How to Treat Dry Hands After Wearing Rubber Gloves

Dry, cracked hands can feel like a desert.

Rubber gloves are a wonderful tool to help to protect your hands during cleaning and household chores. Unfortunately, they also have an undesirable side effect of trapping sweat inside the glove, preventing the skin from breathing and causing unwanted friction, which can lead to dry, irritated skin. Learning to properly care for your skin after using these gloves will help you to avoid or rectify the condition of dry hands.

Things You'll Need

• Mild hand cleanser
• Warm water
• Towel
• Moisturizing lotion, cream or ointment
• Almond oil, olive oil or liquid vitamin E (optional)
• Crisco (optional)
• Warm milk (optional)

Instructions

1. Remove the rubber gloves after your project is complete, and run some warm water to wash your hands. You don't want to use hot water as this will make you hands even drier and more irritated.

2. Place a dime-sized amount of a mild soap in the palm of your hand. Stay away from harsh alkaline or antibacterial soaps as these will dry your hands out even more. Rub your palms together, and avoid excessive washing and scrubbing of the other parts of your hands. Excessive washing will wash away the natural oils that are normally found on your hands that act as a barrier between the skin and outside elements.

3. Pat your hands dry with a clean towel, do not rub them. Avoid hot air hand driers.

4. Apply an ample amount of moisturizing lotion, cream or ointment while your hands are still warm and slightly moist. Almond oil, olive oil and liquid vitamin E are also helpful choices to help regain the moisture barrier and softness for your hands. A small amount of Crisco can even work for this.

5. Massage the moisturizer into the hands and cuticles for a few minutes. This will not only get the moisturizer into your skin, but it will also bring a healthy blood flow and warmth back into your hands.

6. Soak hands in a cup of warm milk for 5 minutes once a week to help hydrate and soften skin and nails. The milk will use its lactic acid to gently exfoliate the dry skin while the calcium fortifies the nails.

References

• Mother Nature: Chapped Hands
• Skincare News: How to Get Supple, Healthy Hands