Cracked, Itchy or Sore Hands: What's Behind It
Dry, cracked, itchy hands are usually irritant-driven, from washing and products. Here's how to tell what's going on and settle them.
What’s usually going on
Sore, cracked, itchy hands are most often hand eczema / irritant dermatitis, driven by frequent handwashing, sanitiser, wet work, soaps and cleaning products. Less commonly, an allergy (to a glove material, a fragrance, or a specific ingredient) is the cause.
How to narrow it down
- Notice the pattern: worse after wet work or a particular soap points to irritation.
- A rash that flares with one specific product or glove suggests an allergy.
- Try protecting and moisturising hard for two weeks (gloves for wet work, fragrance-free emollient after every wash) and see what changes.
What helps
Gloves for wet/cleaning tasks, lukewarm water, a gentle fragrance-free wash, and thick moisturiser after washing and overnight.
When to see a doctor
Deep painful cracks, spreading rash, signs of infection, or no improvement warrant a GP or dermatologist, who may prescribe treatment or arrange patch testing.
Reading a label by eye, or using a free ingredient-checker, will tell you what is in a product. What it will not do is check it against the specific ingredients you react to.
To close that gap, a personal-list app like ClearaScan lets you save the ingredients you react to once and scan any product to flag only your triggers. It also keeps a Reaction Journal for flare-ups, a shared Care Circle so family or carers can scan for you, and a Trusted Products list for items you have cleared, and it is currently in early access. (Disclosure: our editor co-founded ClearaScan, and we are not paid to mention the others.)