Chapped Hands

Causes of Chapped Hands

Chapped hands are, of course, the result of your skin being too dry. Some people are more prone to dry hands than others, but almost everyone experiences chapped hands at some point in their lives. The root of the chapped hands problem is that your skin does not have adequate moisture retention capacity. As a consequence, your hands become rough and chapped. The chapping further reduces the moisture retention capacity and this vicious circle results in the problem persisting.

Chapped Hand Care

The remedy is to treat the skin with substances that enhance its moisture-retention capabilities. In early adulthood, our skin cells begin to become more porous and less elastic. When a moisturizer is applied, it hydrates the cells, but the cells quickly lose the moisture. If substances that work synergistically together to restore the skin cells' elasticity are applied to the skin, then as the healing progresses, the cells continue to admit moisture as before, but after the healing are better able to keep it from escaping.

Shea butter is a wonderful agent for revitalizing our skin cells so that they regain their moisture retention capacity. Unrefined shea butter not only contains a high moisturizing fraction, but also contains an extraordinarily high healing fraction. The essential oils that amplify shea butter's effects to heal rough, chapped skin and make the skin softer include Myrrh, Patchouli, Sandalwood.

The following Karite Gold products each contain Shea Butter and one or more of the essential oils that are most efficacious for rough chapped skin, and they are all about equally effective. Click on any of these products to find out more about them.

• Shea Butter with Bergamot and Myrrh   (fragrance: vigorous but unobtrusive)
• Shea Butter with Lavender and Myrrh   (fragrance: light and soothing)
• Shea Butter with Vanilla, Grapefruit and Myrrh   (fragrance: mellow citrous)
• Shea Butter with Ylang-Ylang and Myrrh   (fragrance: pleasantly sweet with seductive undertones)
• Shea Butter with Bergamot and Patchouli   (fragrance: subtley spicey with a hint of the outdoors)
• Shea Butter with Sandalwood and Patchouli   (fragrance: earthy and unpretentious)
• Shea Butter with Ylang-Ylang, Vanilla and Patchouli   (fragrance: fragile yet harmonious)
• Shea Butter with Sandalwood and Lavender   (fragrance: soft and alluring)

To moisturize and heal rough, chapped skin, apply a moderate amount of Karite Gold daily. After you have coated an area of your skin with shea butter, spend some time making sure that the shea butter works its way down under the surface of your skin. Move your fingers in a circular motion as you apply the shea butter.

To learn more about Shea Butter and the essential oils that are used for rough chapped skin, click on the links below:

• Shea Butter
• Myrrh
• Patchouli
• Sandalwood

Alternative Medicine

For an explanation of why this treatment works, we recommend the book Medical Aromatherapy: Healing with Essential Oils by Kurt Schnaubelt. If your skin problem persists, we strongly recommend that you see a medical professional - either a dermatologist or a practioner of wholistic medicine who specializes in skin problems.

Click here to learn about other skin problems, besides chapped hands, that shea butter has been known to help. Click here to go back to the top of this Chapped Hands page.