Hand care for figure skaters (or anyone who spends time in the cold)

Ok, this post is a little different to the kinds of things I usually blog about, but it's getting to that time of year where the combination of the freezing cold ice rink and my centrally-heated home, plus pulling on rough laces three times a week, is beginning to show on my poor fingers.

It's probably not just me with this problem, so I thought I'd share with you some of my favourite products.

An important thing to note is you really shouldn't use harsh scrubs or products on cracked skin, but I do as long as it's not broken to the point of bleeding. I'm not advising you from a medical/dermatological point of view, purely from skater to skater and sharing my personal favourites.

It's important all year round to look after your hands, after all, they do a lot of hard work on a daily basis. The skin on the hands and feet is thicker than other parts of the body, which is why you can get away with more when it comes to using household cleaning products etc. But in the winter (and especially in the cold rink) they need a little extra help.

1) My favourite all-round hand cream has to be Hand Food by Soap and Glory. This contains Shea Butter, Macadamia Oil and marshmallow (!) - and no, you can't eat it, as tasty as it may smell.

I use Hand Food on a daily basis. All hand creams work best just after you've washed your hands as they're designed to lock in moisture. The best time to do that is after your hands have been wet (but thoroughly dried too), because they've just absorbed water into the skin. The cream will then lock that in. This is especially true for oily products.