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Here I share the BEST hand treatment for your dry or cracked hands. Hands down (pun intended).
Busy mom? No worries – Skip by clicking >> the secret to healing your dry hands. I have highlighted it below.
Introduction
Two things: dry hands and diaper changes. Those, definitely, go in the same sentence.
It’s also very frustrating and painful. As a mom of 3 Littles born in 2021 & 2023 (the last 2 were Irish twins), I have washed my hands quite often & frequently.
So. Many. Diaper. Changes.
It becomes tempting to consider not washing your hands after EVERY diaper change. But if you are germ-conscious, like me, you know that’s not an option.
So, then, what do you do???
My normal skin as I know is dry. I use lotion or cream after every shower, especially in the winter.
So, my skin is already at a disadvantage. My expertise really begins and ends with experience in this area (and most areas, haha).
Preventive Skincare
Here are 4 things to consider to help your hands recover & stay recovered (at least as much as possible):
- Use gloves for dishwashing or cleaning to avoid any harsh chemicals from touching your skin.
- Try to batch tasks that will require hand washing. For example, change diapers (every kid’s) and then take out the garbage before washing your hands.
- Use a moisturizing hand soap to reduce the amount of dryness post-hand-wash.
- Pat your hands dry after every wash.
Tried Treatments
I have tried different creams & lotions on my hands frequently. My hands immediately absorb those products and do not solve the problem.
I also tried shea butter, Egyptian Magic, Vaseline petroleum jelly, and glycerin. My hands had an adverse reaction to glycerine (I tried it 2x in 2017). The others were a temporary relief but my skin went right back to very dry (temporary = a few minutes).
My mom’s dryer and tougher hands were treated well by glycerine. My sister, who is a toddler mom and expecting boy #2 (yay!), has used glycerine. This has worked for her as well.
Lanolin can help but is thicker and may not be helpful for very dry hands.
I wish I had a photo of how dry my hands were. They were extremely dry on my knuckles; especially on my small finger knuckle. My wrist had what looked like a bracelet of dry, cracked, flaky skin. It was so bad it itched and bled a little.
It has been a frustrating 2 yrs of my hands being so dry. I was self-conscious when I had to shake someone’s hand or if anyone looked at my hands.
The Treatment
I, originally, purchased the Pura D’or Organic Vitamin E Oil Blend in December 2023 to apply to my perineum. It was one of the things I was going to do to prevent vaginal tearing.
Since I gave birth 1 month early, at 35 weeks, I didn’t get to try my “vaginal tear prevention plan” for very long I still had a whole bottle of vitamin E oil.
I felt prompted (by God) to use it on my hands around May or June 2024. I started to feel a difference immediately. As soon as I dried off after showering, I poured some vitamin E on my hands with the dropper. I have routinely applied it after showering and seldom after washing my hands.
I am so excited to say that my hands are smooth & not dry at all. This is true even though I don’t wash my hands less.
My face is also smooth. My “fine lines” are not successful in their endeavor to make their grand debut. I will share more about my face care routine in a later post.
I’m planning on using the vitamin E blend on my feet since they are very dry too. My feet used to not get dry at all until I hit my mid-20s. My hands and feet were only dry during fall and winter. In the 2nd trimester of my 2nd pregnancy, my feet started to become dry more often.
I’m going to explore and use vitamin E and report back.
Additionally, I plan on buying more vitamin E for my whole body. I read a comment by a first-time mom (at the time) that she and her sister used vitamin E on their bellies. Neither of them got stretchmarks. (This, of course, may have also included other factors such as genetics, etc. Alas, it’s worth trying.)
Since I’ve already got stretchmarks (from weight gain/loss over the years and pregnancy most recently) I don’t care about having them. Not to mention, it’s too late to prevent them, haha.
However, I want healthy, smooth skin!
Please feel free to share results if you try this out. If you do, let us know your type of skin (oily, normal, dry) and what has caused the dryness.
OR
If there is anything else you do to treat your dry skin, you are invited to share also.
Bendiciones <3
