Skip to main content

How To Clean Greasy Hands and More with These Tips and Tricks

Dirty hands might feel like badges of honor after a hard day’s work. Whether they're the result of running up a mountain, breaking your bench press record at the gym, tuning up a motorcycle, or renovating your backyard, your hands can become deeply soiled in a way that no mere 30-second scrub session is going to alleviate.

That’s right: It’s the grease and grime that seem to seep down into the pores. You may wash with regular hand or bar soap, yet your skin still looks blackish-gray. You wash your hands again, and that grime is still bonded to your skin like glue.

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

If your big, strong hands remain mighty dirty, and if regular soap and water just aren't working, it's time to try some special cleaning tactics that are customized to the mess at hand. If your favorite bar soap or liquid hand soap is not cutting it anymore, reach instead for these rugged and ready hand-cleaning solutions. Quick reminder: Make it a habit to wash your hands frequently, and to use hand sanitizer when you can’t wash. Also make sure to keep some hand lotion handy to avoid dryness.

Crystalized sugar against a dark background.

How To Clean Greasy Hands

Whether it's engine grease from servicing your vehicle or that gross goo that comes off a bicycle's chain and gears, if you have a case of "The Grease Hands," you're probably not going to get properly clean using hand soap alone. Here's when you should reach for some sugar. Ideally, you can use a paste made from a tablespoon of a rough, crystalized sugar mixed with some water, but really any sugar will do. Rub that sweet paste all over your hands, then wash as usual. Repeat as necessary, but often a single sugar scrub should be enough to break up and lift off the grease.

Step 1: Mix together a paste with the sugar and the water.

Step 2: Scrub your hands with the homemade sugar paste.

Step 3: Rinse off the sugar paste, then wash with standard hand soap and water.

A close-up view of isopropyl alcohol on a plastic dispenser on a white background.

How To Get Spicy Residue Off Hands

If you spent a half-hour chopping up spicy habanero peppers for tonight's dinner, please do not touch your eyes, nose, mouth, or other people for an hour or two, then wash your hands once you're done! Since regular soap and water often fails to remove the spicy capsaicin from those peppers that you chopped, reach for some alcohol to rinse off that capsaicin once and for all. Concentrated isopropyl alcohol (as in, rubbing alcohol — do not drink) works best, but many hand sanitizers can also help remove the spicy stuff. If you don't have any rubbing alcohol or alcohol-based hand sanitizer on deck for whatever reason, go ahead and rinse your hands with a shot of gin or vodka. Whatever you use, follow it up with a normal hand washing.

Step 1: Carefully pour a light to moderate amount of rubbing alcohol onto your hands.

Step 2: Rinse off the alcohol, then wash your hands with standard hand soap and water.

A person squeezes dish soap onto a plate in the sink to wash it.

How To Clean Mud, Dirt, and Grit

If your hands are just generally very dirty but not soiled with a specific compound like oil or grass, then forget about the hand soap and turn to dish soap instead. While frequent use of dish soap on your hands will leave them dried-out, crusty, and hobbit-like, detergent is more than suitable for occasional use on the hands and forearms — and it cuts through caked-on messes much more reliably than standard hand soaps. Do consider using a moisturizing hand lotion if you use detergent on your hands regularly. As terrible as exceptionally dirty hands are, so are painfully dry hands.

Step 1: Squeeze a small amount of dish soap onto your hands, and scrub.

Step 2: Rinse your hands with water.

Step 3: If you're finished working outside (or wherever), grab some lotion and apply some onto your hands.

A homemade rocket made with baking soda and vinegar on the grass.

How To Clean Grass Stains Off Your Hands

Baking soda and vinegar: They're not just for homemade volcanoes anymore. If your hands are stained a deep shade of green after a long day of mowing, edging, and otherwise perfecting your lawn, then you need to combat the chlorophyll stains using science. Mix about a teaspoon of baking soda with about 2 ounces (a hearty shot's worth) of vinegar, then stand back — there will be foam! Indeed, this is largely the same mixture used to make those totally awesome foaming volcanoes that you made in grade school. Rub the foul-smelling mixture all over your hands, scrub, then wash with regular soap.

Step 1: Mix together roughly a teaspoon of baking soda with about 2 ounces of standard white vinegar. (Do not use balsamic vinegar!)

Step 2: Rub the baking soda and vinegar blend onto your hands, and scrub.

Step 3: Rinse your hands in water, then finish washing with standard hand soap and water.

We hope this helps you clean up after a hard day of work. If you still need some help with taking care of your hands, check out our guides to the best body lotions and the best lotions and bath soaks.

Topics
Andrew Davey
Andrew Davey is a writer who has spent a long time in "hard news" journalism, but who has also pursued interests in food and…
It’s almost summer: Everything you should be doing to care for your feet
Foot care 101: How to pamper your feet
foot in sand flip flops

Time to ditch the boots and sneakers. Flip-flop season is heading our way. Warmer, longer days may be something you look forward to each year. There’s something to be said for al fresco dining and getting out of work before sunset.

However, warm-weather footwear puts feet on full display. That means cracked heels, long nails, and other pesky issues will be noticeable as far as the eye can see.

Read more
Everything you need to know about jaw fillers for men
A guide to jaw fillers
jawline

For the past few years, New York City facial plastic surgeon Dr. Lesley Rabach has grown a roster of male clients who come to her downtown office in a steady stream to strengthen their jawlines.

Rabach uses an injectable filler that costs $2,500 per two-syringe treatment, and most clients visit four times a year. She tells The Manual, “It sounds like a lot of money, but the confidence these guys have after makes a tremendous difference. They feel spectacular.”

Read more
How to whiten teeth at home: A guide to natural and OTC remedies for pearlier whites
An evidence-based guide for how to whiten teeth at home: Get a brighter, whiter smile, sans dentist chair
man in bathrobe smiling in the mirror

They say the eyes are the window to the soul. However, you can make a strong case that the teeth actually are. Hear us out: You flash your chompers when you’re happy and grit them when you’re mad. People see them when you’re talking. You want to show off a bright, pristine appearance. However, age, dietary and other lifestyle habits, and medical conditions can turn those pearly whites into anything but. The good news: You can hit refresh and whiten teeth at home. That news is even better when you consider that professional teeth whitening can cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000 on average.

Skip the dentist's office chair and whiten your teeth in the comfort of your bathroom. Here are the top tips on how to whiten teeth at home.

Read more