February 10, 2001


What should I do to prevent dry hands when winter camping?

Every year when I go winter camping my hands dry up and I get deep cracks at the ends of all my fingers. How or what should I do to prevent this?

— John McCarthy Chatham, Ontario

Dry skin is a common enough problem among people who spend a lot of time outdoors when it's cold. It's caused because cold air is dry air, and the moisture that normally sits atop your skin is being sucked right off.

I'd suggest two courses to solve this problem. The first is to use lots of hand cream during the day —- and use one that's as greasy as you can stand. Buttonhole someone at a pharmacy and ask him or her to point you toward "oil-in-water" creams, not the lighter "water-in-oil" emulsions. If you can find one with lanolin, that's great, as lanolin is very similar to oil produced by human skin glands. I also use a lotion called Curel, and find it to be a very effective dry-skin cream that doesn't feel greasy.

Then, when you go to bed, do this: Slather up your hands with something pretty oily (Vaseline might work well here). Then, put on a pair of dishwashing gloves. These will keep the oil from rubbing off on your sleeping bag or clothing. It also will stop the evaporative process from your skin, giving your hands' natural moisture-secreting abilities a chance to get caught up. In the morning, your hands will feel moist, smooth, and soft as a baby's bottom.