Originally Posted By: dougwalkabout
...
When I apply one to clean, dry skin, it falls off in a few hours. I have to put white tape around it to last the day....

Hi,

I learned long ago, as far back as I can remember, unless the bandaid sticks to itself , like a loop around your finger,
the bandaid has no chance of lasting 15 minutes.

What is clean dry skin?

I only learned in the past couple of years, that clean/dry skin means skin sprayed/rubbed with isopropyl rubbing alcohol (50% will do) after being well washed/rubbed with soap and rinsed (once or twice), or after being moisturizing hand sanitizer sanitized.
The rubbing alcohol helps defeat the moisturizer/oils and let the glue stick to dry skin. Inadequate rubbing can defeat rubbing alcohol moisturizer/oils removal properties. A greasy nose might needs two or three soap/rub/hotwater applications plus rubbing alcohol for a bandaid to stick.

Also learned to take skin stretch into account. Apply bandaid when skin isn't at the extremes of stretching, but in between skin stretched as tight as possible, or as loose as possible, closer to tight than to loose. Sometime applying bandaid lengthwise in direction of the bend helps it stay on longer. One or two days is possible.

But,

Going a day or days without changing bandaid on hands seems very suspect.
It gets annoying, but I would change bandaids every time after getting them wet , like washing hands.
I could see changing bandaid once per day,
If you don't use that hand to touch anything in the bathroom,
or dont poop that day,
or use gloves or shower/bidet instead of wiping,
..
or you're using bandaid merely to keep a thick scab /blister/ zit / skin flap from snagging/rubbing open on clothing.


I also used to apply too much antibiotic ointment,
a cotton swab/q-tip comes handy for that,
and bandaids with antibiotic pre-applied also exist.


Don't remember how bandaids were a decade or more ago, but current stickyness seems adequate with rubbing alcohol.

Regardless of the brand,
The stiffer novelty cartoon crinkly (paper or plastic) finger sized bandaids do seem less gooey than more flexy/noncrinkly/cloth(?) types.

Super tiny bandaids always seem under glooed.

Bigger than finger sized bandaids also appear more gooey/sticky than smaller finger bandaids.