Compared to 10 years ago when my hands were incredibly worn out, they have healed immensely.
My hands are no longer dry and I was able to regain normal, healthy hands.
The current state of my hands post-eczema:
- Moist
- No scars
- Not painful
- Can touch anything – scourer, sponge, blankets, stockings
- Can wash dishes and clean bathtub with bare hands
- Visible fingerprints
- Can paint my nails
In this article, I’ll tell you how I cured my hand eczema and finally achieved healthy hands.
For 10 years, I struggled with hand eczema.
It was so bad that I had to apply hand cream on as soon as I washed my hands, or else they would be too dry.
But now, I don’t use hand creams anymore.
All I need to do is wipe my hands with a towel.
Compared to the dryness, pain, and itchiness that I used to experience, it’s quite unbelievable how much my hands have recovered.
The reason behind my recovery is: I cured my hands’ dryness.
In fact, once you know it, it’s such an easy method that anyone can do.
If you’re struggling with hand eczema and/or dry hands, continue reading to find out how you can cure it too.
I hope my experience helps you discover a hand care regimen that works.
From eczema to incredibly dry hands: the 10-year hell of constant moisturization
Let’s start with a brief history of my experience with hand eczema.
As you read, see if any of my experiences apply to you.
The closer your symptoms are to mine, the better the method I used will work for you.
Physical predisposition to eczema
My skin was naturally susceptible to eczema from the very beginning.
From my infant years to when I was in elementary school, my dry skin and itchiness from eczema was extremely bad.
These symptoms got slightly better by the time I entered middle school – but this relief didn’t last long.
Not long after, I was faced with a new problem: extremely dry hands with no known cause.
I couldn’t live my daily life without gloves
My hands were just extremely dry – to the point where my skin peeled off and the red, inside skin was completely exposed. It was extremely painful to touch anything.
Because I couldn’t touch or do anything with my bare hands, I had to wear cotton gloves 24/7, 365 days. At school, at home, when I went to bed – I couldn’t not wear them.
Between middle school and university, I had my white cotton gloves on every single day – during class too, of course!
From water to detergent, everything stung
Water – hot or cold – stung my hands.
The pain was even worse with shampoos, body soaps, solid soaps, or any kind of cleansing product. Not only did it sting, but these products stripped my hands of its already-scarce oil content, making them even drier.
That’s why, whenever I took a bath, I had to wear plastic gloves over my cotton gloves to wash my hair and body.
Out of all the types of cleansing products, the worst one was household detergent.
Because household detergents dried my hands much more than regular soap, I couldn’t touch it with my bare hands. If I did, it worsened my hands’ dryness in the blink of an eye.
That’s why, whenever I washed the dishes or did laundry or did any kind of household cleaning, I had to wear rubber gloves.
Because they severely dried out my hands, I couldn’t use kitchen detergent for countless years.
Uncontrollable itchiness and blisters
Despite doing everything I can to protect my extremely dry hands, my hand eczema continued.
Because my hands were so flaky and scaly, my skin would tear even if I just slightly bent my fingers.
I’m sure you can imagine, this was incredibly painful.
On top of this, my hands were unbearably itchy.
Especially when small blisters formed between my fingers and on my fingertips, the itchiness was even worse.
When I couldn’t resist temptation and popped these blisters, pus began to ooze out. It made my fingers and hands sticky, which made it feel more itchy.
The itchiness was particularly unbearable at night.
During the day, I was still able to consciously control myself and endure the itch.
But at night, I was itching my hands in my sleep without realizing it.
That’s why I started keeping ice cold water next to my pillow and sleeping with my hands soaked in that water bath. Now that I think about it, I went to all extremes to find a cure for my hand eczema.
I couldn’t leave the house without hand cream
For someone suffering from extremely dry hands, hand creams were a daily essential. I couldn’t go anywhere without hand cream. From cheap to expensive, from not-so-well known to popular brands, I tried a countless amount of hand creams.
I thought that my hands would recover if I used hand cream.
But…
The harsh truth: the effects of hand cream were minimal… It hardly worked and my dry hands never got better
No matter how much hand cream I applied, the dryness and itchiness of my hands never got better.
True, the itchiness disappeared when I first applied hand cream, and the surface of my skin felt softer.
But just because you continue to use hand creams, doesn’t mean that your hands will go back to normal.
Even after trying multiple hand creams, it didn’t feel like I was making any progress toward curing my hand eczema. If anything, my hands became even more worn out.
Once your hands become dry, you have to go about your day with that rough hand condition so your hands are constantly stimulated.
No doubt, this will only escalate your hand condition.
But applying hand cream is better than applying nothing.
For someone like me who didn’t know what else to do other than to use hand cream, I had the mentality of ‘applying a lot’ and ‘applying multiple times’ for 10 years.
For 10 years, I used hand creams as if they were an emergency first aid solution for my hands.
Throughout those 10 years, I kept wondering to myself…
“Why do my hands get so dry?”
“How can I go back to my normal, healthy hands?”
“Do I have to live with these hands for the rest of my life?”
If you are experiencing the same symptoms as me, the same suffering as me, I’m confident that you can recover too with the treatment method I started doing.
From ‘hand care that replenishes oil’ to ‘hand care that uses oil AND ___ to replenish moisture’
Most of the ingredients in hand creams are oils.
This is actually the main reason why hand creams can’t cure dry hands.
For people like us, we want to resolve the dryness of our hands.
In order to do that, you have to replenish hydration and moisture to your hands.
Unfortunately, hand creams (AKA oil) don’t have enough moisture content to do that.
The only thing that hand creams are useful for are locking moisture: the oils prevent our skin’s moisture from evaporating.
In other words, it maintains your current skin condition.
If your hands are originally hydrated and healthy, then applying hand creams can help with making sure your skin retains that moisture.
But for our dry, rough, flaky hands, there isn’t any moisture to lock in to begin with. There isn’t any moisture in the hand cream to prevent it from evaporating. Instead, for us, hand creams make it more difficult to stay moisturized.
When you think about it, facial skincare is the same.
That’s why it’s crucial to replenish water and oil to cure hand eczema.
In the past, I was completely missing the ‘replenish water’ aspect of hand care.
After coming to this realization, I immediately changed my approach to hand care.
Instead of using hand creams that only replenish oils, I began to use a moisturizer that replenishes OIL AND WATER simultaneously.
This was a huge game-changer for my hands.
In just 2 years, I finally recovered from my 10-year hell!! Touching water was no longer a fear too
Hand care that replenishes both water and oil was extremely easy, and I felt no stress in changing my care routine
The treatment method was still the same as when I was using hand creams.
After coming into contact with water, after a bath, whenever I felt dryness or itchiness – I applied a moisturizer that replenishes oil and water simultaneously.
At first, the itchiness and roughness of my hands remained.
But I made sure to apply this moisturizer every day religiously.
I continued to do this for a year and before I knew it, the itchiness disappeared and I no longer had to use steroid creams.
And after 2 years of continuing this, I was finally able to use dish soap with my bare hands!
My hands hardly became dry anymore.
At this point, the scars on my hands were less visible and I no longer suffered from uncontrollable itchiness.
I hardly spent time being conscious and thinking about my hand eczema.
After 10 years of suffering, I was finally able to achieve the ‘regular’ hands that I’ve always admired.
This is all thanks to the fact that I applied both water and oil to my hands.
The moisture in my hands increased, and my hands were able to retain that moisture for longer.
In 2 years, my skin function recovered, my skin became less susceptible to dryness, and my skin became stronger against stimuli.
2 years may seem like a long time. But I spent 10 years trying every solution I could possibly think of – hand cream, prescription medicine, herbal medicine. For 10 years, nothing worked and my hand eczema only got worse.
There were countless moments where I thought, “I have to live with these hands forever…”
I felt utterly hopeless.
So for me, 2 years is nothing. In fact, it was ONLY 2 years.
With any part of our skin, it doesn’t regenerate overnight – it grows little by little everyday.
For people with hand eczema or extremely dry hands, our skin’s regeneration cycle is disrupted. Thus, maintaining your hands’ current condition isn’t going to do anything.
After switching from ‘hand care that only replenishes oil’ to ‘hand care that replenishes both water and oil’ and staying consistent with this for 2 years, I was able to change my hands in the best way possible.
It takes time, consistency, and patience. Because I took my time to allow my skin to naturally heal, the results were not only satisfying but long-lasting. It wasn’t a short-term, first-aid solution, but a solution that made hand eczema a thing of the past.
Hand care that will make you forget you ever had to worry about dry hands
No more pain, itchiness, scars, peeling!
For the longest time, I had forgotten the luxury of having hands that aren’t dry. If anything, itchy and dry hands were the norm for me.
Perhaps this is the same for you.
Despite the pain in your fingers and hands, have you ever thought,
“The pain is better than usual” or “This is normal for me”?
Despite doing everything you can to treat your hand eczema, have you ever thought,
“There’s no way my hands will go back to normal anyway” or “It would be so much easier if I gave up and accepted my fate”?
Even so, there must be a part of you that still wants to have hope.
“I want to have healthy, normal hands again”
“I want to dress up and enjoy my hobbies without worrying about my hands”
“I want to hold hands with my family, children, and partner”
If that’s the case, I highly recommend trying what I did to escape from my long struggle with hand eczema: hand care that replenishes both water and oil.
In fact, there are an increasing number of people who have tried my hand care method and cured their hand eczema as well!
I truly wish the best for you and your recovery journey. I sympathize with you, and I truly hope that you’ll be able to regain a life where you don’t have to worry about your hands.You can try my hand care which replenishes water and oil simultaneously from here.
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