Roger Bisby thinks he’s found the answer to a perennial problem facing builders’ hands.
They used to say, back in the day, that when the revolution comes everyone will have to hold out their hands and those with soft hands will be stood up against the wall and shot.
A tad extreme, I grant you, but I always knew I would be safe from the firing squad.
Like many builders I spent far too many years handling cement without gloves and it has caused irreversible damage. These days my skin splits as soon as I look at cement and of course it is always far worse in the winter.
The top products to do my hands in are any cement based products and, strangely, pressure treated timber which seems to draw the moisture like blotting paper.
Often when I have been handling those materials all day I am woken up in the night with the pain from those deep cuts in my thumbs.
If you know that one feel free to sing along – anything that can help heal the damage and gives me a good night’s sleep is worth a try.
O’Keeffe’s Working Hands hand cream is a lot cheaper than some hand creams I use. It is in my merchants for a fiver a tub and that certainly isn’t going to keep me awake at night.
Even better I discovered that you don’t need to use much so it last quite a while. One tub lasted me eight days. Just keep it in your pocket and dab a little on through the day.
After a couple of days I noticed a marked difference, I felt human again. I was so pleased that I grabbed another couple of tubs next time I was in the merchants so I now have one in the van, one in my tool bag and another one at home.
It is a non-greasy cream so I can put it on and settle down to the computer keyboard or even put some on when I am sitting in traffic jams without it making the steering wheel slippery.
To say I am delighted with this product is an understatement. I have no idea who O’Keeffe is but if I ever meet him or her I will shake them by the hand.