6 mistakes that could be making your dry hands worse

A close up of woman washing her hands in bubbly water with a white bar of soap, alongside another close up of a woman applying cream to her hands to illustrate mistakes made when tackling dry hands/ in a pink watercolour template.

Winter is the season of cosy nights in, chunky knitwear, deep red lipstick and - slightly less glamorously - dry hands.

So why is it that we’re so much more reliant on our best hand creams in the colder months than we are during the summer? "Hands are exposed to the elements more than other parts of the body, and are often cold or wet as a consequence," says Dr Julian Peace, a doctor specialising in dermatology and working as an advisor for E45. "There are also fewer sebaceous glands than in other areas – sebaceous glands are found in hair-bearing skin, and our palms in particular are seldom hairy." Without sebaceous glands to produce oil, the skin is less able to retain moisture, leading to tightness, roughness and even cracking.