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Review #2 Rockclimber's Hand Jam 17 Jul 2006
review by Jason Brown
Clearly we're all turning into Hippies. Or Metrosexuals. Or Cosmo-reading
beauty freaks. Or maybe we're just starting to actually worry about that most
important interface with the rock, our fingertips.
Enter Hand Jam.
Hand Jam is, essentially, a moisturiser. Admittedly, it's a moisturiser packaged
for climbers, but all the same it's a moisturiser. Although it also has some
nifty ingredients. I quote from the
Handjam website:
"Hand Jam is an all natural hand cream designed
for climbers by climbers.
If you have climbed so much that the skin on your hands is raw, becoming
thin or wearing out, using Handjam will speed up your skin’s recovery so that
you can climb again the next day.
It’s a fact that dry skin does not heal. Vegetable oils
have emollient properties that protect the skin and prevent moisture from
evaporating. They supply the skin with essential fatty acids which have
specific healing
properties.
Hand Jam also
contains calendula which helps promote healing and skin repair. Calendula is a
natural anti-inflammatory and is beneficial for chapped and cracked skin.
"
 OK. Babble? If you
like. Luckily for you, AusClimbing.com has the services of a trained
naturopath, and this allows us to translate for climbers. Herein follows the
translation:
"Handjam: it will probably help your hands hurt less.
If you're feeling end-of-day, try it out, and you might be less pained on
day #2.
Dry skin doesn't heal. Apparently. There's some stuff which can help that
situation, and let me give you a clue; it's not beer.
Hand Jam, unlike its namesake and climbing technique, might make your
fingers (and hands generally) feel better and maybe heal quicker."
We've been trying it out recently. Reviewer Jason has been undergoing the Hand
Jam treatment, Reviewer Viv has been undergoing the
Zen Therapeutic Tincture treatment (review to follow) with
occasional crossovers. So far, the results are, well, a bit non-empirical. Am I
healing quicker? how do I tell? It's very, very tricky to double-blind test
this stuff in a climbing context, so an objective review is a bit out of reach.
Subjectively though, I certainly get a nice feeling in the hands in using this
after a stressful bouldering session, or a day's indoor wall action. It
definitely moisurises one's fingertips - to the point where the skin feels
sometimes uncomfortably tight as the layers underneath hydrate and push out
against the dead layers above. Does it really help? Hell, we don't know. I
think the default nature of climbers' fingers can be summed up as 'painful',
and anything that makes them feel better, even if it is fluffy hippy foo-foo,
is a good thing. At just short of a ten-buck per (small) jar, it's affordable,
but given the choice between this and, say, a down-payment on a Wild Country
Friend or Comet Cam, I'd go with the
gear!
Despite that, we feel a descent into hippie-dom on the way. Just don't ask us to
review your homeopathy clinic or your acupuncture courses. There's bullshit,
and then there's bullshit, isn't there?
Test product supplied directly by Mountain Equipment, Kent Street Sydney.
Ausclimbing.com will review pretty much anything you send our way. Please
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if you'd like your gear reviewed on Ausclimbing.com
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