OT, Kind of....

[Bill R.]

A number of you may remember the worst injury post from awhile back..

Anyway i posted a pic of the scars on the back of my hand and Gayle went Ewww gross or something to that effect.

I hadn't really payed much attention to it until then, but recently my hands have started cracking much worse from exposure to solvents, grease, washing them constantly, cold weather etc.

So i was searching on the internet for hand lotion stuff and came up with the name Amlactin 12%. They have this stuff at costco for 18 bucks a bottle, The results are suprising. No more cracking and the permanently ingrained dirt that most mechanics have on the thumb and index finger is actually going away as the skin is healing up and getting more resilient. Just in case any of you have a similar problem. Here's the old pic i posted and here's a pic today

[GoldenOne]

do you shave your hands? you have considerably less hair in the second picture lol....

also i was told that gojo and all those abrasive handcleaners are actually bad for you because it takes off layers of skin, hair, and any natural moisture....which leads to dirtier hands, dry cracking skin, etc etc. can you confirm or deny this?

[Bill R.]

burn the hair off while welding or heating something up with a torch etc.

Yes, gojo and all abrasive handcleaners do dry your skin out and contribute to cracking but there's not much else that will remove the grease and dirt so you're stuck with it. This lotion is the first thing i've seen that actually helps alot to prevent this, that and the fact that in the winter i'm far more likely to wear nitrile gloves all the time when working , so my hands don't get quite as greasy and i don't have to wash them quite as often.




do you shave your hands? you have considerably less hair in the second picture lol....

also i was told that gojo and all those abrasive handcleaners are actually bad for you because it takes off layers of skin, hair, and any natural moisture....which leads to dirtier hands, dry cracking skin, etc etc. can you confirm or deny this?

[rickm]

I have a picture of my back when I ate a reef. :) I should post that gem.

[winfred]

we got some zep hand cleaner once that couldn't suck the moisture out of your hands fast enough, strangely enough while it was destroying our hands it wasn't taking the crud off for ****, i am not a fan of zep products as most if not all of them have failed me, some of the best hand balm i've used is badger in the little metal tin, not greasy and doesn't stink

[Blitzkrieg Bob]

looks bad when I go to work Monday and I am wearing my battle wounds from my weekend projects.

[Tiger]

I like the Permatex Fast Orange. It is good stuff... gojo's orange stuff sucks by 10 times.

[winfred]

it depends on the batch they go back a forth on which is better gojo averages a little better, you need to shake the jug once in a while too because the hand lotion separates from the cleaner, i have some gojo now that's not that great but it still kicks the **** out of the zep that's up front in the office bathroom, we went though about all of the different zep hand cleaners and all of them suck a fat cock imho, the boss and manager personally know the local zep rep and would love to use him but i won't use the ****, i bought my own gojo when all we had was that crap and i had figured out it was the cause of my bleeding hands


I like the Permatex Fast Orange. It is good stuff... gojo's orange stuff sucks by 10 times.

[Paul in NZ]

[=shudder]

......... and i had figured out it was the cause of my bleeding hands
[/shudder]

[winfred]

dried out and chapped, happened fast too


[=shudder]

[/shudder]

[Chris'91'525i]

My favorite mechanic hand cleaner is Boraxo (Sp?) , the white powder in the box.
For tough deep down geasy dirt, Boraxo & water with a small hand brush. Most times the brush is not needed.
Also I found hand lotion was mandatory for me before and after the work day, if my hands were going to get real filty that day. It prevented greasy dirt from setting up in my skins pores.
For super tough greasy dirt, I would wash normally with Borax/water and hand brush, dry hands then use hand lotion. let it absorb in skin for a half hour, washing again with borax would remove the remainder of grease.
The hand lotion would absorb into skin to float away the last of the dirt after a final wash with boraxo. Anyway, thats what worked for me.
Cold wheather always makes my hands get dried out and cracked. That's how I found out hand lotion prevents grease from setting up so easily, and helps to wash it away.

I have seen some lotion that acts as a glove. Has anyone tried that ?
Sounds kind of unbelievable it would act like a real glove....

[Tiger]

Borax?! I don't know about that... There is one tip I learned... before you start working on the car, rub hand dishwashing soap all over your hand... Pat dry and go work... Once you are done greasing... wash your hand normally... and supposedly no grease left.

Sounds like Palmolive eh?

[Paul in NZ]

thats strong stuff too....do that every day and see how your skin reacts

[Booster]

I've been sold on 3M's 05975 Paint Buster in the large 12" squeeze tube for years.Its a paste that really gets the tough stuff.And yes...it does remove paints and stains from skin without abraisives. But much like laundry.....once you've let a previous filth fully dry out.....its much tougher the next time. Best to detail the crannys whilst fresh if you can.
This product leaves my hands conditioned already once rinsed so I don't find the need to follow up with any lotions.
Aside from my healing gash's, women often comment on how soft and new my hands are because this stuff keeps calouse's at bay at the same time.
Purple nitrile gloves work nice when I have them in stock,but often you get to working on something with no intent on getting up to your elbows in ****.....then think of the gloves.:p
.............Vinny