Size 4 here… one reason I loved my best employer ever was a health and safety manager who made sure we always, always, had “girlie gloves” in the lab. Once latex gloves started being sold in supermarkets (and often in sizes which are a rare find from industrial suppliers, as if women didn’t work in factories and hospitals) he’d sometimes get those, or we could buy a pack and charge it if the supply was getting low. Maybe you could arrange something like that?
Neutrogena is very good, although I find it thicker than I like. This isn’t valid for seeing patients, but if you’re going to be doing something which implies wearing gloves for a while you can lather some moisturizer on before putting on the gloves.
My personal favourite (if you can get a doctor to prescribe it ) is white paraffin with salicylic acid. Greasy as all get-out, so I would use it at night and put on some cotton gloves. But it really helped my hands - and I would be having all the skin fall off, deep cracks, the whole 9 yards. You can get it as an aqueous cream, as well, which probably rubs in better.
I am sensitive to perfumes, so I tend to just use E45 cream now - I haven’t had a serious problem for a few years.
Bag Balm is some amazing stuff. Looks similar to many of the other udder creams, and the like that other posters have mentioned.
Years ago when I traveled 5 days a week, and lived in hotels (and worked in hospitals) with forced hot air heat, and 0% humidity, I used to get incredibly dry legs. Flaking skin, pain, the works.
I’d put this on when I went to bed, and it would always clear up my problem in a couple of days.
My sister, a nurse, uses it at night, and says it has cured her “hospital hands.”
If you’re going to be gloving, the silicon lotions mentioned are your friend. At work we are supplied with thislotion. It’s compatible with all common glove types and absorbs quickly and thoroughly. Lotions that leave a lot of residue make it harder to don gloves directly after application. It feels great and lasts through several washings.
I also second the advice to use something heavy duty overnight. Gold Bond’s Ultimate Healing skin lotion is good for this, as is Eucerin creme (the extra thick stuff that comes in a tub).
I hear you. Having a kindergartener and an infant, and being highly averse to the baby (or me) getting sick, I wash my hands a lot, and use alcohol gel when I’m away from a sink.
**WhyNot **mentioned this, and it bears repeating - my experience is that the alcohol gel is far worse for drying out my skin and causing it to crack and get cactus-like prickly bits all over. I know the package says it contains moisturizers, but it doesn’t make a difference, for me. I would much rather wash with soap and water. And yeah, moisturize immediately after, if possible.
For the prickly bits (drives me crazy when I’m trying to knit and the pads of my fingers are catching on the yarn!), I’ve found Eucerin Plus Intensive Repair Hand Creme is great. It’s got alpha hydroxy to slough off all that dead skin, and is nice and emollient. And I will use something very greasy like Aquaphor, Vaseline, or whatever at night. Helps a lot!
My mother is allergic to everything. As an example, most lotions and cremes have EDTA, which she’s allergic to. Since her hands contact things she can’t avoid, her hands often have open sores and the skin is terribly cracked and painful. The pharmacy makes a special cortizone blend for her, in a base they always called Quickblend. She’ll slather it on and wear cotton gloves. It turns out Quickblend is just plain old solid Crisco. Her skin where it isn’t broken out is very soft.
Ouch. If their product is as harsh as their web design (seriously, who makes navigation bar you have to scroll?!), it must be painful indeed.
It’s basically ethyl and propyl alcohol with a little glycerin and panthenol mixed in. Ethyl and Propyl alcohol are both drying and irritating to epithelium, of course. Glycerin and Panthenol are hygroscopic, so they attract water from the atmosphere*. This is a good thing in a moisturizer, but they’re also both skin irritants, according to their Material Data Safety Sheets (and personal experience!). If you use them a lot, their irritating effects outweigh the hygroscopic ones, as you’ve discovered.
It’s good stuff for infrequent or moderate use, but I’d hate to be using it all day long. Your skin may vary, of course, but I’d try using it only as much as your department demands and not substitute it for handwashing and moisturizing and see how that goes.
*irishgirl, I know you know what hygroscopic means, but for our audience playing along at home…
like someone noted above–make sure you are using powder-free gloves, and if possible, don’t use latex ones. most of them are powder-free now, though. back in the day, gloves actually came with a packet of powder! it doesn’t take long to get an allergy to gloves. you can even break out your face if you touch your face while wearing gloves.
) is white paraffin with salicylic acid. Greasy as all get-out, so I would use it at night and put on some cotton gloves. But it really helped my hands - and I would be having all the skin fall off, deep cracks, the whole 9 yards. You can get it as an aqueous cream, as well, which probably rubs in better.
