The pandemic is causing us to learn more about proper hand hygiene, including handwashing and sanitizing. However, with all the handwashing and sanitizing, some of us may be experiencing dry hands as a result. So what can we do to keep our hands from drying up during this time?
Use Natural Soaps
Glycerin is one of the primary ingredients found in natural soaps and is used as a moisturizing agent for the skin. It is known as a humectant and attracts moisture, leaving you with soft skin.
Natural soaps are a safer and healthier alternative for hydrating our skin compared to commercial soaps because they don’t contain harsh ingredients or chemicals that can irritate the skin and dry them out further. Many commercial soaps contain harmful substances such as triclosan, parabens, petrochemicals, and sodium laureth sulphate. Triclosan, for example, has been found to disrupt our hormones and damage the reproductive system.
Use Hand Cream
Another way to keep your hands from drying out from all the handwashing is to use hand cream. Natural hand creams containing hydrating ingredients like coconut oil and cocoa butter can help lock in moisture and prevent your hands from cracking and splitting. The addition of health-boosting antioxidants like rosehip and argan oils, for example, can help hydrate and smoothen the skin and prevent water loss on the surface of your skin.
Commercially manufactured hand creams that are not all-natural contain a variety of ingredients that may prove damaging to our skin. Parabens, synthetic colors, fragrance, triclosan, and even formaldehyde found in commercial hand creams threaten your health and should be avoided. All of these substances easily get absorbed into the skin, and many are known carcinogens and endocrine disruptors.
The next time you find that your hands have become dry because of the handwashing and hand sanitizing you have been doing to combat COVID-19, consider all the benefits of switching to natural soap and natural hand cream.
Meta: Switching to natural hand soaps and hand creams can help hydrate your skin without the dangerous toxins in many commercially manufactured soaps and creams.