The Eczema Glove Has Entered the Chat

It's called fashion, look it up <3

I love fall. It’s by far my favorite season, mainly because my Midwestern body cannot tolerate the heat. Every year, I wait impatiently during those last few weeks of summer for the first chill in the air to signal that it’s finally over.

I’ll admit that fall isn’t really the best season for my body, though. I am one of many, many northerners who struggle with a vitamin D deficiency, and as of late I’m already starting to feel the lack of sun affecting my energy levels.

The other thing this weather does is wreak havoc on my skin. Fall brings a certain crispness to the air that my body’s largest organ just doesn’t like. I’m sure many of you have experienced this too — you can moisturize all you want, and yet the air still finds a way to dry out your skin at every angle. Chapped lips, scaly knuckles, and patches of roughness on your cheeks are just the hallmarks of cooler weather.

But it’s not just dryness that makes this season frustrating. On top of it, the cold air aaaaalllways makes my eczema flare up. I get patches all over my hands and fingers that don’t ever fully heal until the summer. And that’s why I’ve found myself turning to my most, ahem, handy tool lately: the eczema glove.

Behold: The eczema glove.

If you’re unfamiliar with eczema, it’s a chronic condition where your immune system basically gets confused and attacks itself. That dysfunction can cause rashes to can crop up almost anywhere on your skin. Speaking from experience, my rashes will only show up in a few places, and those locations have changed over the years. At the moment it pretty much only affects the skin on my hands — particularly my right hand, smack dab in the middle of my palm.

Everyone with eczema has different triggers, like food sensitivities, stress, reactions to certain fabrics or chemicals, etc. In my case, the dry, cold air is the absolute worst for my skin (seconded by stress).

For most of my life, I’ve carried around a box of band aids in case my eczema gives me trouble. Sometimes, it gets so bad that my skin oozes and bleeds, which is why I have to carry around band aids in the first place. But the frustrating thing is that the band aids don’t always stay on my hands because, well, I actually have to use my hands to do things, which often makes the band aids fall off in the process.

Last year, I bought a pair of fingerless weightlifting gloves from Target after getting frustrated about my band aids always falling off. They were cheap, maybe like $10. But honestly, they’ve been my best solution so far for keeping my hands protected in cold weather.

Sure, I could wear regular gloves, but there are many reasons why I don’t want to. First of all, a lot of the thin, winter gloves I have are made of cheap, synthetic yarns that catch on my scratchy skin and make for a very unpleasant tactile experience. Second, I don’t like the feeling of having all my fingers covered when I’m doing stuff, especially indoors. I like to actually feel what things feel like! Plus, it’s annoying having to pull gloves off whenever you want to use your phone or any other device with a touch screen.

If I was more bold with my fashion choices, I might consider wearing a fancy pair of evening gloves. But people would probably just ask if I’m cosplaying, and I don’t need that kind of attention.

Instead, I highly recommend the humble weightlifting glove. It’s literally designed for activity, which means its made of material that is flexible, durable, and washable. I barely feel it when it’s on my hand, and I’ve gotten so used to the look of it that it’s become part of my fall/winter aesthetic.

In fact, just last week I wore it out to dinner, and a friend asked what was up with the glove. I explained the eczema thing and they were like, “oh, I thought it was a fashion thing.” So whether you have eczema or not, you’re hearing it here first: fingerless weightlifting gloves are the trend of the season.