My hands look like a wrinkly scrotum. Help.

[surlycurly]

For context, I'm 43 and my hands look 73. In the winter they normally get quite dry and chapped but this year they are obviously even worse. Between the hand washing and the sanitising they look like a well lived in, cold scrotum. Clearly not the look I'm going for. I find most hand creams pretty ineffectual (and the hand washing doesn't help their level of effectiveness). Any ideas about how I can have smooth, well moisturised hands?

Try 50+ sunscreen. It's usually pretty thick, and will also protect your mitts from sun damage, when the old currant bun eventually comes out.

If you can't get cotton gloves perhaps a pair of jockstraps may give your hands some extra support.

Retinol cream on your hands

Def the body shop hemp hand cream as mentioned by EvieBoo2. I have tried so many, and it's the best

Exfoliate daily, moisturise after every single hand wash.

I used to have the same problem and was prescribed Diprobase Ointment Emmolient- it’s more Vaseline like, rather than creamy, so once soaked into your skin it won’t be rendered ineffective every time you wash your hands, as the oily part forms a bit of a barrier to the water. If that makes sense! It worked well for me and I believe you can buy it over the counter as well.

Right instead of the jock straps (thank you @TwoLeftSocksWithHoles ) I have purchased cotton gloves and will try them with the Norwegian stuff until payday, after which I shall buy extravagant retinol based goodness. I shall have hands like a baby farmer henceforth.

E45 cream and change to a moisturising bar soap. I find Dove Beauty Bar good. If your hands are chapped, dry and damaged from washing rather than lined from age, retinol is just going to make them worse by irritating them further.

Don’t worry about buying the cotton gloves , just smother your hands in cream & put on towelling socks like big mittens on your ball sack hands. But don’t forget to take them off if you go to pick up your baby to feed her during the night 😂

Mine get horrendous in winter, so dry the skin on my knuckles splits when I bend them, really sore. I've never found anything better than Norwegian formula, smother my hands every night before sleep and they're good as new by morning, just in time to start washing/sanitising all over again so they're as bad again by bedtime

Wear gloves when you go outside, it makes a massive difference.

Washing hands with bar soap makes my hands much less dry then washing them with harsh liquid soap.

Hyarulonic acid makes a big difference to skin, you can either try it in a cream or use some supplements.

My personal favourites for dry skin are almond oil, urea and horse oil (the latter is very widely used in Korean cosmetics).

Body shop hemp hand cream or O'Keefes working hands are brilliant

I suffer the same! However I've definitely noticed an improvement since switching from liquid hand wash to bars of soap.

Forgot to say, Body Shop Hemp handcream as suggested by @PandemicPalava is brilliant indeed.

My grandmother used those old fashioned tins of Atrix handcream nearly her whole life and this is also a very good and affordable product. Louis Widmer also has very good products for dry skin and was the brand that my dermatologist recommended me for this issue years ago.

Oh op, we need before and after pics!

I shall take wrinkly scrotum pics tomorrow, for sure (not a sentence I thought I'd say today).

Another vote for OKeefes and L'occitane hand creams.

My dm and her dsis used to get cracks in the ends of their fingers in winter. They both used Atrixo hand cream - don't know if it still exists.

A good few years ago I had the worst hands one winter - so dry I developed different types of eczema all over them. Bit of discoid, bit of regular climbing all over my fingers. The absolute best thing I found was the Aveeno hand cream in the cream and green bottle - it stays on with hand washing! It took a mere 48 hours for everything to go back to normal, I was absolutely amazed. Definitely recommend that one!

Why thanks for the new recommendations- my son also has terrible hands, with awful eczema, so it would be amazing to find something that works!

The title

@lilsquish it's sad but true

I use hand cream every time I was my hands now, it’s a pain but my hands started cracking. I started off with L’Occitan Shea butter hand cream and now I’m using Body Shop and similar. In the evening I apply a thick layer and spent about 30 mins massaging it onto the cuticles.

My mum did a wax treatment (??) to her hands a couple of years ago. And they looked very nice. Not helpful during pandemic but when the beauty parlours open you can ask ;)

Mine are awful too Eucerin urea repair 5% is magic - it stings a bit if they’re really bad but it works and quickly