UKC

With a lot of enhanced hand washing, the skin on my hands is getting unusually dry.  It’s slowly dawning on me that 2-3 more months of this is going to leave me with very dry, cracked skin prone to infection with a worst case outcome of sepsis.

What do heavy hand washers recommend as the moisturising routine and material of choice?

Wash hands and then immediately use hand cream.  As you say cracked skin would be a bad idea.  

Nutrogena Norwegian hand cream is as good as anything else and it is concentrated so you don't need much. 

Any moisturiser is fine though, it doesn't really matter that much.  Use whatever you have.  

I also like childs farm products which you can find in the baby section of the shops.  

If they do crack then look for something with urea, foot cream or Garnier hydro lock.  

I worked in a food factory briefly many years ago and we were taught how to wash hands and lotion afterwards was part of this.  

What are you washing with? Soap? Or detergent-based hand wash?

Soap will be more drying. Hand wash for medics usually includes moisturiser.

The disinfectant foam we've introduced at work also includes some moisturiser.

Soap at home, soap and ethanol gel at different works. 
 

Switch to a detergent hand wash, then. I'm surprised that bar soap is still used in works premises; almost universally replaced by detergent hand wash dispensers.

Personally I prefer soap followed by lotion.  I have sensitive skin and I'm prone to eczema.  I find a lot of liquid handwashes contain harsh detergents which set it off.

Bar soap comes in cardboard boxes instead of plastic bottles too.  I can see why companies prefer dispensers but at home I prefer soap.  

Sorry I was assuming the stuff coming out of the dispensers at work was liquid soap - I actually have no idea what it is or how it differs from “soap”.

To better clarify - bar soap at home, dispenser based orange gunk at one work and ethanol gel at another.

Edit:  the type of soap at work is rapidly going to become academic I suspect.

Another vote for the Neutrogena Norwegian formula concentrated stuff. Comes in a non-scented version.

As a neonatal nurse I use to wash my hands 8-12 times an hour. The liquid soap in hospital had a moisturiser in it and the paper towels were of a high quality. Soft and not abrasive. Separate hand moisturiser was also provided. Despite all this my hands would occasionally get red sore, particularly in the winter. Cracked skin is an infection risk.

Soap and detergent are chemically different. Should you wish to investigate further...

https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Organic_Chemistry/Supplemental_Modu...

Another vote for Neutragena Norwegian formula... or Decathlon do a similar Simond climbers repair cream. Both are unscented and concentrated so you don't need to use much. Tubes lasts ages. 

O'Keeffes working hand cream.

https://www.okeeffesco.co.uk/products/okeeffes-working-hands/

Aveeno is my brand of choice. The blue labelled skin relief moisturising stuff. Apply throughout the day as necessary and before bed.

My hands are bad enough most of the year from constant washing (microbiology lab work) but even worse in winter when they tend to crack and bleed.

Yes ive already found my hands getting sore from obsessive washing, so have bought bog standard cheap hand creme for work as its getting washed off that quickly I don't think the good stuff has time to work its magic.

Wear gloves full of vaseline.

My Mum was a nurse and suffered from cracked hands a lot. Her remedy was to put a load of hand cream on and then do the washing up with rubber gloves on - the heat helps it soak in. She was also known to go to bed with another load and cotton gloves on, so it soaked in overnight.

I'm a big fan of Neutrogena un-scented.

My wife bought me some of the O'Keefe's Working Hands stuff linked to above, but I haven't found it as good.

You could also look for stuff with lanolin in it, such as the Lano range, but I personally find that doesn't soak in very well and is very sticky until it does.

To keep them soft for the wife?

Diprobase cream here. Mainly because I've got a massive can of the stuff still sitting on my desk from last year.

The really miraculous stuff is pure shea butter but you'd have to go to a shop to buy it, unless you can order it online.