It seems like a majority of people have problems with the skin on the back of their hands drying out, even cracking to the point of bleeding. This is annoying and painful, and before the days of BagBalm or whatever it probably left you open to infections and such.
This almost never happens to palms.
So two questions:
What causes the difference? I know you don’t have hair on your palms (ssh!), but why would that matter?
Since the palm type skin is so superior, why isn’t the same type of skin used for the back of your hands?
Are you sure that’s true? My palm skin is sometimes dry but I’ve never in my life had the back of my hands be dry. I don’t think I’ve ever known anyone else who has either.
A majority? I’ve no idea if that’s true (I’ve never thought to ask anyone!) but it’s never happened to me, and I don’t recall ever noticing it on anybody before. Admittedly, it’s hardly something I look for,
I have a problem with dry skin, but only on my knuckles and my lips. In the winter, anyway, so when I start feeling dry I breakout dabs of moisturizer and the lip balm.
Exposure to sun and wind are probably the biggest factors; otherwise the tops of your feet would look like your hands. Your hands and face show the biggest effects of aging because you are basically tanning that skin over the course of your life.
The skin on the palms is thicker than the skin almost anywhere else on the body, and much thicker than the skin on the back of the hand. It dries out, much as any other skin, but the thinner skin is more likely to show noticeable effects from this. There are other factors that determine the exact effects, and these may cause some people’s palms to be more drastically affected by drying, but for the most part thicker skin wins.
People have probably been using animal fat/grease/other oils since before the dawn of history to alleviate such problems. It wasn’t that long ago that people would render fat on their own stoves and make their own ointments, salves, unguents, balms, etc.
Most people who have this problem use a lot of lotion and it’s not visually obvious if you have a 5 second glance at someone’s hands. Every female in my immediate family has griped about this.
Too, weather is a factor. If you live in a place with mild, humid winters, your hands don’t dry out as quickly as if you’re living in a cold place, with central heating and insufficient humidity.
My palms sometimes feel dry in the winter too but I also have never had a problem with the back of my hands or any other part of my body. Perhaps one reason is that when I wash my hands I spend more time rubbing my palms together as opposed to washing the backs of my hands (since the palm side gets dirtier from more contact); soap can cause dry hands by removing oils.
I can confidently say I have never seen anyone with the backs of there hands so dry to the point of cracking, and I live in a place that gets pretty darn cold and dry in the winter. However, if I were to see a case such as this, I would think it would be due to fact that the skin on the back of the hand is more taught, and that unlike the palm it does not sweat (at east not nearly as much as the palm).
My DH has hands like this. Especially around the knuckles.
I have a coworker who has to constantly put lotion on because her fingers get so dry they split open at the tips. I know this because I was there when she got a bandaid to put on her fingertip and asked if she’d hurt herself.