Survive The Honey-Do Weekend

(ARA) – As you work to complete your "honey do" list, you may be finding that your hands are having to get bandaged up because they are cracked and the skin is splitting. For those who work with their hands, cracked fingers and splitting thumbs are a problem that exists throughout the year.

“Your skin is 90 something percent water and in order to heal, there need to be live cells reproducing, and in order to reproduce they need to be hydrated. The problem with most hand lotions is that they contain oils. While they make your skin feel good and soft, they will prevent hydration because they repel water,” says Tara O’Keeffe, inventor of O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand crème, a product she developed after graduating from pharmacy school to help her rancher father who was plagued by severe splits and cracks on the skin of his hands and feet.

“Dad’s skin was so dry it cracked and bled, and it hurt to shake hands,” remembers O’Keeffe. “But within a week of starting to use the formulation I had developed, his bleeding hands were cured.”

O’Keefe’s Working Hands Crème contains a combination of primarily water and glycerin that hydrates the skin, stimulates its growth and traps moisture in the top layers of the skin without being oily. After Bill O’Keeffe started telling others about his success with the cream, word quickly spread, and so did demand. What started 12 years ago as a kitchen-counter project has evolved into an expanding business that has produced and shipped several million jars from their facility in Sisters, Ore.

Initially, O’Keeffe’s Working Hands was sold primarily in the cosmetics aisle at such stores as Walgreens, but has recently started showing up at home improvement stores like Lowe’s, as well as farm stores like Tractor Supply. It’s also sold online through the company Web site: www.okeeffescompany.com.

In addition to using Working Hands daily, here are some other things people who work with their hands should do to protect themselves from injury:

* Wear gloves when working in the yard to avoid coming in contact with poison ivy, poison oak, or poison sumac. Many people get an itchy rash if they touch these plants or the clothes or tools that contacted the plants. If you do accidentally make contact, don’t touch other parts of your body with your hands or with clothes or equipment that have touched the plant.

* When you’re outdoors, there’s always the possibility of a close encounter with a wasp, bee, or other insect that stings or bites. Most insect bites and stings are just uncomfortable. Apply ice to relieve the swelling and use calamine lotion, hydro-cortisone cream, or a paste made of baking soda to relieve the itching. If you’re allergic to insect stings, try to remove the stinger as quickly as possible with your fingernail.

Taking these precautions will make completion of that "honey do" list all the more satisfying. And if you do your “Honey Do’s” well, you may end up getting a well deserved back rub!

Courtesy of ARAcontent