My fingernails and cuticles are hella fucked up. 😩
Like my nails aren’t smooth. They’re like… Low poly models with visible faces.
That’s … normal
I don’t know - those fingernails and cuticles look way better than mine!
Lol yeah. I stopped biting my nails and cuticles when Covid started, but now i just pick the shit out of my cuticles
I’m not going to tell you how long I looked at this, expecting to find loss or Saddam Hussein.
My first thought was “holding a dick” then I went to these memes
That’s a girthy dick
Such is the nature of my work. Is that what caused this?
You need something with hydrocortisone to soothe. Not just a lotion
Moisturizer
Get a brand called Cetaphil and use it on your hands every day or whenever they dry out.
I’ve worked in construction and I like working as a mechanic in my own vehicles … it means my bare hands get exposed to a lot of dirt, sand, mud, metal, oil and chemicals … which means I have to wash with lots of soap and chemicals. In the winter it’s worse in the dry cold air.
So my hands get dry chapped and even cracked and start bleeding. My skin is so cracked and broken now that I can no longer use my finger print ID on my phone. I’ve tried resetting it multiple times but a new crack forms and then no longer works again.
For years I put up with it and pretended I was a man that didn’t need help … but I got sick and tired of it and started using moisturizer and I really don’t care what anyone says about it.
I still get dry cracked skin but not as often and not as severe.
Pain relief O’Keefes. Stuff is miracles.
Am electrician, I carve my hands up all the time.
I swear by O’Keefes “working hands”
It’s one of the few moisturisers that doesn’t leave my hands feeling greasy
I tried a bunch of them including O’Keefes but I’m allergic to something and I’ve had the skin on my hands break out in blisters. I can abuse them with motor oil and auto chemicals but if some weird skin lotion ingredient gets into a crack in my skin, my skin literally just starts to break down for some reason.
Cetaphil is the only one I’ve found that doesn’t have any weird ingredients … it was recommended by the dermatologist that treated me during a really bad break out. Haven’t had a problem since.
Ah man that must suck. At least you found something!
I have similar problems and have found many solutions, but Vaseline and cotton gloves overnight are freaking amazing. Kinda gross though. It’s like the nuclear treatment, afterwhich normal moisturizer works for maintenance.
I don’t blame you … when your skin is literally melting into blistering flesh, you will try anything to save yourself. I remember when it first happened about 15 years ago, it went from a small open sore to full blown skin melting all over my hand, forearm up to my elbow the reaction was so strong. I was bandaged up to the elbow for about a month before I saw a dermatologist and it was scary because I thought I was done for and that it would only get worse.
So any nuclear option that is gross, ugly, weird or just strange is fine by me as long as it works.
Like the old saying … ‘If it looks stupid but it works, then it isn’t stupid’
Cerave is even better than O’Keefes
Stop eating your cuticles, lol
Can’t stop. Won’t stop.
GameStop
The story of my life…
I did until like a week ago.
I’d had enough as they hurt and wasn’t getting better, I do a lot of rock climbing so the chalk makes the issue worse, plus I have not been doing great mentally so diet and hydration was awful.
What I did:
- Bought some Nails Inc Cuticle Oil (I am male, but it works). You just add a bit and rub it in. I now use this most days and definitely after climbing.
- I know that with a poor diet I am likely missing vitamins as some of my nails had lines down them. I take a cheap multi vitamin everyday.
- I am conscious to drink more water, although I already drink 2-3liter a day.
- I am making plans to improve my eating habits as I get decision fatigue and really just don’t eat enough. Think I’ve been alive too long that food is just meh at this point. But I went climbing yesterday on hardly anything and felt incredibly sick.
My nails are better now. My mental health not so much but one step at a time.
Comment to find this back later! I’m over 40 and just accepted my hands being fucked up as part of life.
Here is the current progress. The first one is from 2nd May and the second is today. You can see there has been significant improvement and they are not sore anymore.
You gave me fairly panic with that nail lines constant and I just had to go look it up.
No, nails having lines going down them is not necessarily a sign of vitamin deficiency. Turns out that the majority of the time it’s completely harmless and a sign of aging. Both index fingers and my right middle finger have a very faint dark line going from cuticle tip.
Your mileage may vary, IDK about your personal diet etc. just wanted to chime in about the nails thing
Dark lines going down on nails could also be a sign of subungual melanoma, so you might want to check for that.
Interesting. Thanks and sorry for scaring you.
I would note that mine are on a single nail and less lines and more defined ridges where you can run another nail over and feel it bumping across.
No need to apologize!!
I thrive on neurotic energy??
Well I’m always looking up things that were in so knowledge is power and all that
Yeah; when those lines are horizontal – though –, you may want to worry. But vertically, usually not.
I didn’t know about the nail ridges-vitamin deficiency thing until my lady told me recently, makes sense. She got me a case of the ensure plus for extra calories to supplement through the day and it does help. Eat some veggies, get some sunlight, maybe go to a shelter and walk some dogs. Hopefully the physical elevates the mental, I’m in a similar spot and hope you get feeling better internet stranger 👍
Thank you for this.
I already do plenty of walking as if I didn’t I don’t think I’d be here honestly. I might look into ensure as I’ve had them from the doctor when my diet has been poor in the past.
Don’t know if you’re the same but life’s like a rollercoaster man. One minute I’m doing good and mentally happy the next I can’t get out of bed and off YouTube.
It’s like I’m just passing as much time as possible with no end goal in mind. Just death at the end.
Sorry for being dark.
I’m positive 95% of your results came just from drinking more water. when your hands look like the picture, it’s almost definitely because you’re chronically dehydrated.
I am not so sure. As I said in the post I drink a lot of water.
So I wake up and have a cup of tea and for evening meal I have a can of Pepsi. Everything else in the day is just water and never less than 1.5 litres.
For me at least I think it was the climbing chalk and poor eating habits so lacking vitamins. I guess I’ll never truly know and it’s good advice to be hydrated.
nah, it’s usually hand moisture that causes this. if you do a lot of stuff that dries your hands out, you’ll get it too. climbing chalk can do that. I also said 95% is hydration. vitamins can also help.
I think the vitamin deficiency is more likely, I have similar issues. Lived in Phoenix for years and had a water bottle on hand all the time, it’s a part of the bigger picture but not the main driver I’d surmise.
This is very relatable. Can I ask you about your age? I’m 35 and struggling with eating enough my whole life.
I’m early 40’s. Never really had a big appetite and just saw food as a means to not die, but things are untenable right now.
Yeah, I’m about the same… when my mental health is good, I eat better. But at the slightest bit of stress: I just quit eating lol.
I used to get this all the time. Now, if I get a hangnail, I liberally drench my hands in lotion, and put on nitrile gloves for an hour or so to force it to soak in.
A family friend gets me Gojo Hand Medic, which my fragile masculinity appreciates.
I also found it works well for breaking in leather work gloves.
I did, till I started using soaps without SLS compounds.
It’s a shame that every sink in every public toilets, workplace toilets or other people’s house still has soap with Sodium Laureth Sulphate in. Even the products that say “gentle on skin” tend to be full of the stuff.
I tried various moisturisers for years with not a lot of effect. Swapping my soap, shower gel and shampoo for ones without SLS in them really made such a difference, and so quickly.
Have you tried going to a doctor to see what is wrong? PPE if you work somewhere hazardous? Moisturizing if you’re somewhere very dry?
When I was a kid, my elementary school was made of bricks that had a surface texture like 20 grit sand paper. Touching that shit started a chain reaction that inevitably ended with hands looking like this. Oh you accidentally brushed the back of your hand against the brick at recess? Hope you like beef jerky skin.
I remember ours (I think both schools were built in the early 1900s) being rough but not that rough.
If having lotion in your hands makes you uncomfortable, try just dabbing a tiny bit on the the backs of your fingernails and rubbing them against each other to spread it only on your cuticles. No slimy fingerpads or palms, and it really helps.
Hand lotion and learn how to give yourself a manicure. 5 minutes a week and your hands will thank you.
