Are people being honest that their hands crack and bleed in winter?

Fact. I have a friend who uses hand sanitizer multiple times a day in the winter and her hands are very dry anyway, so they crack and bleed.

Fact. I live in such a climate where it is common; cold and dry in winter. I also have a sister who lives in the desert in the US and is a nurse and is washing her hands in very harsh detergents. Her hands also crack and bleed.

Fact. (raises bloody hand). The backs of my hands and my fingertips crack and get bloody. It hurts to type. I was fingerprinted once for a job and the guy told me he couldn’t get my fingerprints because my hands were so dry. I experience this from around November to around March, where, in NY where I live, it’s dry in winter and dry in my house. I have hand cream but am not religious about using it, as I then feel like everything I touch gets greasy.

Yikes – yes of course it’s true of some people! Hey guys, get some evening primrose or starflower oil into your diet. It really helps with these problems. Living in warm, dry, centrally heated homes, then working outdoors or using oil-stripping hand cleansers is seriously bad for the skin. @jca the hand cream stuff is real, yes they often are heavy and oily, but changes in diet for the winter might really help.

@Aster – if left without care, yes, the lesions and cracks in people’s hands can become infected. Fungal infections can be really long-term and resistant to cleansers. Interesting that you have been unable to imagine this problem, it isn’t really that uncommon.

Wanna see a picture of my hands? It’s not an exaggeration.

Why would someone lie about that? I mean, if you’re going to lie, it should be for something worthwhile.

@elbanditoroso I wondered if , for instance, advertisements for products to heal dry, cracked and bleeding hands were bogus. It seemed impossible to me that weather alone could account for people having bleeding hands. I now am convinced that people do , in fact, have them. Thank you.

Fact. I have to keep extra lotion in my car to make sure mine don’t in the winter.

Yep! When I was a little kid I had to put on gloves and Vaseline at night because they were so painful and raw, and it didn’t really help. They never got infected, just hurt a lot. The cracks weren’t like gaping open wounds or anything, just sore with little trickles of blood.

I have vivid memories of rubbing them with Ajax-like powdered soap in school. Ow.

Like @Aethelflaed I keep lotion in the car, in my jacket pocket, at all of my sinks and anywhere else I can think to keep a lotion bottle this time of year next to my bed, next to the couch…

The humiditity is low. It is currently 14 degrees outside. My hands, though I lotion after every washing, are chapped. Luckily, my hands rarely bleed. However, my finger tips and cuticles often do.

Ohhh yes. (The bleeding comes from the cracks, it’s not like blood’s pouring out of every hand pore). And a lot of lotions sting when applied to cracked skin!

It’s true. I have to put lotion on my hands pretty frequently in the winter, otherwise the skin on my hands cracks and bleeds. Luckily, this hasn’t been much of a winter, so it hasn’t been a problem so far.

I’ve never experienced this or seen it in anyone else, but then, the humidity here is always high.

Fact.

I just wanted to feel like I contributed.

Figgity-fact.

My lips also get really dry in the winter.

@jca Mine too. Actually worse for me is the tip of my nose. My nose often gets cracked and sore this time of year (without a cold).

Fact, as others have said. My hands can do this. But I moisturize to prevent that from happening. It is really painful…