hangnails and flaky skin that'catches' on fingers

[LefttoherownDevizes]

My fingertips are really dry and flaky and I have really bad hangnails, and my actual nails are split too.

I use hand like it's going out of gain, and have Dior crème abricot for overnight but what am I missing?

What are doing with your hands?

Do you get them wet a lot? Wash them a lot?

The state of my hands is usually more to do with my current lifestyle/job than it is to do with how much hand cream I'm using

Assuming no actual medical issue it must be either:

Household or other products your hands come into contact with,

or

Your diet. Some lack of vitamins and minerals.

Hand cream isn’t going to affect the cause of the problem.

Check your bloods. My nails were terrible and it was because I was anaemic.

Might be worth a trip to the GP to rule out low iron.
But other than that, rubber gloves when cleaning/washing up.
Put hand cream on before going outside, and wear gloves if it’s cold.
Make sure you massage the cream around the nails, and possible invest in a cuticle oil.

Thanks, the skin on my face is terrible too but I've just started HRT after having bloods that were ok. I do have heavy periods though.

My skin is just dehydrated and flaky constantly, have had to stop any retinol after loving skin and me due to the redness and irritation.

I've also been told to cut wheat out by the hospital for ibs, didn't occur to me that it could be something physical going on, just assumed I had not found the right cream

Hello OP, I had the same issue with incredibly dry flaky skin on my fingertips, catching on everything. No hand cream even touched the surface of the problem so I started rubbing Lansinoh nipple balm into my fingertips which got me some odd looks! It helped a bit but only if I used it constantly (like two or three times an hour…) Then I worked out that it was always worse in the winter (seems obvious as it’s colder etc) which is also when I was using a glycolic/AHA acid product on my face at night… I realised I was using my fingertips to apply the product… stopped using it and the horrible crumbly fingertips stopped immediately!

My hands are still very dry (I wash them a lot and I’m lazy with hand cream) but no more flaky fingertips.

Might be worth looking at your routine?

I have very dry skin around my nails and my nails are quite brittle. Hand cream wasn't cutting it so I trekked urea cream, which penetrates the skin more deeply. This seems to have helped a lot.

IBS can cause you to not absorb all the nutrients you need. I would go for three approaches:

1. Protect your skin. Gloves when it is cold, gloves for housework, barrier cream for cold. Have a non-harsh soap available in the kitchen and wherever you wash your hands so you are not tempted to wash them with Fairy or something
2. Start taking a good quality supplement for skin, hair and nails
3. Get a good quality moisturiser. The key is to get something in a texture and scent that encourages you to apply it. Little and often is what I find works best with cream application. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter if it is a fancy cream or not, you just need it to be something so lovely that you will reach for it often. Get a few small tubes so you always have one near when needed.

I have a big problem with dry cuticles and hang nails and after years of picking and pulling at them, I realised, after a few salon manicures, I needed to trim them back with this type of thing (cheaper versions on Amazon). Just using products was never going to be enough.

www.lookfantastic.com/brushworks-cuticle-nippers/11920512.html?affil=thggpsad&switchcurrency=GBP&shippingcountry=GB&thg_ppc_campaign=71700000083936107&adtype=&product_id=11920512&gclid=Cj0KCQiA3fiPBhCCARIsAFQ8QzXayNv8kBL9DWspy0u3zdVk5JaUalI60_uwNnwVhcDmSA6ZrViRaAoaAthAEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds