Sugar scrub for the hands!

Patrice Lemée

Patrice Lemée

Joined
Aug 13, 2002
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I am adding this one to my website and I thought why not post it here too.

This one is a tip about trying to keep your hands a little nicer. :thumbup:
It is not fun for other people, especially your better half, to have to deal with hands that look like they are off a zombie and feel like 36 grit sandpaper. And it is also painful for the makers themselves. I don't know about you but when I go through a long sanding session, be it blades or fittings, my hands hurt a lot afterwards. :( This also helps to ease a little of that pain.

Easy enough to make. Pour about a cup of olive oil (cheapest you can find) in a jar and them saturate with granulated sugar until you get a paste like consistency.



To use, first wash and scrub your hand like you regularly do at the end of your work day. Dry your hands well. Then scoop about a teaspoon of the mixture in your hands and massage/scrub your hands with it for about a minute. Then sit down for about 5 minutes and listen to your favourite radio station letting the oil sugar mixture permeate your hands. Then simply wash off with mild soap and voila! Silky smooth hands. Well depending what you start with they may not feel silky smooth right away but it will be better believe me. And I find that it also helps with recuperation, hands don’t hurt as bad and heal faster.

I am thinking about adding some tea tree oil to the mix which has anti-bacterial properties. Might help with small cuts and such.

Try it and let us know if it works for you.
 
The work we do, the solvents we use, and the heavy scrubbing with soaps destroy the natural oils I the skin. This makes it dry and little pieces tear out....making it rough. Applying oil and scrubbing with a mild abrasive ( the sugar) will rub off the projections of dry skin and help soften the rest.

Your mix is a good solution. I use a heavy duty hand cream made by Kiehl's that is similar...just a lot more expensive. When I remember to apply it daily after scrubbing up, my hands aren't 36 grit. When I get in a hurry and don't spend the time to rub it in and then wait a while...they stay rough.

My wife loves my rough hands. She calls them "Loofa Hands", and has me rub her back when it itches. The rest of the time she tells me to keep them to myself :)

My biggest problem nowadays is what I call, "Old man skin". Because the skin and its protective under-layers get thinner as you age, the skin will break and bleed at things that would not make a mark in earlier age. I go out and work in the yard or in the shop and come back looking like I have be bare knuckle fighting with Cossacks.
 
back in the laboratory days we used a cleaner for our hands which was made for lithographers. The best we could find. Don't remember the name. As for the skin ,best repair etc would include vitamin E and aloe vera , such as Nature's Plus - Vitamin E Cream + aloe vera. This one doesn't leave you smelling like a petunia or worse !
 
You could also add honey which of course is a natural antibacterial.
 
My wife has long been on my case to use "goop" (as she refers to moisturizing lotions). Lately I have been taking that advice and finding it helps, to be sure. But I also forget most of the time, leaving me with rough fingers. We are, after all, men. Having soft hands isn't really natural for us. :)
 
Thanks for sharing this Patrice. I run an auto shop and the amount of chemicals, dirt, and God only knows what else I get all over my hands requires me to clean them with Gojo or some other crap but that leaves the hands extremely dry and cracked, I have been trying multiple creams but they just don't cut it. I will give this a try
 
you can do the same thing with baking soda instead of sugar - not as abrasive but still works well as an exfoliant - my wife makes similar scrubs using sea salt, baking soda, or sugar depending on what body part she's scrubbing (baking soda for her face, sea salt for feet)
 
I should have added that a not to expensive squeeze out cream called Glysomed will do a pretty darn good job , and no does not leave your hands greasy. Frank
 
Bringing this thread back......

I am going to try this, Pat. Thanks.

I almost can't wait to make sheaths and leather goods, these days. Using linseed, mineral oil and beeswax really helps repair my hands. Your concoction should serve me well. I will add teatree oil, too.

Sugar has also been used to treat wounds for centuries.
 
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Aren't knife-makers, more so men supposed to have rough, hard, callused hands. My wife tells me if I ever show up with soft hands, were getting divorced :foot:
 
My hands used to set off metal detectors and I was still doing fine... these days, they are cracking and painful, like my father's used to be. Does that mean I'm an old man, too?
 
My old man told me a long time ago,put sugar on your boots to keep the ants off your candy butt.
 
Coconut oil is a great lotion as well. At room temp it's a solid, but at body temp it's a liquid.
You can also use it as conditioner and deodorant apparently
 
Oils tend to actually harden my skin and lead to cracking and bleeding (which was fun with an instructor who would only allow us to use oil based lotions on clients). The best thing I have found to keep my hands massage smooth is O'Keefes Working hand lotion. Except that I dry mine out for two weeks before using it (lid off). Makes the cream more dense and stays in the skin better. My clients really don't want loofa hands, and I still hate gloves and occasionally forget.

I like the olive oil/sugar suggestion and will pass it onto friends still in construction. Beats peeing on your hands (although the urea does help, especially for stucco/tile setting/mortar trades where you might be away from civilization for periods at a time, voice of experience past!!)
 
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