I have soft babyskin on my fingertips. HELP

Hey, I've been climbing a very long time. I used to have what I considered to be perfect skin for climbing, it was very dry, but never cracked or split, and would only wear out if I did intense bouldering for many days in close proximity to eachother. I barely even used chalk.

A few years ago I changed my diet to a mostly animal-based diet. I also began using rhino skin repair around the same time. I also began using black diamond black gold chalk (with the added drying agent, upsalite). The quality of my skin has since become very supple and soft, so much so that often my outdoor climbing sessions will end long before I'm muscularly tired simply because I'm always starting with slightly pink pads, and then after a few routes or attempts on harder boulders, my skin will become so seepy and eventually painful. I can only really get effective training on wood holds, or on larger holds that don't excessively use my tips. That said, my tips will still never split unless I'm on the sharpest, smallest nail-biters. I'll often just experience a general wear that makes my tips too seepy to climb at my limit.

I mention my diet because I don't know if the drastically increased high-quality protein levels have made my skin more collagenous and elastic, and generally healthier, but suboptimal for climbing. I'm genuinely not sure if that's the case but it would be the only downside of switching my diet if so, and the benefits of switching have far outweighed this potential downside that I would never switch back to plant-based. I stopped using rhino skin repair because although it contains salicylic acid(drying agent) with daily application for about a year, it didn't seem to make my tips any drier or promote any skin growth. I still use black gold which contains upsalite(super absorbent), but only because I bought a ton of it. I'd prefer to switch to pure frank endo now once my stash runs out. 

I usually climb three times a week and my sessions are varied between outdoors, mini moonboarding(mostly wood holds), and gym leading/TRing. My sessions are not excessively long and are very training-oriented.

The questions I have:

Could this be caused by the dietary change?

Can drying agents cause an adverse reaction in your body to promote MORE moisture in the areas they're applied? 

Can this be caused by all of these things together?

Does anybody suffer from soft baby skin that just sands away on even the softest rock, but never splits? From death-crimping in the gunks, to grabbing the soft sandstone in the new, or the wooden-like holds of rumney, it doesn't seem to matter.

Is antihydral the only solution or would/could this cause more issues? I'm averse to spreading commercial grade anti-hydral on my tips, but starting every session with a suboptimal amount of skin is starting to wear on me. Even taking a full week off will only buy me an extra half hour of bouldering or an extra lap on a route before my skin is seepy and soft again. I don't have any issues with my skin "peeling" and shedding excessive skin like others with soft skin will report. I just have permanently pink pads.

Any tips/ideas/anything at all would be deeply appreciated.

Eric Marx wrote:

Does anybody suffer from soft baby skin that just sands away on even the softest rock, but never splits?

Is antihydral the only solution or would/could this cause more issues? 

Yes.

My skin is naturally on the softer side and I found Rhino Dry to be the ticket. I know there’s dietary ways to change your skin but I know nothing about that. Antihydral I found tougher to dial in because it’s more aggressive and easily can make your tips glassy (that being said, I have heard of people purposely overdrying their hands and then using products such as rhino spit while climbing). For rhino dry you can start several days in advance of a hard projecting day and apply as many times as necessary to get the results you are looking for. Other tips I would recommend is learning how to tape your fingertips well and taping preemptively while learning beta on your project so that once you are ready to redpoint you can take the tape off and have perfect skin. 

Rhino also makes the tip juice which can be useful but i found just putting extra rhino dry on my fingertips works fine for me. And to answer your question about adverse effects, I have used these products for around 4 years and the only issues I had were from going too aggressive or being super inconsistent/erratic with my usage which lead to my tips peeling a bit.

Pee on your hands. 

Salicylic acid is a chemical exfoliant. Stop using it.

Eat all the meat you want. Get your cholesterol checked. 

The Ryhno repair doesn’t have a drying agent. The performance does.

I have soft, delicate skin and have found that an application of performance a couple times a month, then every night before bed I put on Cera Ve moisturizer, and it has been the best combo I’ve found. The Cera Ve regrows my skin faster than anything I’ve tried.

It’s still not nearly as durable as some of my friends who have good skin. But it’s definitely helped

I use tincture of benzoin. I've also heard that the tannic  acid from teabags will work.

It's kinda wacky but a home iontophoresis set up has been  really helpful for getting my perpetually clammy and weepy skin to dry out. I can climb way more and don't have the anti-hydral glassiness anymore. 

AMT wrote:

It's kinda wacky but a home iontophoresis set up has been  really helpful for getting my perpetually clammy and weepy skin to dry out. I can climb way more and don't have the anti-hydral glassiness anymore. 

I did the homemade iontophoresis setup for several years also and found it to be effective, but a hassle. I eventually switched back to methenamine products (Rhino Dry and proper Antihydral) for convenience and ability to apply to the tips in a targeted manner. 

I have similar skin to OP and find Antihydral works great for me. I don't ever really get glassy or splits from it unless I'm using it way to much.  I use it usually once a week on Thursday night to have ideal skin for the weekend. I mostly apply just to my tips (as I often climb on crimpy granite), but I'll use the Dry on my palms occaisionally if conditions and objectives call for it.

I think the reason I don't get glassy is I'm often climbing on rough granite, so the hard glassy layer gets worn off from a day of climbing. It's a constant battle to keep enough hard skin; ending up with too much hard skin is rarely an issue.

Thank you all, I suppose I’ll have to begrudgingly accept antihydral and experiment a bit.

Eric Marx wrote:

Thank you all, I suppose I’ll have to begrudgingly accept antihydral and experiment a bit.

No need to do it begrudgingly. It's great stuff.

If you're hesitant to go all in with the full antihydral (the talc based cream from Germany), the weaker methenamine based products from Rhino are a good starting point. Same active ingredient, just different amounts. If I recall correctly, antihydral is 13% methenamine, and because of the thick cream you end up with a hefty dose. 

If you want a really gentle intro to methenamine, start with the Performance Cream since it's only 4%. This makes it harder to overdo it and end up with a bad outcome.

Dry Spray is 8%, and is an alcohol based spray that is easier to apply a thinner dose. A great method of applying it is to spray it on a plate, and then rub your tips on that. Makes it easy to precisely apply it just to your tips, in a controlled amount.

I haven't used Tip Juice, but I've heard it is closer to Antihydral in potency. 

JCM wrote:

I haven't used Tip Juice, but I've heard it is closer to Antihydral in potency. 

Tip Juice is good, but still a far cry from proper antihydral.  I have real sweaty skin, and started with the dry spray on my hands, and tip juice on the tips a few times a week and it wasn't enough.  For the last year I've been doing this regimen and it's perfect - Once every week or two depending on the season, super thick antihydral on the tips, and I spray my whole hand with tip juice twice a week.

No splits, but actually dries my skin without going glassy.  That'll likely be too much for normal skin but I can finally crank on small crimps when it's not snowing out and it's been a gamechanger.

almostrad wrote:

Tip Juice is good, but still a far cry from proper antihydral.  I have real sweaty skin, and started with the dry spray on my hands, and tip juice on the tips a few times a week and it wasn't enough.  For the last year I've been doing this regimen and it's perfect - Once every week or two depending on the season, super thick antihydral on the tips, and I spray my whole hand with tip juice twice a week.

No splits, but actually dries my skin without going glassy.  That'll likely be too much for normal skin but I can finally crank on small crimps when it's not snowing out and it's been a gamechanger.

That's a pretty extreme regimen, and as you note this would be way too much for most people. But I see how it could be needed for someone with extremely sweaty skin.

The nice thing about the range of available methenamine products is that though experimentation  you can dial in a protocol that is right for your skin based on conditions and rock type. I'll use different amounts of the products in winter (when I'm mostly climbing on smooth basalt and marble in cool conditions) versus summer (climbing rough granite in warm conditions).

Even though iontophoresis seems a little wacky and is definitely a hassle, it sure is nice to not have to put (and pay for) all that methenamine on your skin week after week. But it's great that you all haven't had the glassiness. My skin got super weird after a few months of anti-hydral so it was a no-go for me. 

AMT wrote:

Even though iontophoresis seems a little wacky and is definitely a hassle, it sure is nice to not have to put (and pay for) all that methenamine on your skin week after week. But it's great that you all haven't had the glassiness. My skin got super weird after a few months of anti-hydral so it was a no-go for me. 

Do you have a commercially produced machine, or the janky homemade bowls and batteries setup?

Full janky setup.