; it began not long after I returned from Vietnam. (Don't know if I picked up some fungus over there or if it's just coincidence.) Hand sanding makes mine even worse as the sanding dust gets into the little cracks.
Two things help me: 1. I use a product from the drugstore called New Skin. It smells like nail polish, you just dab it on the cracks and let it dry. 2. A few years ago my wife sent off for an appliance she saw advertised on Home Shopping Channel called ThermaSpa. It looks like a small elongated toilet. You filll it with cakes of parrafin wax and plug it in until the wax melts. Then dip hand into the hot wax and wrap it in plastic for a few minutes, then peel off wax, before bedtime. This has helped a lot. I think it was around $75.00. Good luck. GP
I just found a new one. Badger Balm. Works great for me. Smells like root beer from the Sweet Birch it contains.
Check their website
http://www.badgerbalm.com
HTH
N
Thanks again to everyone who responded. I don't know how to remove the "unread" labelling from the headings, but I HAVE read all these posts! Some of these product seem to be sold in the North country only, but I'll keep up my search for Badger Balm. The hot wax was an interesting test, last year, I believe, but not long lasting. Sure have a huge cake of parafin left for use on drawer slides, but I never mix enough hide glue at one time to use the wax tank! Wonder why it was so cheap compared to a dedicated electric glue pot one tenth it's size? Ah...., but I wander from the subject!
The nerve damage I alluded to was from extended use of "Bag Balm"; I did not read the report, but I mentioned to my wife that I would wake up and my hands would be tingling like they were asleep, and she remembered seeing something warning about using it continuously for more than a week. I use it intermittenly now.
Once again, thanks to all,
John in middle Tennessee (where it was +2 degrees F @ 5 am this morning!)
P.S. The "unread" has disappeared! IT knows!
Edited 1/18/2003 8:50:45 AM ET by TAILSORPINS
Ive tried them all and Badger balm seems to be the best(for me), there is another product called " Skin Trip " by Mountain Ocean, I think? It works for me and it smells awesome to boot. Anyway check out the natural food stores, these are all natural products, no petroleum!!.. gOOD LUCK pETEY
If your problem is anyting like mine, you may find that you have an allergy reaction happening.
I have tried every hand cream I could find. Even Neets Foot oil for leather, it works if you can wear the leather glove all day, kinda messy for woodworkers.
I have some real fine leather batting gloves that I wear at night, lathter my hands with Bag Balm. Put on the gloves. It helps to heal them faster.
I finally figured out what I was allergic to, after several years of the problem. It was not a wood product or one used in the shop. It happens to be fish slime. I love to fish and it happens every time I went fishing. I realease 99% of the catch, but handling them apparently puts enough on my hands, even when I wash, dry them. Within a few hours my hands cracked, bled. 12 hours later the skin, callouses began to peel off.
I still fish, but have changed the way I handle fish, etc.
I understand yur problem.
Curt
John, are you consistently using gloves when you're handling any type of solvent, stain or finish?? Very, very important if you're having problems with your skin.
I haven't had time to look at the other links, but at risk of repeating info there, I'd throw in: Gloves, as above; some antibiotic ointment until the open skin closes up; if the dry skin persists after healing and various moisture treatments, perhaps try the "moisture gloves" seen in the cosmetics department that you wear over moisturizers applied in the evening.
Good luck!
forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
Move to Florida!! I don't have that problem here, but up north in the dry cold, my fingers bleed. And do they HURT.
Jim in FL
I use Corn Husker, 3-4x a day, when my hands get chapped. Works for me, Good luck.......Dale
gee i thought all americians would know about palmers cocoa butter i have had huge problems with solvents and cracking skin and splits around fingure nail till i discovered cocoa butter. i now have 3 different types and have to hide it from my wife. problems cleared up 1 to 2 weeks. also got rid of callosous on feet. so an australian tip for an americian product.
Dear Tailsorpins:
You may wish to consider Lac-Hydrin, 12% Lotion from your local physician. I'd recommend twice a day during the winter, and probably once a day during the summer if needed. Dry skin (Xerosis) or Hyperkeratosis, another defoliating dermatitis has no known cure, just control. Emollients (dry skin over the counter products) have been used daily, over the years by women. They generally have nicer skin because of this into their70s - 100s. Men generally haven't used emollients, and they've paid the price. Our parents should have taught us, though they didn't know. Use emollients in-between Lac-Hydrin treatments if needed, as one of the letters suggests. There are many good recommendations in the letters you received. Sometimes, it is trial and error, until you find what is right for you.
Regards,
Turbo
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