Vinegar is an astringent and will only further dry out your skin. In fact dermatologists recommend you don’t use astringents even on oily skin, as it is far too drying and irritating even then.
And especially if you have dry or sensitive skin, but really anybody, don’t use any lotions or creams with fragrance or perfume! Not even natural or essential oil fragrances – they’re still made up of the same kinds of volatile compounds. Why? Fragrance/perfume is drying and irritating to skin whether or not you have a visible or tactile reaction. It also has a sensitising effect in many people – ie, an irritation reaction that gets worse over time as you use fragranced products. They are often listed on ingredients lists as ‘parfum’. Note that this does not mean you can never wear perfume – a dab on your wrists or neck now and then does not have the same effect as regularly using one or more products that contain fragrance.
But even worse are creams and lotions etc that contain substances like alcohols (ethanol and the like), camphor, menthol (peppermint or other mints), eucalyptus, sandalwood, and so on. These seem like they have a calming effect on irritated skin, but in fact what they do is provide a counter-irritant. Your nerve endings ‘hear’ the reaction to the applied irritant and you stop feeling the original itch or pain, they feel like they’re cancelling each other out or you might feel a ‘cooling’ or ‘tingling’ effect, but in fact you’re just getting a double dose of irritant. Avoid these ingredients like the plague! Men’s aftershaves are among the worst offenders…putting alcohol, menthol, etc on freshly-shaved skin is about the worst thing you can do for it. Also bad are cosmetics and creams that claim the ‘tingling freshness’ you can feel are signs that it’s working.
If you like the mood-enhancing and pleasant mental state that fragrances give, use scented candles, oil burners, pot pourri, etc, where and when you usually perform your ‘toilette’. Your skin will thank you. Here is a good article on how to treat your skin gently.
Specifically for dry cracked skin, try not to soak in water, and after you wash your hands or have a shower, don’t rub harshly with a towel, dab gently, and apply a good moisturiser straight away. There have been some good suggestions made, like using extra-virgin olive oil – very emollient! Here’s another article (also from Paula Begoun) on treating dry hands. (I have no association whatsoever with the site or company, I am just a fan of their products and have found their advice to be consistently good and backed up by actual evidence, not grandiose claims based on unscientific “studies”.)
Sorry this post got a bit long, but we harpists and harpers really need to treat our hands nice!
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