Please help my poor red raw cracked hands :(

[DitaVonCheese]

Not particularly stylish or beautiful but my hands dry out and crack every winter and this year seems to be particularly bad. Even my beloved Crabtree & Evelyn hand cream isn't touching the sides. Any suggestions for (cheap) miracle cures?

Have a toddler and a newborn so have to wash my hands fairly often, though have now bought rubber gloves for the washing up. Can't really do the sleeping in gloves thing as still feeding DS at night (though suppose I could always just take them off in the small hours).

Wondering if Waitrose Bottom Butter would be any cop?!

Please help, I have the hands of an ancient crone

Have had exactly your problem for a couple of years, and last year I found the remedy: Body Shop 'Hemp' hand cream, in a tube.

It is brilliant, just brilliant.

Btw, it has been on special offer just after christmas for last two years as a box set with other creams, and lip salve. It's a great bargain.

Have tried sooooo many other creams, but this is the best one. (disclaimer: don't work for body shop!)

See if you can find a cream with a good urea content - that helps my cracked hands no end.

Or zambuk under a dressing / gloves overnight

Vaseline!!

Slather it on your hands before bed, it works wonders, ok you get a bit greasy but it WORKS and you can't get cheaper. And if you have a baby you probably already have some lying around the house.

Where can I get the gloves from?

Oh, I have hands like that too

I seond the Aveda, or diprobase cream, but I think the diprobase is a prescription only.

Try Aveeno cream or an emolient cream used for eczema like E45. I get dermatitis for the same reasons and use DD's Cetraben emolient cream which works for me.

I get this and have tried LOADS over the years.

I find the Vaseline under gloves at night works.Also nipple cream.

The key I think is to also limit hand washing as much as you can so you only do it when necessary.Always dry thoroughly.Always wear gloves in the cold,and waterproof ones particularly if doing any damp work outdoors.And use a cream as much as possible in the day.Aqueous cream is fine - I find anything perfumed can sting.
If I get any REALLY bad splits I dress them for a day or two to give them a chance to heal so I'm not always bashing them and causing them to re-open.

Don't bite your nails (or skin around them) and start looking after your hands really well as soon as it gets cold,hopefully stopping it getting too bad in the first place.

Good luck!

looks interesting. hemp hand oil.

here

I buy my cotton gloves from Boots.

Udder cream!

white cotton gloves

Elizabeth Arden 8hr cream. Works very well.

Same problem here. And an allergy to petrochemicals just to complicate matters further. Waitrose Bottom Butter here. It's quite greasy, so best used at night under gloves, but does improve things quickly and is cheap.

The only other thing that helps is being really picky about wearing gloves every.single.time. you go outside.

Neutrogena. My hands crack every year and the cracks get dirt in them (attractive!)
This cream sorted it in 3-4 days, got the dirt out the cracks and healed them

The Experts hand cream from boots is the best I've tried, and it's on 342 at the mo. It's in a white tube with blue writing and costs about £2.

Eucerin hand cream - best thing ever!
Or flexitol hand cream

weleda skin food mornings and nights and lighter moisturisers all through the day especially after washing hands. wearing gloves when out and marigolds (if you can) for washing up and cleaning might help too.

Body Shops Hemp hand cream is also excellent, if you are rural udder cream is by far the best and avaialbel from farm supply shops.

Snigger @ Aveda 'Hand Relief'.

I find taking fish oils and evening primrose helps with dry skin, but am quite hippyish.

I use the Body shop hemp. it's not cheap around £10 but it works for me.

Body Shop hemp is wonderful stufff!

The Body Shop Hemp stuff smells so, so hideous though. It makes me feel sick and then makes me want to scrub and scrub at my hands in a Lady Macbeth manner, thus defeating its object.

Diprobase not prescription only
Got gloves for night time from body shop

Electric have you tried Dermol? Meant for eczema but has an ingredient to beat the itch.

Seconding CountlessBabyChams.

Aqueous cream as both a hand cream and also as soap when it get really bad. It is very cheap, not too greasy and does not sting.

Another vote for neutrogena cream. Make sure you wear gloves when you go outside and wear cotton gloves under the marigolds. My hands used to crack every year, but i have found that since i have been taking a vitamin b supplement they have stopped.