When I was working on aircraft in the wintertime in Alaska, I put regular petroleum jelly (Vaseline) on my face, ears, and hands. It worked wonders. Also, the point about being hydrate cannot be overstated. The water in your body is just sucked out of you in those temps.

I also get cracked hands and fingertips from working in the winter, I often have to take my hands out of my mitts to handle fish caught by ice fishing. I wear thin polypro gloves inside my Military Artic Snowmobile Mitts but sometimes I have to work bare-handed to increase dexterity.

If my hands are cracked I have had good luck using Polysporin on them. I also put Polysporin on my firestarter cotton balls, I think it makes them extra multiuse (stole this idea for someone else on this forum). I will try out the liquid bandage for use on split fingertips, they are a painful nuisance. I also daily use Blistex Medicated Lip Balm, or Medicated Lip Ointment if they are already chapped.

This winter I bought some Dermatone Skin Protector to try on my hands and face. I think I will also pickup some Dermatone Lip Protector because it has a higher SPF rating.

I will post how it works out,

Mike

Mike -- Don't use the liquid bandage on top of the antibiotic ointment. It won't adhere. Tim

Thanks Tim.

Mike

Thanks for the heads-up on petroleum jelly and liquid bandage, I'll remember those.



I don't mean to derail this thread, but I disagree about covering up totally as being "unrealistic". But it takes dedicated gear. My solution is a neoprene face mask and googles. This will even to some extent work with glases if you are meticuously about a) making sure that the facemask prevents air from your nose to reach your glases and, b) not stressing and take care not to breathe heavily - but really, lenses is the way to go with googles.

Other solutions exist - different face masks, "cold air masks" that heats the air and you name it. Neoprene is the simplest, and it works. A balaclava, scarf or bandana will only work for a limited time in front of your airways before condensation and icing renders them useless.


Most of the time, this isn't nescessary. On foot, a proper hood, hat and something around your neck is plenty about 95% of the time. If you move against strong wind a neoprene mask or equivalent becomes a nescessity.


The only part of your skin that needs to be exposed from time to time is your hands - sometimes there is no way around it, you have to take off your mittens to fix things. If you wear thin inner gloves you can keep the time you have to work bare handed at a minimum. Oh, and only remove one mitten at a time. That way you keep one hand fully operational and minimizes your total heat loss.


Having the gear and knowledge of how to cover your face totally doesn't mean it isn't smart to know what facial creams you can use to protect bare skin. Sometimes, you may find yourself without proper gear, or will prefer to go without it.

+1 on that gear. When I go snowboarding in frigid environments with the freezing winds blowing, it feels almost like a pleasant summer day underneath my neoprene face mask and goggles. I'll add a neck gaiter that fills gaps between my jacket and head gear. My jacket has a liner that fills gaps between my jacket and gloves.

First, I would avoid using Polysporin or any antibiotic perpetration for routine use. I tend to avoid even using it on wounds unless there is reason to believe it is likely to get infected. Infections come from two sources: External to the person, but also fro the person's own skin. If you routinely expose your skin to Polysporin the natural, and ever present, flora on your skin will be resistant to the antibiotics in Polysporin, specifically bacitracin, neomycin, polymyxin-B. If/when those bacteria make it into any wound the Polysporin will be powerless. IMHO it would be better to avoid spreading the antibiotics so widely. I prefer to strangle bacteria in their cribs while they are helplessly naive. It gets harder once they have tattoos, attitudes, and switchblades.

Vaseline and lanolin work. Generic petroleum jelly is usually just as good. You might also try the nurses secret weapon, A&D ointment. It is essentially petroleum jelly with fish oil that speeds healing and seems to be step up from Vaseline for dry skin and protection from the weather. I've used it instead of antibiotic ointment for cuts and burns. Seems to speed healing a bit. No antibiotics to worry about and if the wound leeks like it might be infected I can always switch to the standard triple antibiotic mix.

A&D ointment is also closely related to hemorrhoid creme and is similarly good or soothing red and inflamed tissues.

"A&D ointment is also closely related to hemorrhoid creme and is similarly good or soothing red and inflamed tissues."

Well, what the heck, Preparation H started out as a burn ointment, didn't sell, got remarketed for hemorrhoids, and the rest is history.

So, we all ready to rub our faces with Prep H? Probably would work.

Tim

I'll take a ski mask, thank you.

For me from spending copious amounts of time outdoors snowmobiling, ice fishing and XC skiing in the winter I recommend the following equation:

No mustache = chapped lips

mustache = no chapped lips