At the moment, the world is a mess. The COVID-19 pandemic has got us all washing our hands a lot more. Most people are carrying hand gel around with them which contains alcohol. Whilst this is great for disinfecting your hands on the go, the alcohol is really not good for your skin. It’s leaving a lot of people with dry, chapped and in some cases, bloody hands.

How to look after your hands during COVID-19

I have just started a temporary job at a supermarket. I have been put on the checkouts, so I am in a customer facing role and I am having to handle all of their shopping. Although we have requested that people use their cards to pay as much as possible, some still have to use cash. Whenever I handle any cash, I will use hand gel. I also use the hand gel after every few customers. As you can imagine, my hands have become a dry, sore mess. Luckily, I’ve been treating them with a few products that I have picked up from Notino.

Washing your hands

Whilst the antibacterial hand gels are great when you’re on the go, nothing beats washing your hands properly. Using normal soap and water is the best way to get rid of any germs on your hands. It is recommended that you wash your hands for at least 20 seconds to ensure that they are thoroughly cleaned. You can also listen to the UK government and sing ‘Happy Birthday’ twice while you do it.

Any hand soap is fine to use, but I have been loving these two from Dove. I picked up a pouch of the Nourishing Secrets Glowing Ritual hand wash and the Caring Shea Butter with Warm Vanilla hand wash. These are both in pouches so that you can refill your bottles. They use 80% less plastic and the packaging is recyclable. Each pouch will refill a normal hand wash bottle twice. The Caring hand wash has a moisturising cream in the formula which keeps the moisture locked in when you wash your hands.

Moisturising your hands

It doesn’t matter what soap you’re using, if you are washing your hands a lot they will end up getting dry. I have got to the point where I have cried because my hands hurt so bad when I wash them. To make sure that this doesn’t happen again, I’ve really stepped up my hand care.

I have been using moisturising hand masks. This Hand Moisture Pack by Kocostar is a twenty minute treatment. You simply place your hands in the gloves and let the moisturiser do its job. If you can’t go twenty minutes without your phone, then don’t worry because you can still use your touch screen with these on!

My favourite product which I keep in my handbag is the Neutrogena Hand Cream. I have bought this a few times before, it’s a really heavy duty cream which really moisturises your hands. I get instant relief from using this and try to use it as much as possible. It’s not always possible to use a hand cream at work, but I’ll keep it in my pocket in case I get a spare couple of minutes to use it.

How have you been looking after your hands during the pandemic?