My Hands Are Irritated (Skin Reaction?)

Hello Damn Fine Shave,

Unfortunately, I am having another reaction (on my skin) that is not something we talk about in a shaving forum. Now we do talk about shaving soaps and body bar soaps. But how often do you see a thread in a forum about liquid dispenser soap that is used for sanitizing your hands. I am pretty sure the one I am using at work is making the skin on the tops of my hands feel like they are being eaten alive by having to constantly and habitually for sanitary prep.

It makes me feel disappointed that the function intended of this type of soap may work on my skin, but it does not work with my skin, neither under cold or hot water. This soap, dare I say, may have synthetic foaming agents, but even if it doesn't, I really don't care. I applied mango butter before work to my hands, and used avocado oil towards the end of my shift as well. Then I applied shea butter after my shift. My skin was so itchy, imagine my skin feeling the need to itch off whatever is residue of the liquid soap and scrape it off with your fingernails.

I will definitely have to prepare myself for using gloves and some alternative to this soap for my skin. Here I am at the same time edging to get all comfort that is achievable within my facial shave. If I get good shave but not a great shave, then that can feel like a bit of failure. I strive for high standards in my shaves to keep my face "calm" but ready and more prepared for the next shave. Sometimes that results in a tad bit of red face and minor nicks most shaves. But that can happen in both my absolute best feeling shaves and also "good" shaves.

The good shaves don't gain that sense of relief as much as how you feel after a great, close yet also comfortable finish to your shave. The skin remains calm, maintains suppleness in hydration, and looks replenished and fresh. Right now, I am upset with myself for being so capable of feeling and reading my facial skin, yet I am totally ignorant of how I spent time rubbing a soap my hands all day without stopping to let my skin speak. If I took a picture of my hands, it may not look all that exciting or inflamed as you might hope for consider I am complaining to the world a bit in this post.

Forgive me, please, my point being we join a discussion hub to take and give information and experience to your own and others daily skin care. Sometimes, that means people discussing shaves, skin butters and oils, shampoos, deodorants, edt, etc, is we might use in our daily routine in combination with our skin. It should compliment the skin in it's natural state. One thing that pops into my head is how powerful I truly believe mango butter to be on my facial skin which is skin I consider quite sensitive. But even using a bunch of mango butter wouldn't really reverse spending a whole shift rubbing something that doesn't work with my skin.

All I can say is this:

Damn.

I hope none of you have to deal with skin feeling this uncomfortable, ever, and anywhere. Stay well and keep your skin calm my friends.

I develop dyshydrotic eczema very easily on my hands. Super dry and can actually even develop very tiny little pustules. I pinpointed that this was coming from incomplete hand washing in the morning after applying hair products and overuse of alcohol based gel sanitizer at work. Once moving to a thorough morning hand wash with cheap Dawn to remove all signs of remaining product followed by a good quality hand cream as well as frequent soap hand washing at work instead of gel sanitizer my hands came back to normal in no time.

I develop dyshydrotic eczema very easily on my hands. Super dry and can actually even develop very tiny little pustules. I pinpointed that this was coming from incomplete hand washing in the morning after applying hair products and overuse of alcohol based gel sanitizer at work. Once moving to a thorough morning hand wash with cheap Dawn to remove all signs of remaining product followed by a good quality hand cream as well as frequent soap hand washing at work instead of gel sanitizer my hands came back to normal in no time.

Zac, this would be a very good course of action to follow, unless you stop using those hand sanitizers, all together.
The alcohol in those things only reeks havoc with a person's skin.
The best of luck to you.

Zac, can you wear nitrile glove's to help cut down on you having to wash your hand's so much. I agree the soaps they put in those soap dispensers is terrible. I only use hand sanitizer if I have too.

Clayton

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St John's Bay Rum effects me. I love the smell and on my face but it always causes irritation between my fingers. Only lasts a few minutes but still annoying.

Your employer is probably putting the cheapest garbage soap/sanitizer in the dispensers - you should ask them to upgrade it to stuff people can use or find a product that works for you and carry it around with you on a utility belt or something. I had a similar thing with the soap in the washrooms of the office I used to work at - it only affected some of us (those who washed their hands) because I know for a fact that the boss didn't wash his hands after going either #1 or #2 - I never shook hands with him. In any case, I brought my own soap and my hand problems went away. The yuk factor of seeing the boss leave the stall after flushing and going straight out the door stuck with me though.

Thanks for your comments. I started wearing my gloves a bit more frequently when I can. But there is some good news. My boss said that he would be fine reimbursing me for soap that was compatible with my skin to use while at work. Unfortunately, my fingers and skin are peeling and splitting in many areas. This is still the result after continuous moisturizing with shea, mango butter, and avocado oils. I may investigate further once I have the brand and identification of formula to ask what the manufacture is using in it.