Winter is coming… yes, we heard this many times and yet every year we get cracked, dry hands.
What is Melisandre’s cure for our hands? How can we resuscitate them to a better life?
Here are few tips and ingredients that we should use in our potions, if we want them to work.
Hands and feet are covered in the thickest skin we have around the body. Skin is usually a great barrier; however, when it is dry and cracked the defence it provides is impaired and infection can occur. This is why we have to take good care of skin and repair it.
Of course, also in this case, the best cure is prevention!
What are the best steps when hands are already dry and cracked?
- Try not to expose hands to degreasing and strong chemicals: when you wash dishes, clean home etc use rubber gloves to protect your skin
- Use delicate cleansers to wash your hands. Delicate means avoiding Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) and Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES). These ingredients are usually too degreasing, unless formulated in the proper way.
So, as a rule of thumb stay away from them. Avoid also soap bars, often they are too alkaline compared to skin’s pH and therefore drying. - When you go out and the temperature is merciless, use some nice warm gloves
- If you really need to wash hands often, avoid drying them with hot air or your skin will dry out even more
- After washing them, to trap in the water use a good moisturiser.These tips are good also for prevention!
So, what is a good moisturizer?
For dry, cracked hands you need three types of ingredients:
- Humectants /hydrators. These are ingredients that attract water from the air and bring it to your skin. Examples of good humectants are glycerin (or glycerol), hyaluronic acid (or sodium hyaluronate), sodium PCA, aloe vera gel.
- The skin continuously “breathes”, meaning that it absorbs water and loses it with the Transepidermal Water Loss (TEWL). To prevent losing water and to limit TEWL you need an emollient or occlusive ingredient.
Be aware that occlusive does not mean clogging! Occlusive just means that the ingredients form a protective film over your skin, decreasing TEWL and locking moisture in your skin.
Occlusives are petrolatum, vaseline, mineral oil, silicones and vegetable oils. Several studies show that there is no difference between paraffin oil and vegetable oils in terms of penetration and occlusiveness.
The difference is that vegetable oils have components similar to those that make up our sebum (triglycerides, wax esters, squalene and free fatty acids), so skin uses those components to strengthen the barrier lipids. On the other hand paraffin, mineral oils etc are inert and skin does not process them. This allows the latter to stay occlusive for a longer time.Silicones are porous and considered semi-occlusive, however many of them are not water soluble, so they stick to the skin for a long time. As an example, a study showed that 42% of cetyl dimetichone stays on the skin, even after washing it three times with soap and water.There is a whole debate concerning silicones. They are mostly considered safe both for the person and environment (here two more additional studies: 1,2), however some countries limit the concentration of some silicones (Cyclosiloxanes), as being considered endocrine disruptors or linked to benign uterine tumours
Environment Canada concluded that cyclotetrasiloxane and cylcopentasiloxane are mainly released in air, but when dispersed in water they are not biodegradable and have potential to bioaccumulate in aquatic organisms. - Ingredients that accelerate healing such as aloe vera (further studies: 3,4), olive oil, panthenol , honey and allantoin
In a nutshell
Besides taking care of how you wash, dry your hands and the use of gloves, moisturize them with a product that contains humectants (e.g. glycerin), vegetable oils for occlusion plus barrier strengthening and/or petrolatum for protection, and healing ingredients.
And again, always remember to prevent!
Now get that hot chocolate, you deserved it!
Vavoom Me 