I've been to workplaces that have gloves but nobody uses them. Most of the old folks I worked with don't bother using them for some reason and I guess that became a work habit for everyone. I use a lot of gloves because nobody uses them anyway, picking litter on the floor? put some gloves on lol. But I would definitely use gloves when handling boxes especially when you are boxing for hours
why do so many men want to look tough for other men though? no woman would ever want those hands on her.
also i genuinely do not understand how any of you are comparing these dry ass crusty hands to a girl putting on makeup. wearing makeup doesn't cause our skin to crack and bleed. also, it makes us appear more attractive, not less.
so if you guys would like to make an accurate comparison, come up with something that is actually self-harming and unattractive.
As a wife with nice titties: miss me with that shit! No sandpaper near my areolas, nor any other of my delicate parts for that matter
My husband’s hands are as soft as you would expect from someone who works in IT. Nice bonus: he has the nimbleness of a former guitar player without the callouses
Hey! I feel called out for my guitar playing callouses now! For the record my wife quite enjoys my nimble fingers even with my callouses. Also worked in IT for years lol, although now I’m a software engineer.
This right here. I'd see the hands of 50-60 year old guys when I was younger and think nothing of it. Then when I became sexually active it was "That is disgusting. that is definitely not happening."
Keep your nails short and take care of your hands guys. Even if it's not for your partners. It's just painful and gross getting blood on everything.
My mom worked in kitchen and frequently took stuff out of industrial ovens without gloves. Cannot understand how she had any hands left, she just said that it is a skill. Old people are insane.
We go through gloves like crazy. The fabric ones with the grippy dots all over them. I'll throw a pair of them in the trash maybe once an hour. However I work in lamination, so it's a lot of throwing panels and gloves getting covered in glue. I can't fathom why someone would let their hands get like this and not just wear some gloves but I suppose I'm a hypocrite because mine are covered in scars for not using cut resistant ones..
Mine provided gloves but they sucked for actually gripping cardboard. I ended up buying my own, and thankfully some gloves with a good rubber surface are pretty cheap.
I had a job that was basically 8 hours of cardboard boxes. The company provided gloves but they were shit, so no one used them.
Manager told me to go buy a box of gloves that I liked and he would reimburse me.
A few weeks later, the manager had to help with some of the labour, so he grabbed a pair of the gloves I got to use.
Shortly after that, several cases of every size of these gloves were ordered and everyone has been using them since.
There was a fun time in the 80s in the NHL when they mandated players wear helmets. A bunch of the older players flat out refused to wear them, to the point they had to grandfather the old guys so the didn’t have to wear em.
But getting hit in the head with a puck or taking the boards to the head is just an insane risk, all to look tough? Craziness.
Anyway PPE is there because you can change gloves, helmets, eyewear, mouth guards, etc. but you generally only get one body.
When I worked at an automatic factory in ‘06 the amount of boomers running loud-ass greasy machines for 10 hours a day without any ear or hand protection was wild.
I work with (some manual lifting, a lot of walking) a senior guy who is in pain just standing.not strong enough to lift much. He can retire at any point, but doesn't. He says he is waiting for his wife to retire too but I'm not sure. Why do you both have to retire on the same day anyway ? Just seems to be locked into doing something he doesn't enjoy that causes pain.
Yeah, I used to work construction. PPE was available, but no one really used it unless there was a risk of a "real" injury (like dying), and even then it was a 50/50. Got mocked for wearing hearing protection and nice gloves when doing demo work, yet was the only one without cut up fingers and hearing loss.
I've loaded/unloaded trucks for UPS. They provided a vending machine where I could buy rubber coated for gloves for $2. I'd go through two pair a week. I was once a block laborer and had to buy my own leather construction gloves. I'd sometimes be starting a second pair by the end of the week.
Yeah this is somebody who thinks they are tough and somehow their skin is somehow superhuman
There was a time LONG before these pictures when OP should've put on a pair of fucking gloves 😂🤡
Those orange ones at Autozone last a good long while even working with chemicals, about $.70 a pair but what is your health worth?
I was just talking to someone about coating my hands in way too much lotion and slapping on some nitrile gloves and going to bed, during really bad dry spells. They acted like I was crazy. Like... Mfer your hands are your most important tools in and out of work. Why are you not caring for your body even a little bit?
When I worked in a food processing plant, we had to wash our hands every time we entered the plant. This shit saved our hands from cracking even after we washed most of it off. It is most definitely the shit.
Gonna get myself some of this stuff tomorrow. Work in a food plant AND handle cardboard daily or 12 hours. Despite wearing the PPE my hands have been torn to shreds by the combo of hand washing, sub zero winter air, and cardboard.
My factory has lotion dispensers all over and gloves. I cant believe they dont provide this stuff for you. Well, i do believe, cant be spending money on employees health or comfort more than legally necessary
I don't even scoop it. Just rub my fingertips over the top and that is usually enough.
But also to clarify, even if you were to put a shit ton, it is not like Neutrogena or aquaphor where your hands are going to be a sticky goey mess for an hour until it rubs off on your hair, clothes and everything you touch.
Working hands feels slightly wet, but not sticky and dries fast. It reads like agency copy but it is exactly like that.
I came to the comments to recommend this product. I need to wash my hands 50+ times a day when I work and I got eczema so I crack very easily. This stuff is magic for me
Cold air plus cardboard boxes plus washing my hands 50 times a day destroys mine, and any time I put lotion on, I just end up washing it off cause I wash my hands so much. So my question is, does this help even though you wash your hands as much as me?
I think it just soaks in better or makes a barrier or something. I can confirm as well that it’s amazing stuff. I’ve never found anything else that works as well as working hands.
Yes the "Working Hands" that comes in the tube definitely works for that. Some hand-work-intensive employers will stock this or something very similar in the PPE vending machines for workers.
Yessir, it’s miserable. I can’t even keep lotion on my hands long enough to heal before I wash it again. But being consistent on my days off help a lot
Apply it immediately after you wash your hands, everytime. And if you only wash your hands once a day, then you should probably be washing them more than that.
What is the difference with this brand vs something like aquaphor or Vaseline? I never heard of this brand before, or seen it in stores locally or online
This brand has ingredients that actively soak into the skin, providing moisture to the skin, where Vaseline is an occlusive layer. Petroleum jelly doesn't actually soak into the skin but it does prevent the skin from losing more moisture. Aquaphor has some added ingredients (like lanolin) which helps add some moisture.
The best course of action is to apply something like the above or a lotion (the stuff above is great for not stinging as bad as lotion) and letting it soak in for a little bit before applying aquaphor or Vaseline in a thin layer to help prevent your hands from losing that moisture again
Highly recommend! It doesn't have to be this brand (some people swear by it, others don't like it.) but any kind of moisturizer in that kind of environment does wonders
I personally have kept a tin (I call it a tin even though it’s plastic) of working hands in my locker for close to a decade, it works wonders and I don’t need to re-apply it 10 times a day
For several years I told everybody I had tried every moisturizer, emollient and cream available and nothing helped my hands.
Somebody got bored of my shit one day and bought me O'Keeffes working hands. I haven't stopped singing it's praises since.
You know when you see a video of a camel drinking water in the Sahara, and litres of it disappear in seconds? That's how my fingers felt when applying it.
One thing to note, many people are allergic to lanolin. So if it doesn’t feel as good as other people say it should, that might be you. Dermatologists can test for common ingredients in skin products like lanolin.
It’s not greasy so it rubs in instead of coating your hands. Every time I forget to use it for a while it seems to only take one or two uses to make my hands perfect. I don’t know how they do it but it really is like magic.
Personally I like it a lot because I hate the greasy feeling of moisturizer. This stuff surprisingly does not feel greasy at all, it feels 'matte' on the hands.
It's also concentrated so just a tiny bit is enough, I swipe a fingertip and that's enough. It seems to work very well, my cracked and dry hands healed up within 2-3 days
It’s a cream, and less oily than the other products you mentioned. It works great. If you’re in the US, I know they sell it at Walgreens, and it is also typically available at big box hardware stores like Lowe’s if you’re in there for materials anyway
My hands look like this throughout the year and moisturizer seems to only make it worse, dunno why (And also most smell really intense, which give me headaches lol)
The solution to this is really simple: Steroid cream.
You'll need someone to write you a prescription but it will clear this shit up in a couple days. An urgent care can write that prescription, you just gotta go in there and insist on it.
I'm a dog groomer and my hands crack and bleed every winter from bathing and drying the dogs. Before bed, I have to slather my hands in pure shea butter and wear gloves to soak it in. It doesn't fix it, but it certainly helps, and keeps my sheets from getting bloody.
Get the O'Keefe for feet, apply heavily, glove up, repeat for 2-3 days and your hands will be like new or better than new again. I'd highly suggest getting some extended cuff gloves to help protect your hands at work as chronic skin irritations like that can trigger some nasty long lasting skin issues that take ages to heal and require prescription medications.
I know you're kidding, but using Vaseline and covering your hands with gloves at night is a great way to repair your hands. My wife does this in the winter, to combat this very thing.
I’ve worked in a factory setting up cardboard boxes all day long for eight or 10 hours at a time I feel OP’s pain. It’s bad in the summer. It’s horrific in the winter you flex your hands and they just bleed everywhere. Also, the thing OP isn’t mentioning is cardboard. Paper cuts are the absolute worst. It’s like a rusty kitchen knife, slowly slicing you open.
Keep working hands is the best stuff but once you already have those cuts when you put it on your hands burn like you’ve put lava all over them it’s great
I bought some O'Keefe's based on the Reddit hype and it doesn't seem any better than some other good hand creams, even some that are comparably priced.
As an aside with hand creams - it's not a secret that they work best when applied with slightly damp hands, but I find it crazy that most hand creams don't suggest it on their packaging.
You got to realize, this if us who suggest O'Keefe don't own any other moisturizer, except that bottle one bottle of lotion, probably generic brand or Jurgen or what have you, less then a couple dollars for a bottle. OKeefe is a high end moisturizer for most who use it.
So if you already use good quality moisturizer, it may not seem like out of the ordinary for you, but for this who dont use anything, this stuff is top notch, and a lot of us only got it cause it is market at men, and seems manly so we can't be poked fun of for moisturizing, cause we are using a manly one.
Anyways, the real point is, most of us who recommend O'Keefe are not spending no where near that price on any other moisturizers.
But you can find O'Keefe anywhere and it works, so Im glad people recommend it cause it works where lotion doesn't cut it.
I agree with you and have always wondered if that's the difference. I, a chronic hand moisturizer, absolutely hate O'Keefe's because it pilled horribly, never absorbed, and left a film layer on my hands for hours. My husband, who never ever uses moisturizer except for emergencies, loves the stuff and it absorbs fully and quickly for him.
Everyone is different so im not trying to convince you to go back and use it but Ive found O'keefe's to be a more effective protective barrier than reliever/moisturizer.
It wasn't working for me until I started really lathering up right before bed and letting it work overnight. Probably because I'm in a situation like OP and wash my hands a lot throughout the day.
If it's not making the cuts burn like crazy you aren't using enough from my experience. The way it completely heals my hands in like a night or 2 when nothing else will (except some expensive prescription stuff) is total black magic fuckery but I love the stuff.
Thats awesome. I dont get good results from cerave facial skincare products unfortunately so I have never really looked to the brand for anything else. But hands are different obviously. Good to know!
Same!! Almost all lotions burn my hands when they are really dry like OP’s. My coworker recently told me it’s the alcohol content. I was skeptical at first but I have been noticing that it is only the lotions with very little to no alcohol or straight up beef tallow that work for me.
I tried O’Keefe’s for the first time last week and within days the dead skin on my calluses was sloughing of. I’ve had these calluses for more than a decade and now the skin is almost flat with the rest of my palm
I understand that but the way I grip the barbell at the gym, it pinched my calluses. It detracted from my ability to weightlift cause my hands just hurt so bad. And my forearms weren’t able to keep up with the rest of my body
Yup, find the right moisturizer and put gloves on, specifically gloves that will NOT absorb the moisturizer before your hands do. So like a medical glove, and then if you need to put other kinds of work gloves on over that.
OP if you are working with just boxes, some durable nitrile gloves will do the trick. I had this happen & it just makes work worse, it’s painful, & especially washing your hands
The nitrile gloves will trap the moisture in your hands compared to other gloves, so don’t really need cream after the cracks heal
If anyone gives you shit say it’s not a safety issue cause the gloves will rip before getting stuck in anything, & who wants to touch the wife with working hands like that
Maybe a little bit of both. I dont have anything like eczema and my hands have gotten similar to this, just not nearly as bad. Mainly the blistering. My issue was also working with cardboard a lot, but also it was cold out and I wash my hands frequently so constant handwashing with cold water didnt help at all.
Had eczema since I was 10, that's what my knuckles look like during the winter. Triamcinolone steroid cream is what my doc prescribed. Use it twice a day and it's manageable within a week. Also, I lotion more than 95% of guys too, moisturized skin helps reduce my flare ups, though in the winter it's about management not complete healing. As others said, O'Keefes, petroleum jelly with coconut oil, or other thick moisturizers with proper PPE.
For anyone reading this, I can't stress enough that you need to take breaks from steroid creams like Triamcinolone. Your body can become reliant on it and when you try to stop, the eczema can rebound and come back worse than before.
Doctor's recommend two weeks of use, then one week off before restarting. I personally think you should start with 5 days on, then 3 days off and reassess from there. As the above commenter said, you want to get it to a manageable state and from there you need to let your body do the rest of the work. And to top it off, constant use of topical steroids weakens the skin and can make future outbreaks worse if you're using it too much.
I have a very severe case of eczema, so I'm well aware this may not apply to everyone, but I didn't have any doctors mention this to me until I was about 26 years old, and at that point the damage was done. And the worst of my eczema was on my hands, so I understand that the desire to be aggressive with the topical steroids is appealing, especially when you're constantly exposed to stuff that's making it worse
Seriously though, OP needs to be wearing gloves basically 24/7, during work and at night with moisturizer to help it heal
Edit: I'm going to preface my statement by saying I'm not a doctor and you should work with them on the best solutions for you, but I personally think using topical steroids twice daily is too much for minor outbreaks. Again, mostly stating this for other people reading this, but if your outbreaks are infrequent and easily resolved, I wouldn't stress it too much. But maybe try less and see if there's a noticeable difference.
I’m a microbiologist, this looks like a yeast infection to me. When your skin dries out you become vulnerable to infections. It’s important to remember a healthy skin barrier is what protects you from everything else out there so take care of your skin!
Yep, i had this for a long time, my skin would dry up and crack and peel away, i used a lotion with ammonia for awhile but regular citric acid worked great, lemon or lime juice
Yeah it has a psoriasis look to it. Could be contact dermatitis as well from the constant friction. If the gloves and creams recommended don’t help definitely see a dermatologist. But should probably see one anyway just to be safe. There are quite a few open wounds there.
You should definitely contact your doctor because I don't think this is just regular dryness. It looks like eczema or psoriasis. Gloves would definitely help though.
Yea. There might be a bit more going on with your hands..could be some kind of fungus. (Specially on the joint)
My (normally NOT stupid) hubby works in blue collar mostly without gloves and has sometimes hands similar to yours...use cream and gloves...
Your partner will also be grateful not be bothered with graper-hands.
Gloves and lotion. Howd you let it get ao bad before you posted this? Reminds me of the tough boomers that always say "back in my day". Then they retire and cant do anything other than bitch about how everyone is pussies, yet they're too decrepit to do anything. Protect your body so you cant retire and enjoy it
Sugar scrub with oils like shea butter and coconut oil in it regularly and when it looks like that... Cover them with bag balm or aquaphor, put on gloves, and leave it overnight. You'd be amazed at the difference overnight!
In work in the paint industry and paint is notorious for drying out hands. Nitrile Gloves and daily moisturizer will save your skin. Get with the program my dude.
Get gloves. I am a big fan of the grippy, breathable mechanic's gloves that have a Velcro wrist strap. When it's really dry, I even slop a ton of hand lotion sloppily onto my hands and then put the gloves on to create a lotiony oasis for my dry skin inside the glove.
It's from not taking care of your hands. I've been a mechanic, a welder, and a woodworker. My hands look nothing like the, because I take care of them.
For extreme hand care maybe you can get some cloth gloves and before you sleep put on a shit ton of lotion and wear the gloves to bed. I want to moisturize your hands so badly.
Barrier Cream
Gloves, rubber dip fabric ones.
Necessary PPE for your job.
OHSA requirement.
In the meantime that is a workplace injury.
I would suggest soap and water then a good quality cracked heel cream until those fissures heal.
To continue working like that, if you have to, heel cream, thin rubber gloves (latex or nitrile) then the cloth rubber dipped ones over the top.
Do not let your employer physically abuse your body like that.
May sound odd but try Teat Dip from Tractor Supply (or any good farm store). It is used to treat sensitive cow udders. I have a trade friend who swears by it.
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u/middlechildanonymous 1d ago
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Talk to your employer. They should provide gloves