One of the best remedies for dry hands is to slather them at night with lotion or a petroleum-based moisturizer, such as Vaseline. After, cover your hands with a pair of soft gloves or socks. Trapping the moisturizer will help it absorb more fully into your skin, and you'll wake up with baby-smooth hands.
“At night, put on a very thick coating of plain petrolatum all over the hands, around the fingers, under the nails, and don't be stingy!” Kovarik told us. “Then wear a pair of plain white cotton gloves over your hands to bed. This will help the petrolatum heal your dry, cracked hands overnight.
To save on skin care, dermatologists recommend using petroleum jelly to: Relieve dry skin, including your lips and eyelids. Dry skin can flake, itch, crack and even bleed. Since ointments are more effective and less irritating than lotions, consider applying petroleum jelly to dry skin, including your lips and eyelids.
Moisturize overnight:
Before bed, rub a layer of Vaseline® Healing Jelly or Vaseline® Intensive Care™ Deep Moisture Jelly Cream onto your entire hand (including the back and between the fingers). Then, put on a pair of cotton gloves to help seal in the moisture. In the morning, your hands should already feel softer!
Dry hands that persist despite the use of lotions and creams may be a sign of a condition called hand eczema. Eczema is a term for different types of skin inflammation (dermatitis). The symptoms of eczema commonly include itchy, reddened, dry skin.
“Purified petroleum forms a protective seal over the skin that keeps hydration in and environmental exposures like microbes out.” That, he says, is why Vaseline can be used “from your nose to your toes” to treat everything from cracked hands to chapped lips to crusty feet. It can even be useful in wound healing.
Most cracks heal over in 1 week with treatment. Deep cracks heal if you keep them covered all the time with crack sealer. Deep cracks will heal in about 2 weeks with crack sealer. Untreated cracks can last for years.
Choose either Cetaphil, Moisturel, CeraVe or Eucerin Cream. If you have severely dry skin, apply an oil to the still moist skin such as Neutrogena Light Sesame Oil, Hermal Body Oil, Alpha-Keri Oil or Robathol, then apply a moisturizing cream and also apply the moisturizer at bedtime.
Go Soak Your Hands
Then pat dry and smooth vegetable or mineral oil on your damp hands to seal in moisture,” says Howard Donsky, MD. In the same vein, Basler recommends soaking in a water-and-oil solution. “Use 4 capfuls of a bath oil that disperses well (Alpha Keri is the best) in 1 pint of water.
If your skin is cracking on only your hands and finger joints, it could be caused by contact allergies (from too little moisturizer or too frequent hand washing). If there is continued cracking, fissures, bleeding and no improvement this may be a more serious skin condition.
In most cases, cracked and peeling skin around the fingertips is caused by dry skin. Many people also experience dry skin from frequent handwashing, since soap that is needed to remove bacteria and other germs from the skin also dries it out.
If you suffer from this condition, a lack of omega-3 fatty acids may be the culprit. Other symptoms of an omega-3 fatty acid deficiency include cracking or peeling of fingertips or skin; small red bumps on back of upper arms; and mixed oily and dry skin.
Olive oil is a wonderful moisturizer for hands when chapped. Apply lightly to the skin and leave to soak in, this traps the moisture in and leaves your hands velvety soft!
“Coconut oil can help with cracks and water loss in the top layer of the skin by providing key essential fatty lipids,” Goldstein said. “These lipids improve the barrier function of the skin, allowing it to feel supple and hydrated as a result.”
If nonfacial skin is very dry, you might want to use a thicker moisturizer (Eucerin, Cetaphil, others) or an oil, such as baby oil. Oil has more staying power than do lotions and prevents the evaporation of water from the skin's surface. Another possibility is a petrolatum-based product (Vaseline, Aquaphor, others).
Consuming omega-3, green tea antioxidants, and turmeric can also help prevent dry skin.