Dry hands: What you should do if you have hand eczema
Naah! I’m not talking of the chapped hands you have during terrible winters. Neither am I generically referring to the dry hands for which the beauty industry spews a variety of moisturizer advertisements. Today, I’m particularly going to share about hand eczema. And if you have it, I wouldn’t say this post will change your life, but I’m a 100% sure that it will make things at least a 70% easier for you.
What’s Hand Eczema?
Eczema, generally, in simple terms, is a condition of acute dryness, which leads to itchy patches (sometimes dark, too) & apparently inflamed & cracked skin. To be more precise, here’s a case of extreme dehydration of the skin of that body part/area. And this chronically makes the skin very irritated with a pronounced burning & tingling sensation. The dry patches of the skin, at times, tend to cover up when the skin is naturally healing & the eroded skin occasionally peels off.
However, when such dryness persists on you, specially with dry hands, it becomes a painful & often embarrassing experience. You may have a million things to do with your hands every day & there you’re left feeling terrible with the cracked or sometimes even bleeding fingers upon folding them. In my case, capturing & rendering my bio-metric credentials too is a challenge in itself. I remember my worst days when even holding a pen, opening the door, tearing my Rotis for food & washing my face gave me excruciating pain!
What your dry hands go through here
- Itchy & irritated skin, specially around the fingertips & the webbed region between the fingers.
- Sensitivity to touch
- Extreme cases involve cracked skin that may bleed if stretched (even bending the fingers normally would cause that).
- Inability to carry out any kind of normal washing activity with ease.
- Triggered irritation by perfumes, detergents, soaps, chemical powders such as Rangoli powder, chemically manufactured Henna, etc.
If you go through the above day in & day out, let me give you a virtual bear hug!
Because I know how it feels exactly. You may find very few who’d understand your pain & inability to do the certain things people do like they were a cakewalk.
How & when it started for me
I had the most soft, chubby & cute hands until I turned about 14 or 15. That was when I had my first experience with designing Rangoli (a traditional Indian art of decoration) where I made use of the typical Rangoli powder. It apparently triggered a sudden feeling of a mild burning sensation & subsequently resulted in really dry fingertips. And later on, even doing my dishes with the normal dish-washing bar or liquid worsened what my dry hands were already going through.
Well, I wouldn’t say that the powder first started it.
Actually, dry skin, kind of runs in my paternal genes. Nevertheless, my dad doesn’t have dry skin but, yes, it does exist somewhere in the family. So you may have the tendency to endure dry hands like this if it has a hereditary background & all it may take is a trigger, which will make it evident at some point of time.
All the more, I had almost developed an OCD about washing my hands with soap for each & every thing, when I was about 13 or so.
Frequent washing with soaps, antiseptic liquids & hand sanitizers really massacres the protective layer of the skin, erodes it & thus exposes your underlying skin tissue to irritants, which otherwise are not harmful.
So, how do you help dry hands?
- Avoid your irritants totally or as much as possible. This could be harsh soaps, sanitizers, antiseptic liquids, dish-washing detergents etc. Many soaps, sanitizers & antiseptic liquids contain alcohol, which is a major dehydrating agent that dries up every bit of moisture your skin should essentially retain. See if you can hire help with these chores.
- If hiring domestic help is impossible, you must use HOUSEHOLD GLOVES. That’s what even my dermatologist recommended to me. I use the Nivera Latex reusable gloves & it helps me a great deal with the dishes when my house help goes on leave. You can ideally use these for the laundry, dish-washing or any other cleaning activity where you deal with chemical cleansers. What I love about Nivera is that they’re easy to maintain, do not tear & just do NOT smell like rubber! These are also nicely stretchable & the long sleeves make it a perfect fit for household work if you’ve got sensitive/dry hands.
- Use a good moisturizing cream for your hands regularly when they’re idle or before going to sleep. I personally use the VENUSIA MAX moisturizing cream & I must say, it’s the most effective solution I’ve had so far for my hands. You can see the difference in the picture below with my once affected finger in just 48 hours.
- See a trusted dermatologist if the condition persists.
- Avoid waxing & bleaching the affected areas. Dry hands are synonymous with skin sensitivity & you may want to check out hair removal precautions with sensitive skin.
- Avoid wearing rings around your fingers, as these act as traps for dampness to remain after washing hands & may cause infection in some cases. It’s OK if it’s your wedding ring! 😉 I understand.
- Teach your kids to wash their hands with moderated quantity of soap. I’d strongly suggest you to discourage them from using hand sanitizers as these usually do more harm by dehydrating the hands leading to rough hands. Nonetheless, in my opinion, most of the time they’re unnecessary.
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Do you ever experience dry hands or know somebody who does? If yes, this post might just be useful as it comes from somebody who’s seen all of it.
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Venusia is a very thick cream, my mother has been recommended as her skin is extremely dry. I have dry eczema but not on palms. I usually rub petroleum jelly whenever there is an eruption. Thanks for this article – I didn’t know that excessive hand washing could lead to eczema, as I am obsessed with hand washing particularly with Dettol.
Nice article. Very well detailed post.. i never thought dry hands can be caused by excessive hand wash… will keep this in mind.