The importance of clean

I'm somewhere in the middle. I am a very hands on collector, and I handle my dolls almost daily. I've never worn gloves and find it highly unnecessary overall. My hands stay mostly clean, so I don't go scrub before touching my dolls, unless I feel dirty, like if I have food, makeup, paint or chemicals on me. However, I am also pretty careful to keep a clean house. I vacuum, do laundry, dust, clean the kitchen/bathroom and organize weekly. Any spills or messes are cleaned up immediately. I have no kids, just a Rat Terrier, and aside from shedding, she's very clean and doesn't bother the dolls, neither does my husband. I keep my dolls either in a bedroom designated "the doll room" or in my sewing room--both places where food and drink or anything messy does not go, and it's extremely rare that anyone besides me goes in there. So I guess for me the "line" falls between regular handling with relatively clean hands is fine, but anything that would put dirt, grime, oil or anything else messy on the dolls that can't easily be removed with a magic eraser is not okay. I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but mostly I do my own faceups/blushing, so if one does get chipped, it's not really a huge deal to fix it.

 

Even though I'm a total "neat freak", and pretty protective of my crew, I absolutely refuse to wear gloves while I'm handling my dolls... Like you OP, I depend a lot on being able to actually feel what I'm handling. I need that tactile feedback or I turn into a hopeless klutz. (It's exactly the same reason why I don't wear gloves when I'm gardening. I end up being scratched and stabbed by my rose bushes and berry canes a lot less often if I'm *not* wearing protective gear, odd as that may sound.) Gloves just seems to wreck my manual dexterity.

That said, I DO wash my hands before I take anyone out of the cabinets to tinker with... That's just a common sense precaution given how many different things we all handle in the course of the day and how much gunk we can end up carting around on our hands as a result..

 

I tend not to wear gloves unless I'll be touching the faceup, or any other heavily painted area. I do however wash my hands before, though. After ten years in this hobby I have learnt that touching them isn't the end of the world. But, I take extra care with faceups because the oil on our skin can effect it.

I also wear one glove if I'm fixing wig, eyes, etc. That way the gloved hand can touch the face (if need be) and the ungloved hand can do whatever needs to be done. XD

 

Glad to help. ^.^ About the hands (though I know this is offtopic, apologies)...are you sure it is the water giving you blisters? I have rather bad eczema and will get them all down my fingers/palms of my hands. Some lotion meant for eczema may help with that. If it is that, it probably isn't the water rather the soap.

 

Eesh, that sounds horrid! Soap is the worst for that I find. Mine always gets much worse if I have to constantly wash mine so I feel your pain. :< And yes, we are everywhere...unfortunately.

But, yes. Try the one glove trick, it works wonders for me! :3

 

I always thought using gloves were unnecessary. These dolls are stronger than we give them credit for and as long as your hands aren't greasy, it should be fine. While hand oils do damage resin, it's more-so over time as the oils accumulate.

This is a little off-topic but have you tried using Goat's Milk Soap? I've heard it actually does wonders for people with eczema. Here's a link to some of the soaps that may help. If you happen to try it and it works, hopefully you won't have to wear gloves anymore.

 

I have excessively sweaty hands, so much so that it can be detrimental if I'm not careful while doing any artwork or crafting with paper as it will warp in mere seconds if I'm not paying attention to where my hands are and what they are doing at all times.

While I've considered the possibility of only touching my dolls with gloves on, I find it's just too much of a hassle. I'll handle my dolls without fear when it comes to touching parts that are covered by their clothes, or if they have no body blushing. However, one of my dolls has all-over body blushing, and I plan to give the others in the crew the same treatment (eventually.) I've thus resorted to either A using my knuckles to touch spots or move parts that are painted/blushed/sealed, or B using the fabric of their clothes or the hair on their wigs to put a material in between my skin and the resin when moving various painted/blushed/sealed parts. Both of these methods seem to work pretty well. :v

When it comes to faceups I've learned that I HAVE to wear gloves, as even holding their faces with my fingertips for 5 seconds will smear everything that I came into contact with. It's a hassle, but it's livable.

 

I newer wear gloves but washed my hands before touching them. Even they are not dirty , the skin reduces oil to keep the skin well moistoired.
I only use handcream when i go to bed not during the day because then i need to wash them even more to get the cream off ^^

 

I don't wear gloves ever, but I also hardly handle my dolls and when I do I'm usually touching the clothed parts or when moving the head, I grab them near the ears over the wig. I don't touch the face and I don't go around with dirty hands anyway. If the gloves are causing this much drama, definitely ditch them.

 

I don't wear gloves-- gloves in general drive me crazy, so unless I absolutely need them for some reason, I don't use 'em. I've only had a couple of pairs of winter gloves that didn't irritate me too much to wear when dealing with weather.

I do like to have clean hands when I'm handling a doll, but then, I like to have clean hands in general. If I just have to move a doll from one spot to another, I hold them where they're dressed anyway, but if I'm going to be seriously working with (or seriously cuddling with, if it's that kind of a day) any doll, I wash up first, make sure nothing's gotten on my shirt if I'm going to be holding a doll against my body, just generally ensure that I'm not a greasy/oily mess for any reason.

 

I wear gloves only when I'm handling other people's dolls and when I'm doing face-ups. I spray coat all my dolls so the resin won't be in direct touch with anything bad, and when the coating gets dirty it can be just cleaned off and re-applied. Though, I have a bad habit I got from drawing a lot: I wash my hands all the time. So my hands are clean but my skin doesn't like me. : /

 

I always wash my hands before touching my dolls or their stuff, as I am an obsessive hand-washer in general, being obsessed by germs as I am *sigh* But I have very delicate, dry skin, so I always slather on a GOOD moisture cream (many of them are totally useless!) I end up washing off the moisture cream 5 mins later when I 'need' to wash my hands again, so I get through a ton of both soap and moisture cream (and now I'm on a water meter, I am dreading my water bill too!) But I would not skip the moisture cream - my hands would be cracked and bleeding in no time.

If like you I had eczema, I would put plenty of cream on EVERY time you wash your hands, even if it has to be washed off a minute later, and wear silicone gloves rather than cotton ones to handle your dolls - they type they use in hospital as disposables. I am guessing you are allergic to latex too? If you google 'hospital grade disposable gloves' there's a lot of different types - some containing powder, some vinyl, some powder free, etc. so have a look for some which suit you and if they are tight fitting you should be able to feel things even with them on

 

I tend to wash my hands before handling my dolls if there's oils or traces of moisturiser on them, or if they're sweaty. Oil (including the oils in moisturiser) and sweat can discolour or even damage resin, so I try to not get those on my dolls. I don't like wearing gloves, though, so I only do that to protect my skin when working with epoxy or glue or the like. Not for handling dolls.

 

I never wear gloves handling my dolls. I totally understand why people do it, but it would suck all the joy out of handling them for me if I had to take precautions each time I picked one up. As long as your hands are washed regularly, you should be good, and honestly my biggest worry when touching them is the moisturizer I use after washing my own hands to prevent dry skin!