Dry Skin on Hands
Posted by Dry Skin Treatment on Aug 21, 2010
Our hands are probably the most used parts of the body right from the time we wake up until we go to bed at night. Throughout the day, your hands come into contact with a variety of objects that could cause infections and settling of bacteria. Hands are as equally exposed to the hazards of environmental conditions as are other parts. Thus, timely care of hands also needs to be taken.
One of the ways to care for your hands include: taking 2 to 3 cups of buttermilk and heating it to the lukewarm state. Then you can soak your hands in it for about 20 minutes. Immediately thereafter, apply a few drops of Vitamin E on your hands. Following that, apply a generous amount of petroleum jelly on it. Wrap your hands in a cotton cloth or gloves. Keep it until the morning when you can remove the gloves or cloth and rinse your hands.
Always make sure when you apply sunscreen you apply it generously to your hands as well. The tanning and drying of the skin on the hands is very fast because it is most exposed and most neglected part of the body. You may have noticed how your skin around the wrist (if you wear a watch) or upper half of the arm (if you wear half sleeved clothes) is remarkably different form the exposed areas of the hands.
Make sure you do not ignore your fingers. A good manicure once a week helps to take care of your hands really well. But this does not mean you should not care the other days. The area around the fingernails tends to get dark very easily. This is the region that is the driest as well. The back of your hand deserves special attention. Massage it well and try and keep it covered especially during winters. Summers evidently deprive you of that opportunity but a healthy load of sunscreen frequently during the day should be just fine.
The palm can get extremely chappy during the winters. Make sure you apply enough winter care lotion. Avoid trying to peel the dry skin out with your hand. It could result in the peeling of the good skin as well.
Tips on Choosing an Effective Dry Skin Lotion
Posted by Dry Skin Treatment on Nov 16, 2009
Dry skin is a problem that many face quite frequently and is accentuated by many factors that occur in the nature such as dry climate, overexposure to sun, pollutants in the atmosphere, etc. While effective dry skin treatment will usually be limited to identifying the cause and eliminating it, the use of some dry skin lotions might also be warranted to help overcome the problem more effectively. These lotions can also help in providing effective maintenance of the skin and thus help in reducing recurrence of dry skin problems. 
When choosing any dry skin lotion for dry skin treatment, some basic things should be borne in mind. One should remember that the products should be chosen with care to help provide maximum relief from dry skin and should be based on a thorough research rather than trying one product after the other.
The first and foremost thing to remember while choosing any dry skin lotion is to avoid any product that contains synthetic ingredients in them or contains ingredients like alcohol, paraben, petrolatum, fragrances, etc as these ingredients are harmful to the skin and will cause more harm than good. These ingredients are generally present in the product to help improve the shelf life of the product rather than to do any good to the skin.
While choosing a dry skin lotion, it is best to stick to products that contain natural ingredients in them. But, one such ingredient that is passed off as natural is mineral oils. These are also toxic to the skin and will not help in alleviating dry skin rather it increases the problem.
Some of the natural ingredients that you can look out for while choosing a dry skin lotion would be ones that contain a rich concentration of vitamins such as vitamin E and vitamin A. Also, you can look out for ingredients like Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), hyaluronic acid, and keratin as these have beneficial actions in providing your skin with moisturizing effects and help in retaining the moisture in the skin.
While it is essential to choose a dry skin lotion with natural and active ingredients, you should also know what lotions you need to use to help effectively counter dry skin problems.
The most basic of all lotions that one can use is a moisturizer to help the skin retain moisture in it. These lotions should be used immediately after a bath to help the skin retain moisture before it gets dried out. Another dry skin product that is commonly used is a sunscreen. This will help prevent damage to the skin caused by overexposure to the sun. Another dry skin lotion that can be used is a combination of a moisturizer and a sunscreen.
If the symptoms of dry skin are more severe and involves symptoms like itching, flaking, cracking, redness, inflamed skin, etc then basic dry skin lotions will not be very helpful in reducing the symptoms. Instead, a dry skin lotion that contains an emollient should be used. The emollients will help in healing of the skin and in alleviating the symptoms of dry skin.
If these dry skin lotions are not helpful in reducing your symptoms, it is best to consult a qualified medical professional for help at the earliest as early intervention will help prevent worsening of symptoms and causing the problem to become more chronic.