Deep Conditioning For Your Hands

I wash my hands a lot during the day. When I am in the middle of a lot of homesteading chores, I can wash my hands up 20 times in one day! All that hand washing takes its toll on my skin. My hands usually end up dry, cracked and quite sore.

When my hands are this sore, nothing seems to work to smooth them and provide a more permanent relief. Regular lotions from the store are a joke at this point. I have even tried quite a few commercial lotions specifically targeted for farmers and homesteaders but have not been overly happy with the results. 

The best way I have found to solve this problem is to treat your hands the same way our great- great- grandmother's did. Here are the steps:

1. Submerge your hands in warm water. Sometimes I combine tasks and do this when I am hand washing dishes. Right after you get out of the shower is good too.
2. Dry your hand quickly. They should feel somewhat damp.
3. Put on lotion. An oily lotion works best in this situation. Vaseline is my favorite. I have also used cocoa butter, olive oil and liquid vitamin E.
4. Cover your hands with some old gloves. Our great- great- grandmother's used cotton gloves. Sometimes I do too. Sometimes I go high tech and use disposable vinyl gloves.

Go relax for a few hours. Take a nap or read a book. When my hands are really in bad shape, I will do this at night and sleep with the gloves on. After a few hours, take the gloves off and marvel at how soft your hands are!

Then, try to remember to use lotion more often during the day so your hands don't get so dry in the first place! I admit, I have a hard time remembering to do this. I have a bottle of lotion at the kitchen sink but I still don't remember to use it as often as I should.

By the way, I have a wonderful everyday lotion recipe that is easy to make. I am running low on lotion so I need to make some more in the next few weeks. Watch for a post on that soon!