With winter fast approaching, one big target issue that always flares up for me is dry cracked hands! I look like a fighter with rough, sliced up fingers and flake-covered phalanges…wow that almost sounds like an appetizer! Okay, GROSS, anyway, it is really painful and makes me feel so old when I stare upon my dry cracked hands. 
SO I have compiled a list of possibilities to check out and a few helpful hints for your hands. These are issues I discovered through the great trial and error! Hopefully they’ll be of some use to you:
1. Biggest culprit for me has always been Dish Soap! Especially if you wash dishes by hand or use dish soap to wash your hands. Buy a pair of gloves for any and all dish duties. For an added benefit, coat your hands in Extra Virgin Olive Oil before beginning your dish adventure. The warm water will heat the gloves, open your pores and help the oil nourish and sink deeply into your skin.
2. Keep hands covered in extreme temperatures! Gloves again! But these can be a bit more fashionable. Don’t wait for a drastic change, if you feel cold or there’s wind or dry air, cover up the hands!
3. Soak your hands in coconut milk. You can get a can in the ethnic food section of most stores. Use 4-6 cups warm water (not too hot!) and a can. Let your hands soak for about 10-15 minutes. Get caught up with your spouse, bf, sister what have you, or just watch TV! Dry hands and apply oil or lotion.
4. Don’t use unnatural moisturizers. Seriously. They have mineral oil (pore clogging and interfering with your body’s natural detoxing process), petroleum (again, pore clogging and skin irritant) not to mention as well, Sodium Laurel Sulfates and such. If your dry cracked hands are really a problem, take this and highly consider it!
5. Even with good soap and moisturizer, be cautious about over washing hands. There’s clean and then there’s excessive! Oils get stripped leaving skin exposed and vulnerable.
6. Hand sanitizer. High in alcohol, this too strips oils and is very drying to the skin.
7. Drink water! Keep up on this, it helps hydrate and plump your skin cells from the inside out.
Hopefully this list will give you some ideas on things to look for or change and ultimately help for dry cracked hands. I found these especially important during seasonal changes! Our hands are very important to our lives and they totally deserve the best care and attention we can give them.