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Dry hands
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How can you take care of dry hands?

Our hands are always in use and often badly looked after: they are the part of our body that is the most exposed to risks of dryness, irritation and injury. This is why it is essential to take care of them day after day. Here is some expert advice to help you restore the softness of your hands.

Why do your hands get dry?

Hands have the particular feature of a combination of two skin types. On the top, the skin is extremely fine and fragile, while on the palms, it is thick. Furthermore, the epidermis of our hands is naturally dry, because it contains few sebaceous glands. The purpose of the latter is to create a protective film: if they are weak, this makes the hands very vulnerable.

Poorly moisturised, their epidermis is therefore more sensitive: the least harsh exposure (cold, sun, washing and of course household products, detergents, etc.) can result in immediate dehydration. The result: hands lose their softness, become dry and rough.

In the most extreme cases, close to the joints and around the nails, cracks and crevices appear: these changes are painful and difficult to repair. To avoid these problems, it is necessary to act as soon as the first signs of dryness show and to adopt good habits.

Of prime importance: protect your hands from harsh influences and take care of them day after day with a targeted lotion. Protective, repairing, soothing … there is indeed suitable care for your skin.


The enemies of your hands

The cold, wind, sun, water, and other irritating agents, are potentially damaging to your hands. All these harsh influences have the effect of damaging the cutaneous barrier and slowing it down, due to the action of the functions of sebaceous glands, which furthermore increases dehydration.


The cold. This is the number one enemy! It changes the protective film of the skin and dries it out. This is why in winter, red or irritated hands are a frequent phenomenon. In extreme cases, this problem of dehydration can result in cracked and chapped hands, a phenomenon that is well known by manual labourers or people working outside.


The sun. Like the cold, the sun dehydrates the fragile epidermis of our hands. In summer, hands are always bare are particularly exposed to ultra-violet rays. Beyond dryness, this repeated exposure can result in premature cutaneous ageing and brown spots. This should therefore be avoided.


Household products. They make your hands rough, of course, and at times even destroy the protective film of the epidermis, which makes our hands even more sensitive to harsh weather conditions. Exposed to detergents and other irritating agents, our hands become dehydrated and dry with varying severity.


Frequent washing. Yes, water, particularly when it is hot, is a factor of cutaneous dehydration, together with certain soaps and gel washes. As it is of course necessary to wash our hands frequently, they suffer even more! 


Contact with irritating agents. The repeated use of antiseptic solutions or hydro-alcoholic products, as well as the use of latex gloves, makes your skin rough and causes irritation. Even so, it is recommended to take care of hands that are frequently in contact with cement or stripping products: they effectively change the cohesion of the stratum corneum and seriously dehydrate the epidermis.


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