Hand wringing

Here's how I know I am a pretty vain person: one of my favorite things about Fall is what the crisp dry air does for my hair. Seriously, I never have more consistently good hair days than during Fall. Last week I got a haircut and freshened up my henna (read my review of the henna here; it's awe-some!) and we've had a stretch of nice arid days and it turns out I won't have to dress as Albert Einstein for Halloween after all!

My hands, though, are a different story. As the weather starts to change, the skin on my hands will feel a little tight. Then it will start to itch. Then the dryness will get so bad that my knuckles turn red and chapped and start to split.

Jeezus, somebody get this girl some hand lotion!! I know, right? It's not like I've never had dry skin before. I've always had dry skin. So why do I let it get so bad before busting out the Lubriderm?

Not this year. Gaining many years' worth of wisdom over the last twelve months has motivated me to take better care of my body. The constant, dooming fear of lymph edema is plenty good reason NOT to let my hands get chapped and irritated. The last thing I need to is to trigger an inflammation response because I was too lazy to use some hand cream!

It's a good time to see what's out there for natural, effective remedies for dry skin. Winter is coming! (hahahaha, couldn't help myself)

Here are some good options from national store brands:

• Aveeno's Skin Relief Hand Cream gets a really good '2' rating from EWG (FYI, it's petroleum-based)
• Lubriderm also scores a '2' for their Daily Moisture Lotion (also petroleum-based)
• St Ives landed a '2' for their petroleum-based, fragrance-free Intensive Healing Hand Cream

Some other options:

• SanRe Organic Skinfood Silky Hands Shea Butter Hydrating Hand Moisturizer has a really long name but a really low score
• JR Watkins Naturals' Lemon Hand & Cuticle Salve has only 7 ingredients and a '2' rating

And a kind-of-but-not-really surprise: 

• L'Occitane de Provence still sells 100% pure, organic shea butter (which gets a wonderful '0' rating from EWG), BUT...
• ...the company's other shea butter products (Body Lotion, Ultra Rich Body Cream, Dry Skin Hand Cream, others) get a horrible, horrible '8' in the Skin Deep rating system. Even their Shea Butter Extra-Gentle Lotion for Hands & Body is rated a 7!

I usually turn to Eucerin Plus Intensive Repair Hand Creme, which works like magic and comes in a great 3-pack at my local wholesale club. BUT, the alpha hydroxy and parabens mean it's rated a 4 in the Skin Deep database (on a scale of 1 to 10), just a touch too toxic for my taste. I'll let you know what I settle on for a replacement.

Yours in Fall fun,
Jazzy