UKC

I've recently noticed that I'm shedding a lot of skin from my hands and fingers; I've only been climbing for 4 months now, and to begin with the only things I noticed was developing more callouses or building up more on the callouses I already have. More recently in the past couple of weeks I've had a lot of skin on the tips, sides of my fingers and thumbs and on other parts of my hands just lift up and peel off. Annoyingly I've a small split just on the side of one thumb next to the nail as the upper layers of the skin on the top and side of my thumb came away. I take it this is pretty normal but what can I do to make things better? I already moisturise my hands, I do have cotton gloves for intensive moisturiser on my hands while I sleep and I try and do it soon after I have been climbing. I do sand my callouses down as I have found they build up and could get snagged.

I suspect chalk may be one thing to consider - I use a lot as unfortunately I do get sweaty hands especially if I'm a bit nervous as I climb but would chalk be something that compounds the sweaty hands by overdrying my hands or is that a myth?

Thank you.

In reply to PamPam:

It could be ezcema?

In reply to PamPam:

Well there's the problem I think, moisturising! The thought of that makes me shudder...
It happens to me too, and probably everyone who climbs at some point, that you build up callouses and if you don't climb for a period of time and wear them off (when they can come back stronger and more useful) they will flake off, since it is just hard dead skin. Moisturising and subjecting them to long soaks in water will speed up this process. So I suppose the answer is either stop moisturising and keep climbing or keep doing what you are doing and just have callouses that you lose
I get it when I dont climb or train for a week or so.

In reply to AMorris:


^^This. Yes, it's normal.

In reply to PamPam:

Yeah, stop moisturizing. If you climb you will have hands like a steel worker, end of.

In reply to PamPam:

A lot of people seem to report eczema when using chalk containing drying agents particularly that marketed as superchalk.

In reply to Jon Stewart:

Yup, about 10 days after a week away climbing, when you get back to the daily grind, and don't get out again for a while!

In reply to PamPam:

Conventional hand lotions tend to have a fair amount of water in, which softens the skin. You might want to experiment with switching to a more waxy/greasy type balm, like Climb On or other balms marketed specifically at climbers -- or like Elizabeth Arden Eight Hour Cream, long the secret weapon of many boulderers (I kid you not). Those are also great for healing skin splits and cracks.

In reply to slab_happy:

Thanks. I think I will give that a go. I completely forgot that my hands don't cope well with stuff that draws moisture out of the skin - I used to work in a shop where I'd handle plaster and cement, combined with winter where my hands suffer I used to get really bad hacks on my hands. Been so long since I've had that happen. I might find a chalk that doesn't have a drying agent in it and see if that helps too.

Callouses don't bother me, I know they are part and parcel of climbing and I already had some from using dumbells and pull up bars long before I began climbing.

In reply to PamPam:

I get this a lot....get some sandpaper and sand your tips down every now and then. I don't think moisturiser is an issue.....if my hands are dry they just soak it up.....even throughout the climbing day.

In reply to Removed UserArdverikie2:

Yeah, superchalk trashes my skin, nasty stuff...

In reply to PamPam:

I'd reccomend using Climb On climbers hand balm. After climbing wash the chalk off your hands as best you can, then once home wash them again. Then get a small amount coating most of the skin of your fingers and let it soak in. Climb On I find to soak in the slowest, but do the best job. I've tried Climb Skin but it didn't seem to do anything for me. It soaked in really quickly, but I might as well have used some crap from Boots. Climb On FTW.

In reply to PamPam:

As mentioned by others - it might be the drying agent in the chalk. I only use pure chalk otherwise my hands start to fall apart, same with a few of my friends.

In reply to PamPam:

I got some new chalk at the start of the year and after a while my hands started falling apart. Took me a while to realise it was the new chalk doing this and even went to the docs for some steroid cream as they were blistering! I switched back to plain old chalk and my hands have been fine since.

In reply to Ysgo:
Thanks. I had heard about Climb On but didn't think a balm for climbing specifically would be that different. I bought some though to give it a try as one of the lads I climb with is having similar bother with his hands too. In the interim I've used my Body Shop hemp hand cream as it's more oil based than the one I had been using and has helped. I've bought a purer chalk as well to see how cutting down on the drying agent helps and stop the awful chalk slime I get when my hands decide to start they are going to be the conduits for all water excretion from by body if I'm at a tricky bit or I'm just a tad nervous! I should be thankful my hands only get sweaty when I'm climbing but it's like some bit of me is determined to self-sabotage my efforts!

In reply to PamPam:


All the research I can find on this seems to show an increase in skin friction with moisture - which is presumably why your hands sweat when you're scared - so that bit of you is actually trying to help.

In reply to PamPam:


From what I understand it's all natural ingredients, everything is food grade so it's technically edible. Also it's not watered down. Most moisturisers from Boots etc have water or Aqua as a main ingredient. It's just there so they can use a bigger bottle to sell the same amount of the useful stuff. Personally I like the fact that when it's absorbed into my skin, and then into my entire system, it's all healthy natural stuff.

Also it's main ingredient is beeswax which keeps the skin moist, but is a barrier against microbes etc.

In reply to PamPam:

There's a new brand of climbing balms called Monkey Fist which are natural and really good. Not as sticky as Climb On and absorb really well. Using a nail file on the callouses really helps before they get too thick

In reply to slab_happy:


I'd agree but check the inrgedients first. One or two of the more recent brands of climber's hand balms have "Aqua" as the main ingredient so may be no better than what you're using. I love the way they think we're too daft to ralise that's just water, albeit probably deionised.

In reply to Ysgo:

Oh for sure. I gave up on products with SLS and other things in them a good few years ago. Best thing I did.

In reply to PamPam:

Using a food grade chalk might help too. (Yes, such a thing exists.)

In reply to PamPam:

Try not using chalk at all for a while and see if the problem goes away. Most of us are overly dependent on the stuff anyway. Some very good climbers have gone chalk-free (the Clean Hand Gang).