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To prevent and restore softness to hands involves attention to the hand's unique needs and attributes. Since moisture levels, oil, skin tone/melanin, and work habits vary from individual to individual, being aware of one's hand type is essential in keeping working hands soft. Different types of work require different types of hand treatment. Such being the case,keeping working hands soft involves 1) identifying why and what is not keeping one's hands soft 2) prevantative measures and 3) skin care techniques. This article will outline these three topics of hand care in reference to the goal of keeping working hands soft.

STEP I: IDENTIFY WHAT IS MAKING YOUR HANDS COARSE

The first step to softer hands is identifying what is making them callous, rough or hard. Is it writing, gardening, household chemicals, age or something else? Each type of cause may require a different type of treatment and multiple causes may require multiple treatments. For example, if you garden a lot, and do a lot of house cleaning and dishwashing by hand your hands may become calloused from the gardening and dried out from the chemicals and dish-washing. In this case good gardening gloves for outside, latex or vinyl gloves for inside and a hand cream your hands respond well too can all be of benefit.

*Handling of chemicals such as cleaning products

*Contact with abrasive and rubbing objects such as tools, and equipment

*Physical work with hard and coarse materials and tasks such as in landscaping and farm work

*Excessive repetition of a particular motion utilizing certain parts of the hand such as fingers

STEP II: PREVENTATIVE MEASURES TO STOP HANDS FROM BECOMING MORE ROUGH:

If the activities that make hands rough and hard can't be avoided, protection is the next best preventative measure. Wearing gloves suited for the task that makes one's hands rough is a good preventative measure. There are many types of gloves such as leather, cotton, latex, vinyl, synthetic, rubber etc. Some gloves breath better than others and thus may be better for longer or less wet conditions. Hybrid gloves with rubber fingers and leather back can be used for plant work whereas cotton gloves can be used for light garden work.

Another preventative measure is to avoid sunlight exposure and eat nutrients that are good for the skin. In office settings, being mindful of tasks that can damage hands can lead to preventative handling of items. For example, metal staplers and hole punchers may be rough on hands than rubber topped

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