My hands are so dry and cracked, help!

[wastingaway]

My hands feel like ancient papyrus, and if I bend a finger or close my fist up, bloody cracks open. It's horrid.

I'm trying to keep them moisturised, using Doublebase.

What's the best thing I can use/do to help them heal?

ouch
Get some cotton gloves on ebay (butler style!!) and wear all the time?
And moisturisation

Neutrogena cream works best for me - more moisturising than doublebase.

Body shop used to do some thin cotton gloves that you could put lots of hand cream on and then go to sleep and that seemed really good for very dry skin.
However - yours does sound particularly bad - hope someone comes up with something useful for you.

Mine usually go the same way
Best thing i have found is rubbing Rose and Gylcerin(sp?) water on them.Works a treat.

oh I get this, and Aveeno cream is the best and definitely lasts all day

Crabtree also do a really good hand moisturiser but Aveeno is cheaper

To add to my bodyshop advertising - their Hemp handcream is good - another thought, my partner is a keen climber which truly shreds your hands and he uses this tiny little pot of something he got from an outdoors shop which is miraculous called 'climb on' cream.

Crabtree and Evelyn Gardeners Hand Therapy. I get the fissures on my fingers too - it works very well on them. Sinks in and lasts too, lots of creams don't.

I swear by Neutrogena. It has glycerine. I sometimes also uses E45, but neutrogena is best for really dry chapped hands.

Also, you can add olive oil and salt, and rub. It actually really helps as a once in a while treat.

My DD has this really badly and I used to suffer. Use aqueous cream (which you can buy from Boots in a tube) during the day and stop using any soap products. Wear gloves all the time when you are out and keep your hands dry. My doctor said that the cracks let bacteria get into the skin which is the main cause of the problem - DD's got so bad last summer that the pigment of her hands were affected. The doctor prescribed a strong paraffin based cream, similar to aqueous, but she puts this on before bedtime and it is brilliant.

neutrogena for me too!

justsotired my dcs get this too and the doctor prescribed those crams and I found they ook alot longer to work and the symptoms came back once you stop using them

I use Aveeno on the dcs also available on prescription, really is brilliant and after a couple of days dosen't need to be aplied as often

wildstrawberry the gardners therapy is the one I was thinking about but I was bought as a present

I had some of the white gloves form the body shop - as I get onmy hands

I took them to work and they were split beofre I put them on my hands - but I had to wear them with the steriod cream and stuff - so used them.

When I ogt my dad to take them back there was a big fuss as I had worn them, eventually after going through several other bags which were all split my dad got a refund.

So i would advice get them from else where

ou can buy them inbulk online

when my hands crack i use Elizabeth Arden 24hr cream (tiny dab - had tube for ages) on the area or use cracked heel cream just before bed

Thank you all so much, I'll get to Boots tomorrow.

We've got a bug at the moment, so I'm cleaning my hands a lot more than usual. And usual is a lot anyway!

Maybe I should get some vitamins too.

Flexitol Heel Balm.

Don't laugh. Works a treat as a rescue for hands like yours!

Neutrogena cream, overnight with cotton gloves on top.

Also put cream on after every hand wash, esp if using antibac hand wash.

cracked heel cream sorts out the fissures on my feet, I'm sure it would on hands too.

I Also have dry hands - wear rubber gloves for all wet type housework, - I find the non latex ones with a flock lining best (you can get them in lakeland), ordinary rubber gloves make my hands worse.

I second Flexitol heel balm; I was in tears with my cracked hands a few days ago, they were really painful. Flexitol has sorted it out.

Ooh, Flexitol! I've got some of that in!

Drink more! I find it makes a difference (sounds mad I know). I use my ds's diprobase to protect them, lots of nivea creme, and clarins hand cream, which I find better for my skin than any other. Neutrogena is supposed to be v good, but unfortunately I am allergic to it (even the 'sensitive' skin one)

You could try the disposable gloves for mucky jobs / nappy changes etc to cut down on handwashing perhaps? The palms of my hands were cracked and bleeding for a couple of years and I was using all manner of creams both shop bought and prescribed and really cutting down on handwashing - hard I know - made such a difference.

And use cream at every opportunity especially after washing hands

its probably something to do with the really cold weather we had. Lots of people seem to have it at the moment.

covering hands in vaseline and wearing cotton gloves over (usually overnight) helps mine.

WA be careful about aqueous, lots of people find that it stings madly if your skin is cracked, and it can contain a few additives/preservatives that cause more irritation. Aveeno is great, Vaseline is good to soften the skin, and I've also used heel balm.

If my hands are really bad I sometimes use clear plastic gloves (not latex, just the ones that you get with a pack of hair dye etc) after applying cream/balm of choice, then wear cotton gloves over the top. Only at night, though