I don't know about you southern guys, but up here in the frozen north, every winter it seems, small splits in the skin appear as the temperature tends to be below freezing most of the time. In addition, because I play the NH circuit nearly every day, I tend to wash my hands a lot more, often right after I finish a job and climb into the van. I use Wet-Ones hand wipes, which seem to do a good job of preventing my from contracting something from all the individuals that want to shake my hand after a performance. I also wipe my face with the wipes - yeah those old gals love to give you a big kiss as well.

Consequently, your hands take a real beating, and tiny, painful, splits form along the edges of my index and thumb nails. And of course, you get chapped lips going from the warm to cold, nothing unusual. One day, after applying some lip balm to my lips, I decided to apply it to the tiny splits along the edges of my nails - it worked. Within two days the splits were completely healed. I had been suffering with them for months and tried Bacctracin, Zink Ointment, and a host of other remedies, none of which did a thing.

Thought you northern guys that suffer with this sort of malady might want to know.

Gary