5 Ways To Protect And Repair Dry Hands
At the onset of this COVID-19 pandemic, aside from social distancing and wearing masks, we were encouraged to practice proper hand-washing. This however brings another problem itself. If you’ve been diligently washing your hands and have been doing it more often than usual (which is great by the way!), your hands could be severely drying up and already chapping.
Or perhaps from everyday life, using products to clean the house, washing the dishes or hand-washing laundry, your hands are often already dry and cracked even pre-pandemic!
To avoid and minimise dry and sore skin, here are five ways to help protect and repair your hands. ;)
5 Ways to Protect and Repair Your Dry Hands
1. Blot Dry, Not Wipe Dry
Instead of rubbing your hands when drying, it is best to pat or blot it dry. This prevents micro-abrasions on your skin, compared when wiping.
Pat dry your hands with a clean towel and ideally, each person has their own towel and replaces it with a clean one every three days or so. Though paper towels are more ideal to use during a pandemic (according to experts) since you throw them away after use, this causes excessive wastage to the environment - which we sure don't love!
2. Moisturise After Hand-washing
Oil-based hand moisturisers are more favoured than water-based ones since water can further cause dryness, and oil helps to add a protective barrier on the skin. There are different oil based moisturisers you can try. If you’re looking for one, we’d recommend our 100% pure argan oil.
Argan oil has high fatty acid content which is a strong moisturising property, making it a perfect oil to use as a hand moisturiser, making your hands soft and hydrated. The oil acts as a sealant, locking the moisture into your skin and protecting it from the everyday elements. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, calming skin irritations and healing any sores.
Simply massage a few drops of argan oil into your hands after you’ve dried them and your hands will thank you for it!
Here’s a before and after of co-founder Jacqui’s hands (notorious for having naturally dry hands), after applying argan oil daily!
3. Alternate Use of Sanitiser
Though hand-washing with soap and water is still the preferred way, you can use hand sanitisers, with 60% ethanol, as a substitute (if they're in stock in your area). This will allow your hands to rest from the flowy tap, soap and towel. Except of course, when your hands are really dirty. It’s better to do hand-washing before eating, after going to the bathroom, and other activities that certainly soil your hands.
4. Wash with Lukewarm Water
Since hot water rids your hands of any natural oils, lukewarm water is more ideal when washing your hands. It’s also best to lather your hands with enough soap foam. Soap foams connect to and break the structure of germs and bacteria present on your skin.
It’s also as important to rinse your hands well as residue soap on your hands can irritate the skin further. Additionally, once the soap breaks the structure of the microorganisms in your hands, you have to wash all of these away.
5. Use gloves to protect cracks
There are gloves made for the purpose of moisturising your hands. You can use these type of gloves to protect your hands and lock in moisture to give your hands some much needed care. It’s ideal to use gloves when sleeping to enable healing.
In case you’ll be using gloves at daytime, you still have to be cautious to avoid cross contamination to your own skin (when you touch your face) and to others.
Being more cautious and disciplined takes a lot more strength than usual, but that’s okay since it’s something we have to do to ensure we curb the spread of the virus.
If you have other tips to lessen the drying effects of too much hand washing, feel free to share it with us. ;)
Stay safe, wash your hands, and yes, moisturise.
Click here to read more about the reasons why you need argan oil for your skin.