My hands are driving me insane with dry skin

[myhorriblehands]

Is it eczema? Nothing helps, nothing. Doctors have prescribed different steroid creams/antibiotic creams and nothing makes a difference. Using washing up gloves doesn’t make a difference. I get these horrible little cuts and they’re so painful! Always itchy and stingy. Any ideas ?!

It looks like contact dermatitis and it could be anything.

Swap handwash for a plain pure bar of soap. e.g. Simple or supermarket 'pure' soap.

Wear thin cotton gloves under washing up gloves and disposable ones.
Wear non-latex gloves when preparing food.

Use non-allergenic hand cream/lotion.

Wear cotton gloves all night after putting on cream?

a pp mentioned Sodium Laureth Sulphate. A reaction to this is not uncommon. Its a foaming agent in a lot of products. Faith in Nature hand-wash is free from it and certain other brands. Not Bayliss and Harding. I read the labels in TK Maxx to see if that product is in or absent. Its in shampoo, toothpaste, bodywash
https://www.google.com/search?q=sodium+laureth+sulphate+free+body+wash&oq=sodium+laureth+sulphate+fee&gslcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUqCAgEEAAYDRgeMgYIABBFGDkyCQgBEAAYDRiABDIJCAIQABgNGIAEMggIAxAAGA0YHjIICAQQABgNGB4yCAgFEAAYDRgeMggIBhAAGA0YHjIICAcQABgNGB4yCAgIEAAYFhgeMggICRAAGBYYHjIKCAoQABgIGA0YHjIKCAsQABgIGA0YHtIBCTI0NTU3ajBqN6gCFLACAfEFR2fU7EDviyQ&client=ms-android-ee-uk-revc&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Its a foaming agent in a lot of products. Not just the cheap ones either.
Read the label. The ingredients.

I really like the Faith in Nature products. Usually on offer in H&B and TK Maxx.
I'm not recommending them to OP as her eczema might be caused by something innocuous, so am recommending the plain pure soap.

I had bad eczema on my face and things like shampoo stung like crazy. It did clear up but it was tea tree oil in a toner that caused it, I think.

I had hands like this until I stopped using hand soap with sulphates in. Bayliss & Harding Goodness (any scent) is brilliant and cost effective.

My hands were like this recently until I changed 2 things at the same time (so not sure which one made the difference!):

1. wash my hands with cold water rather than warm ( I used to love warming my hands up under the hot tap)
2. use bar soap rather than liquid.

Hopefully it’s such an easy fix as this!

Mine are the same, and yes it’s hand soap.

I second the bold, underlined, swap to bar soap. Lidl’s basic one, 4 in a pack is actually very good.

I developed a lanolin allergy in my early 20s. It's in so many toiletries. My hands at times had deep bleeding splits. It looked like I'd had an accident with a knife. Other times it was "just" sore flaking skin.
Avoiding lanolin and other wool fat derivatives like dmdm hydantoin & allatoin (forever reading ingedient labels) and constant use of Neutrogena Norwegian formula hand cream has kept the worst reactions at bay. Using at night before bed is beneficial. The Neutrogena body lotion is a lighter alternative during warm weather.

I have big hands and these are good:
https://amzn.eu/d/0cDkV4uP

I second the bold, underlined, swap to bar soap. Lidl’s basic one, 4 in a pack is actually very good.
It is. Cheap and gentle. Does the job.
I think Waitrose have a Pure range and that's really nice.

I had awful peeling skin between my fingers until I read on here about bar soap. It cleared up in days.

It might be hard water. Use gloves religiously even when taking out washing etc.

https://www.aveeno.co.uk/products/dermexa-daily-emollient-body-wash

The problem is that there are millions of these things, it's a bit trial and error. Have you also thought of nitrile gloves for doing things like hanging up the laundry?

Fairy liquid does something similar to my hands. Cheaper less effective washing up liquid not so much. Also rubber gloves actually irritate my skin too.

Mine get like that too, and NOTHING other than Lotil restorative hand cream works (bugger to get hold of currently, I had to go direct to the lotil website). Blue tube. I don't like the smell, but I do like the effect.

10% urea cream fixed mine when they got like this. I used the one by Eucerin

I've had eczema / dermatitis on my hands since I was a teenager (I'm in my 40s). Bar soap is definitely not the answer for me, most types aggravate it, though Dove unscented seems to be OK. Many handwashes also aggravate it, but Carex moisturizing handwash is fine.

What works for me is my own sweat - this does not work for everyone, it makes my husband's hands worse. I apply E45 or similar before bed, then some petroleum jelly (boots own brand is my preferred one) and then disposable plastic gloves. (If there are cracks in the skin I put the petroleum jelly onto the cracked areas first to prevent stinging). It was a method advised to me by a GP I saw in my 20s and has been life changing, I do have occasional flare-ups, usually triggered by using different soaps when out and about, but this method gets it back under control and I do have periods where it completely clears up.

My hands can go from fine to bleeding with just one wash with the wrong hand soap, liquid soaps are particularly problematic unless they are organic chemical free type stuff like FAith in Nature, although even some of theirs can set it off. Same with handcreams, I can only use Dr Organics. Good thick layer of that at night, then cotton glove overnight for a few nights usually clears it up but it will kick off straight away if I use the wrong soap again, a pain when out and about and if I'm working somewhere away then have to carry my own soap. Mine was kicked off by chemicals involved in stained / leaded glass work the Dr thinks.

Dove soap isn't soap and has a long list of ingredients and the bars are tiny, and it's not cheap. It has palm oil based ingredients.

Sodium Lauroyl Isethionate, Stearic Acid, Sodium Stearate, Sodium Palmate, Aqua, Sodium Isethionate, Lauric Acid, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, Parfum, Sodium Palm Kernelate, Sodium Chloride, Glycerin, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Tetrasodium EDTA, Zinc Oxide, Alpha-Isomethyl Ionone, Citronellol, Coumarin, Hexyl Cinnamal, Limonene, Linalool, CI 77891

Anything antibacterial does this to my hands, especially Carex.

Use something like Dermol or Aqueous cream as soap and moisturiser with O'keefes.

When they e settled down use a bar soap and not hand wash.

Please do not use steroid cream. Keep it well moistened, wear cotton gloves at night.

i have had eczema for 40 yrs and epaderm, diprobase and E45 were making it worse

Aveeno is the only thing that works.

Use something like Dermol or Aqueous cream as soap and moisturiser with O'keefes.
Aqueous cream does not suit everyone.
If you react to aqueous cream, I'd avoid the O'Keefe and Dermol too.

Another vote for Lotil cream here. Really helps heal the little cuts.

have struggled to find it in chemists recently

I’m struggling with mine at the moment, caused by having to wear disposable gloves - terrible reaction to both vinyl and nitrile gloves.

Hydrocortisone cream and Eumovate made it much worse.

Epimax ointment, vaseline are working, but also M&S Apothecary ’Calm’ handcream. This is outstanding.

How recently has this flared up for you @myhorriblehands ?
I’ve just had eczema flare up on my eyelids (which took ages to go away last year), and also on my elbow, and I’ve realised it has coincided with my hayfever kicking off - and I’m fairly sure last year’s episode was at a similar time.