Chapped hands and cracking of skin often occur when you are using your hands all the time. These have a negative effect on nearly anything you do. However, it is possible to have healthy and soft hands throughout the year, provided you realize the factors that are responsible for chapped hands. At the same time, you need to adopt measures that will help you to prevent chapped and cracked skin on your hands.
Some of the most common and painful effects of arid climatic conditions include chapped and cracked hands and fingers. In fact, we become more susceptible to these as we grow older. However, the problems may become worse during the winter months. The negative consequences of forced air heating on the skin of the aged may result in rashes, rough scales and even bleeding.
Often chapped hands are sore and painful. You can, however, apply lotions and moisturizing creams to make your chapped hands smooth. At the same time, be careful not to bring your chapped hands in contact with hot water. In case, your hands are damaged and become chapped during the winter months, it is recommended that you apply moisturizing creams, as they will not only help to get rid of skin cracks, but also make your hands smoother.
For people who frequently go outdoors, cracked, dry and heavily chapped hands can actually be very problematic. They also make washing clothes, undertaking daily household chores, washing dishes and other activities very painful. If you find that skin on your fingers is beginning to crack and the hands start chapping with the onset of winter, you should know that your body, especially the hands, does not have enough moisture. When you have chapping problems during the winter, you should ensure that if you are using soap or face wash to rinse your hands, it should always be done during the daytime. Most problems related to chapped hands are experienced when the skin becomes extremely dry and rough.
Two things are of utmost importance if you want to prevent having cracked skin and chapped hands. First, you should not use soap for a prolonged period and, second, try to reduce the duration for which you keep your hands in water. It is not that people with chapped hands should not use soap at all. They can use a moisturizing soap or mild soap on their hands.
Dermatologists suggest that it is important to wash your hands properly if you want to lessen the dryness of your hands and also to reduce chapped hands. Rather than directly splashing water on the palm as well as the back of your hands, you should just concentrate on rinsing the palms. In fact, the skin on the back of your hand is relatively thinner and, hence, more vulnerable to dry out and cause chapping.
If you want to treat dried out and scaly hands, it is essential to restore the moisture to your skin. According to experts, drinking water alone does not fulfill this requirement. Therefore, you need to begin moistening your skin even before the problem occurs. Therefore, the best means to prevent drying up of your skin and chapped hands is to use a good moisturizer or lotion much before the signs of dryness begin to appear.
Rinse your hand and pat them gently using a dry towel. Next, apply a moisturized on your palms and back of the hands. It has been proved that applying Elma Hand Cream to your dry and chapped hands provides instant relief from dry skin conditions. Applying this ointment is sufficient to ease the problems of people who are subject to mild or sporadic incidences of dry and chapped hands.
Aside from the above mentioned measures, you can do several other things to put off the occurrence of chapped hands. For instance, you may wear protective gloves whenever you can, avoid prolonged contact with water (swimming). At the same time, wearing protective gloves will also prevent your hands from being exposed to various chemicals that cause skin irritations. In addition, always rinse your hands in warm water, instead of hot water, and leave them damp for a while.
If you neglect treating your chapped hands as soon as they happen, it may result in several problems. For instance, you may find it difficult to undertake any task with bare hands and will always require wearing protective gloves. Untreated chapped hands may also cause persistent skin conditions like inflammation of the skin and eczema. If you do not treat your chapped or cracked hands timely, it may lead to infections, especially when bacteria get into the skin through the cracks.
