I’ve never used them. I’ve never had good nails to worry about so eh, it’s just one extra step for me. Now I do use them for heavy gardening work. Not just planting flowers or weeding (I like the feel of the soil in my hands) but for the heavy duty stuff like mulching or pruning rose bushes.
I just started making myself wash dishes every night. I got sick of always having a messy kitchen (no dishwasher).
I DEARLY paid for not wearing rubber gloves. I have some rubber gloves (my dad brings home all sorts of gloves from work). But I didn’t think to wear them. So my hands got “owie bad it burns” dry.
So what did I do?
I stopped washing dishes every night 
Female, 27.
Washing…dishes… Do you mean *by hand!!! *
I thought that’s what machines and monkey butlers were for.
Rubber doesn’t smell as bad as chemicals or greasy gravy water, to me, anyway.
Unfortunately, being broke sometimes means using archaic methods of doing things like washing dishes by hand, using a push mower and living without air conditioning. All of these things can be bad for your skin (dry hands, allergies and zits, respectively).
You can get smells off your hands by rubbing them with stainless steel. Rub them on the faucet of the sink, or a utensil or something. I know it’s crazy, but it’s true!
Needing gloves for steaming hot water? Hah! Amateurs! I used to wonder about my mom doing dishes with steaming hot water, but now I do it. Maybe after years of doing dishes in hot water I’ve singed all my nerve endings, I don’t know. I do know that my hands can tolerate much more heat than my husband’s can.
I’m 55 and tend to avoid rubber gloves because of the smell–it really lingers on my hands, and it makes me rather queasy. I do use rubber gloves for heavy cleaning (behind the toilet, etc.), but that’s just to avoid touching anything “nasty,” not really to protect my hands.
My 21-year-old daughter uses rubber gloves anytime she does dishes. Her hands are sensitive and will get dry and cracked.
I wear them. First, because I don’t like grabbing wet, slimy dirty dishes. Second, because my hands get painfully chapped if I don’t. If gloves prevent bleeding knuckles, I’ll wear gloves.
I am 25, and I’ve been wearing them ever since I moved out of my parents’ house and had to wash dishes by hand instead of loading them in the dishwasher. A friend of mine picked me up a deluxe pair of hot pink ones, which rock.
I have an issue with standing water. I’ll sometimes fill the sink to let pots soak, but I am so grossed out by cold standing water that I can’t put my hands in it. Before I got the gloves I used to make my boyfriend stick his hand in to pull the plug.