How to manage peeling skin on your fingers

Washing your hands too frequently, exposing them to cold, dry weather, or not moisturizing them regularly can cause the skin on your fingers to dry, crack, and peel. Avoiding overwashing your hands, protecting them from the weather, and moisturizing them with creams and ointments may help stop the skin from peeling.

But if this treatment doesn’t improve your symptoms or they worsen, consider contacting a doctor. They can determine whether there is an underlying condition causing your skin to peel and recommend the most appropriate treatment.

Eczema

Hand eczema may cause skin peeling. Eczema is the result of general inflammation of your skin. People with hand eczema may also experience other symptoms, including:

• itching
• skin irritation
• cracked skin
• pain

While genetics plays a role in the development of eczema, it may also occur after exposure to certain chemicals or substances. Stress may also play a role. If you think you may have eczema or experience its symptoms, you may consider contacting a doctor.

Treatments

Doctors may prescribe moisturizing creams and topical medications to help treat eczema. Examples include:

• Topical steroids like hydrocortisone (Cortef), triamcinolone (Trivaris), and betamethasone (Sernivo).
• Topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCIs), like pimecrolimus (Elidel) and tacrolimus (Protopic).
• Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors like ruxolitinib (Opzelura).

Knowing what triggers your hand eczema and avoiding contact with them can help prevent it. If you need to handle something that contains a known trigger, you can wear gloves to help prevent your skin from coming into contact with it.

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Allergies

People may develop skin peeling due to an allergic reaction. This may include allergies to certain metals within some type of jewelry, like nickel, or harsh chemicals in cleaning products.

If you have latex allergies, you may develop an allergic reaction in which the skin of your hands swells, itches, and starts peeling. This may happen if you wear gloves containing latex.

Other symptoms you may experience if you have an allergic reaction may include:

• skin rash
• blisters
• burning sensation

Treatments

The treatment for peeling skin on the hands due to allergy depends on the type and severity of the allergy. Preventing exposure to the allergens that can trigger your allergic reaction is key.

Doctors may recommend using antihistamines, which help stop allergic reactions. They’re usually available over the counter, but you can also get them on prescription. Common examples include:

• diphenhydramine (Benadryl)
• cetirizine (Zyrtec)
• loratadine (Claritin)
• fexofenadine (Allegra)

Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a chronic inflammatory skin condition in which your skin cells grow and regenerate faster than usual. People with psoriasis may develop silvery scaly plaques and other lesions on their bodies, including their hands and fingers, and certain things may trigger it.

There is no cure for psoriasis, but many treatments are available to help manage it and improve symptoms.

Treatments

Psoriasis treatment can vary depending on the severity of your symptoms how much of your body requires treatment. This may include:

• Topical treatment: Doctors may prescribe medications such as topical ointments, corticosteroids, and coal tar to treat psoriasis locally. Examples include:
  • calcipotriene (Calcitrene)
  • flurandrenolide (Cordran)
  • salicylic acid
• Phototherapy: This uses UV radiation to target areas with moderate to severe psoriasis to treat scales and the other symptoms of psoriasis. Phototherapy is typically effective and can provide a significant improvement in psoriasis.
• Biological therapy: Doctors may recommend this treatment when other types of management have not provided any benefits. Biological therapy targets the way skin cells grow, which may provide relief from the immune system inflammation that typically occurs in people with psoriasis. These include:
  • etanercept (Enbrel)
  • golimumab (Simponi)
  • adalimumab (Humira)

A doctor can recommend the most appropriate treatment for psoriasis based on your health conditions.

Vitamin deficiencies

In some cases, vitamin deficiencies can cause peeling skin on your fingers.

If you have a niacin deficiency, which is when you don’t consume enough vitamin B3, you might develop a condition called pellagra. One of the key symptoms of this condition is dermatitis, particularly on your hands, which can cause peeling skin on your fingers.

Pellagra can also cause dementia and diarrhea, and it may even be life threatening in severe cases. However, it’s very uncommon as people can generally get enough vitamin B3 from their diet.

Treatment

The main way to treat a niacin deficiency is by increasing your intake of niacin. At first, doctors recommend taking nicotinamide — which contains niacin — at a dose of 250 to 500 milligrams (mg) per day.

Afterward, ensuring you’re eating a balanced diet rich in vitamin B3 is important. Recommended foods include:

• beef
• pork
• eggs
• fish
• avocado
• peanuts
• sunflower seeds

Dry skin

If you notice skin peeling off your fingers, it may be a sign of dry skin. This is more common during winter, as the cold and dry weather can cause dryness in your hands and fingers as well as other parts of your body, like your lips, that may have more frequent exposure to the atmospheric agents.

Having hot baths or showers may also increase the risk of dry skin.

Treatments

If you have dry skin, moisturizing it and keeping yourself hydrated can help improve its moisture and prevent peeling. Avoiding hot showers and baths and using soaps for sensitive skin may also help prevent further skin dryness.

Overwashing hands

Frequently washing your hands with soap can cause dry skin. This can cause the skin to crack and peel. Using soap when you wash your hands removes the natural protective oils of your skin. These oils play an important role in keeping your skin moist.

When you repeatedly wash your hands with soap, you remove the protective oils from your skin, which causes it to lose its ability to hold in moisture. This can lead to conditions such as dry skin and dermatitis.

This is very common in healthcare workers like nurses, who must wash their hands very frequently due to the nature of their jobs. This came into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

One 2020 study into healthcare workers and hand eczema during the pandemic notes that 50% experienced hand eczema and that washing hands more than 20 times per day was a risk factor for developing it.

Treatments

Doctors may recommend that people with skin peeling on their fingers due to frequent handwashing limit the number of times they wash their hands to only when necessary. They should also moisturize their skin afterward.

People should also avoid using rough paper towels to dry their hands as this may cause additional irritation and skin peeling.

Summary

Peeling skin on your fingers is usually not a cause of concern. Dry skin can peel, which you can treat by applying moisturizers to your hands. The skin of your fingers may also peel after you have been in contact with a substance you are allergic to. Washing your hands frequently and taking hot showers or baths may also cause dry skin.

Still, if the skin on your fingers looks flaky, this may be due to an underlying condition, such as psoriasis or eczema. If your symptoms do not improve by keeping your skin moisturized, you may consider speaking with a doctor.

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