🌶️ Update, August 19, 2018: It’s been fourteen years since I first published this post, and the comments just keep coming.
It seems this affliction is still plaguing folks. Read through and please weigh in with your suggestions below!
July 3, 2004: The story of my friend’s accident involving jalapeno peppers. Read his tale and the hundreds of comments below on potential cures for this strange affliction!
I received the following email from a good friend who I’ll call CD. He lives in the Washington, DC area. He sends along this cautionary tale about a cooking experience gone horribly wrong. His story is by turns frightening and hilarious. Enjoy.
Dude, I got a great story for you that I’ll try to relay in this message. Friday night S and I went over to J and C’s. I was going to help C prepare for a catering gig he had on Saturday. So we get there and start boozing and hanging out. We eat dinner and then begin the process of prepping for the catering gig.
Well, one step in the catering cooking process was to roast a 5-pound bag of jalapeno peppers on the grill and then remove the skins and de-seed them. Like what you’d do with a roasted red pepper. Well, at about 10:30pm I belly up to the table outside with all the peppers and start going to town. An hour later, I had peeled all 5 pounds worth….the catch is that I did it with no gloves.
At about mid-night S and I leave and I start complaining that my hands are burning. Not terribly, but a bit of fire. An hour later, we are back at S’s and it really sets in. Pain like I have never felt. Unbelievable, extreme, terrible, super harsh burning pain in both hands and even a little ways up both arms. It was like I had burnt both hands in a fire.
Now, I have to set the time frame so you can get the full affect of how long this pain lasted….it was at about 1am Saturday morning when I really began to realize i was in some trouble. At about 2:30am I woke S up and said I needed help (she had been asleep for about an hour). She got on the Internet and looked up how to stop jalapeno burn. She called two emergency rooms and even a number of “ask the nurse” hotlines. Nothing. At about 3:30am I was in so much pain i was rolling around on the floor almost yelling. By that time I had dipped both hands in milk, olive oil, vegetable oil, yogurt, oatmeal, water with baking soda, a bleach water mix, aloe and even mineral oil. Nothing helped.
At one point, I had both hands covered in aloe, a wet wash cloth on each and my hands in two huge bags that were filled with ice and water. That did not even help. at about 5am S calls my doctor at his emergency number. He says to get in the car and go to the emergency rooms at GW. So, we get in the car and I ride with my hands out the window to let the wind somewhat cool them down.
I check in with the front desk and am taken back to some ER room at about 6am. Now, realize that I am SO embarrassed at this point. Everyone in there is looking at me like I am a freak. They even wrote on the ER board where they identify what is ailing a patient “CD, jalapeno hands.” It was funny as hell.
Once I am in my little holding room they give me a shot a morphine, which by the way does nothing to ease the pain. Damn good high, but nothing for the pain. After the morphine they give me a shot of something stronger which also does nothing for the pain. I even got a shot of straight benedryl because they thought I might be having an allergic reaction. Needless to say, nothing works for the pain. They debated admitting me at one point. They also talked about putting me on some IV of pain killers.
Finally, after being there for about 3 hours, they tell me to go home and basically just wait out the pain. They did give me a prescription for some really strong pain killers.
Well, to get to the end….the pain finally lessoned to where I could take it on Saturday night at about 6pm. I was basically in a living hell for like 18 hours. Even today (Monday morning) I still feel a burning in both hands. If I scratch any part of my body, it immediately starts to burn. I can just bump into something and even that little bit of contact sets off a slight burn. And get this, my feet have this low grade burn from walking on them. That’s how much of the jalapeno oil got into my body.
Have a cure for this dreaded condition? Leave a comment below!
418 replies on “Jalapeno pepper hands: how to cure the burn”
Not jalepeno hands but POBLANO HANDS…. Supposed to be mild but I must just have sensitive skin???? Found this article while I’m awake, nearly in tears with burning hands at 11pm- 6 hours after I sliced 5 poblano peppers. The worst part of it all is that I touched my 2 year old while cooking, and she screamed for an hour after and kept wiping her face. We had no idea why…. My hands began to burn about the same time she started to calm down. Now I finally understand why she was upset. I’ve tried baking soda, olive oil, vegetable oil, sour cream, milk, Tylenol, etc. the only thing that seems to have finally helped is the Benadryl I took about 20 mins ago….. If this is from poblano peppers I don’t ever want to have jalepeno hands
Oh no, sorry to hear!
Hi everyone, well, I too have joined the “hot hands” masses. Man, oh mighty!
To cut to the chase: ALOCANE with lidocaine. The only thing I found that works. Longer explanation below.
I actually thought if it did not stop at some point I might have to go the ER! About the worse burning I have felt. Instinctively, I washed my hands after cutting the peppers (it was getting the seeds out that did me in!), but the thing is – it kept burning and MORE and time went on! So, I kept washing. After I had a rather … *interesting* experience with blowing my nose because I kept coughing and sneezing, well. Let’s just say I think the mucous membranes of the nose and eyes clears the burning out faster than the hands. Anyway, VERY long story short, I tried all the remedies I could find online: milk, yogurt, alcohol, baking soda, flour, aloe, soaking in cool water…Thankfully, after several hours my partner said, “OH! I think we have some burn cream. Let’s try it.” And, we DID have some and it’s called ALOCANE. It worked almost immediately. What a relief! The burning did return after a while, but not full strength and it continued to subside over the next couple of hours. This morning, all better!
So, ALOCANE to the rescue. It has lidocaine in it and that was the ONLY thing that helped.
Good luck. Won’t be cutting serrano peppers again any time soon!
Wow, thanks for sharing — great to know about Alocane!
Calamine Lotion is working for me currently , working very very well
Gordon Ramsey says to squeeze fresh lemon juice on your hands right after cutting peppers to neutralize to oil idk if it works after tbey start burning but never had the issue again after doing that
What I tried that did not work – oil, dish soap, peroxide, baking soda, yogurt.
What finally worked – sitting with my hand in flour for 30 mins to “soak off the oil”. I saw this tip on youtube LOL. The person mentioned it would still burn for 10-15 min before improving. That was true to my experience. But thank Jeebus it worked. It had been like 6 hours of pepper hands before that.
This is the first thing that seems to be genuinely be working for me, have had my hand in flour for about a half hour now and the burn has started to subside. Thanks.
Thanks for all the laughs. It really helped me get through my 6 hour jalapeño episode. I cut and seeded just one single pepper this morning, around 9, and am just now feeling fine at 3pm. It got really brutal around noon. I tried the oiling, dairy immersion, baking soda, some prescription cream for skin irritation, nothing helped. Then after reading through comments, I started sucking my fingers lol. I actually helped! Crazy. It hurt while I was doing it, which maybe was a sign it was working. I also popped some ibuprofen, which seems to have also helped. Whew, glad that hell has ended!
After reading through a whole lot of these comments.. trying several of the suggestions as I go, and literally nothing is stopping the burn. Some things helped for a minute but none really stopped the pain. I saw only one comment about using Oxy-Clean powder mixed with water, so since all else failed, and I happened to have some on hand, I tried it. Instant relief!! I am amazed! I sprinkled about 1/4th of the little scoop that comes in the box into a bowl, added some cold water and stuck both hands in to mix it up, let them soak for a min or so, and the pain was gone ! It’s been awhile now, and still no pain. And it also works great to clean tea and coffee stains out of your tea jugs and coffee pot🌝
Omg im in pain ..yesterday morning i ate 5 jalepeno poppers and my stomach been burning ever since i tried baking soda ..antacid …water…ice…hot water bottles on my tummy its so bad my back is throbbing my upper stomach on fire n my esophagus is burning ugh …
I’ve joined the club.
the pain started two hours after I chopped and scraped the seeds out of what tasted like VERY mild jalapenos. I figured they were so mild, they wouldn’t burn.
NO.
I worked with 3lbs of them, and that was more than enough.
all of the suggestions here only work if you catch the capsaicin oil BEFORE it starts burning! if it’s in the surface, just starting to hurt. I didn’t start to treat this until hours later and by then it was too late for the home remedies listed by everyone here.
I tried every single thing in all of these comments. all of them.
I realized that it was too late to do it. Icepack, pain relief. that’s it. once it’s been a few hours, that’s all you can do.
wash your hands as well as you can, cold water feels nice. oil-reducing soap is good I guess.
apply blue gel, lidocaine, or anbesol/orajel to the entire affected area. allow it to absorb.
once it’s dried, apply a thin layer of any beeswax based salve to hold the lidocaine to the skin surface. this will increase the time it lasts.
take a pain pill. I took ibuprofen. I might go on up to a codeine pill if it goes back to the pain I was at earlier- easily an 8/10! right now it’s just tenderness, and a Tylenol or Ibuprofen is enough.
take an antihistamine. Benadryl is best, Claritin works. this keeps inflammation down a little- your skin won’t be so red and irritated.
do not touch your eyes, genitals, mouth. don’t touch other people’s sensitive bits. you have to wait until your hands have used the capsaicin up- according to a paper I read that can take up to 24 hours. so be cautious during this time.
you can put on nitrile gloves if you like. I found they made the lidocaine wear off faster (maybe due to the warmth)
avoid touching ANYTHING warm/hot, and ANYTHING with capsaicin in it (even a sweet bell pepper!) for a few days. your nerve endings need to heal, your body needs to process that capsaicin. give it time.
I must have put a hundred condiments and unguents and cleaning supplies on my hands tonight. I spent hours trying.
just treat the pain, don’t reexpose your hands to heat or the chemical that hurt you. and don’t touch your eyes.
if you catch it right when it starts to hurt, though- that hot water/dawn, oil rub, hot water/dawn, repeat probably would work
but if you didn’t catch it early, just treat it for pain and inflammation and ride it out.
I’ve never heard of hot pepper hands so I didn’t know to wear gloves… I know now…
Milk, oil, and soap cooled it for a little while but didn’t make it go away… I’m going to try to sleep it off
yup you guessed it–typing with burning hands. tried vinegar, hot water/soap/oil, rubbing alcohol, milk, clay mask, and 2 min later burning came back. just tried my dog’s shampoo as im out of hippa-cleanse. i have sunburn relief on hand and im about to try acetone. my hands are so dry right now and oh the misery!!!
First time having this delightful experience last night. I made homemade pico for my husband and I- just cut ONE pepper. I put it in the salsa but then took it out to cut it again into smaller pieces🤦🏼♀️
I complained that my fingers were stinging a little after maybe 15-20 mins. By 45 mins later they were full on burning. Which brought us to this feed! Super helpful comments.
We tried everything. Started with yogurt, ice water, toothpaste, coconut oil, olive oil, soaking them in my own pee (was not one of my favorite experiences), and also keeping my hands in ice with socks on so that I could lay down. I thought this was the holy grail of jalapeño hands but that proved to let me down as well after about 20 mins. Burning started at about 10pm and by 3:30am I still felt no different. Just momentary relief that would last for like 3-5 mins and then the burning would come back.
My husband finally had me do the hot water, dish soap and scrub, and then olive oil trick. We scrubbed with a brush for about 5-6 rounds of hot water and scrubbing. This pain was no joke. After this we were exhausted and tried going to sleep. I still felt pain and kept my hands in ice water. We both miraculously fell asleep and I woke up around 10 am realizing the pain had subsided. I think the pain was gone maybe 30 mins after doing the hot water trick. Overall my pain lasted maybe 6-6.5 hours.
If you find yourself with jalapeños hands PLEASE try the hot water trick. It will be very painful, but was the only thing that brought lasting relief. All the other tricks really just momentarily mitigate the pain. If you can just keep your hands under hot water for as long as possible with soap and a scrub brush you will be okay eventually. Good luck see you on the other side
Finally I rubbed Jose cuervo gold on my finger and let it sit there a minute and then rinsed it off…. finally relief!! Uughh thank goodness
I decided to make queso. Never had issues with jalepenos before. Cut just one and within 20 mins my hands felt irritated. Within 45, I was in pain. I’m also 7 months pregnant so a little concerned about what I should do. I’ve tried most all things mentioned except the honey. The best one so far though not 100% effective has been toothpaste. I also found sugar and olive oil to be helpful making a scrub out of it. I thought I may need a baking soda toothpaste but the one I have used has little breath freshners in it and worked within seconds. I’ve also be soaking my hands in olive oil and cold water. Moving into hour 5 and hoping to be able to sleep soon.
If it ever happens again, mustard! Dijon for me, but by other posts, any yellow mustard seems to work. 3 x 30 mins sets. Wash off in between. And relief immediately too. So incredibly relieved. Had tried everything else including the hot water and oil (which was excruciating and didn’t work 🙁 ) and was also in hour five. Finally found someone suggesting mustard and it worked, worked for almost everyone on her page too 🙂 So so happy.
Caitlin— thank you for the yellow mustard solution!! Yes, after round 2 I noticed a significant impact on relief! I did burning hot water w dish soap and a scrub brush in between. Thank goodness I found your comment on this comment on the Internet before 10pm. Xoxoxo
So today I was making tacos and i had to deseed some jalapeño peppers and when I was done I washed my hands with dish soap thinking that would take away the spicy off my hands completely. Boy I was wrong. So to make a long story short… i got an itch down my booty crack and i scratched and my butthole was on FIRE. i tried everything. Nothing was working. I was desperate to find relief. Something inspired me to try toothpaste as an antidote. It worked. I found the solution.
2 jalapeños. Death.
Dish soap and alcohol? Nothing. Bleach cleaner? Nope. Sucking on fingers? Nada.
After three hours of dying and scaring both dogs from my screams of pain, I tried the hot water trick. Pain went from 12/10 to a 2/10. Manageable.
Make the water as hot as you can handle, then make it just a tad hotter! While grimacing and praying to Jesus himself, add dish soap and SCRUB. Like throw in a nail brush or veggie brush and attack your hands. I’m honestly shocked my hands are still in tact, but the pain was worth it to end this fire-pit feeling in my fingertips and nail beds. Do the dish soap and hot water pattern for like 20 minutes. I even doused my hands in white vinegar every round just for the heck of it. Not sure what did it, but I’m at least able to fall asleep without thinking the devil is holding my hands all night.
Prayers to everyone else. USE GLOVES. I usually don’t need them with jalapeños, but you bet your butt I’m using them everytime now.
Pee on ur hands!! It works!
Saliva. It burns to suck on your fingers, but then the pain subsides.
I thought I was having a really bad eczema breakout- burning sensation, dry red skin- nope. Just jalapenos.
Oxicleam powder in water! Almost instant relief. This has been horrible. God bless you all.
Omg I tried everything! I did the super hot water and dish soap thing, rubbing alcohol, hydrocortisone cream, baking soda, ice, menthol CBD cream, mustard, oil. Then someone here said they licked their fingers. So I sucked on all my fingers. You guys! It worked instantly! I don’t know how that of all things isn’t known as a remedy. I hope this helps someone!
I’ve never had a problem cutting jalapeño peppers before. Like, ever. Like, in the moment my fingers will get the pepper oil and a few times I made the mistake of touching my eyes and getting a burn for a few seconds, but not on my freaking skin. I seriously though that sort of thing was just hyped up in movies.
Well, for dinner tonight at 8-9 (yeah, very late dinner, but that’s not the point), I finely diced two habanero peppers and tossed them in a dish I was preparing and nothing was weird at the time. I rubbed my eyes once, it burned, it went away. I ate the food, my lips burned, it went away.
Fast forward to 4:50 am, my hands are on fire- specifically the backs of them. Here I find myself holding ice packs because dishwashing soap and milk didn’t work for me. No vinegar in the house, and I just ran out of oil today.
I’m never gonna get to sleep, pfft.
I too said “never again” without gloves after making hot pepper jelly a few years back. *Wear gloves* is blazed across the top of my recipe. And I learned… I made a lovely batch of pepper jelly just yesterday. I wore gloves.
Today, with a bumper crop of jalapeños, I decided to try out a new recipe to make a jalapeño based hot sauce.
Well, what on earth was I thinking?? In short, and wasn’t. I peeled a pound of roasted jalapeños with my bare hands. Doh!
All the things my fellow jalapeño sufferers have said and tried, so did I. The only thing that works to settle down my burning hands is cold water — this some six hours later. Milk, yogurt, vinegar, etc etc etc… Cold water offers me the most relief. I look forward to snuggling u to a bag of crushed ice when I hit the sack tonight. Hope that nerve damage is not severe.
Yikes, Elaine! Glad to know that cold water works, though :/
I can now officially join the ‘Jalapeno Hand Club’. This is the first year I grew jalapenos in my garden and one bush produced over 40 of these beauties. I picked 20 ripe ones, some were red, and tossed them on the grill to char. Next up, peeling and de-seeding with a small paring knife. I could smell the heat and thought, yum these will be tasty. As soon as I finished cleaning the peppers I washed my hands with dawn soap and water. It was 3 pm and that’s when my torturous 12 hour journey into burning hell began. I furiously started googling looking for help and miraculously found this page. I thought I would find a remedy for my burning hands. Wrong. I tried soaking my hands in half & half cream in a shallow bowl, this was soothing but as soon as I removed my hands the burn seemed to intensify. Next I tried the hot water using dawn soap and was in excruciating pain, no relief for me with this method. I tried fresh lemon and lime juice, vinegar and water soak, baking soda and water paste, olive oil, tea tree oil, oxiclean maxforce laundry pre-treatment with grease dissolving power and scrubbing bubbles bathroom cleaner with bleach, nothing was helping. By this time I thought I could light candles with my burning red finger tips or zap things like Harry Potter, no wand required. Fried eggs in the palm of my hands, a piece of cake, the heat was so intense. Foolishly, I decided to go for a 45 minute walk with a friend thinking the distraction would take my mind off the pain. The sun seemed to make the burn worse and my friend noticing my swollen red digits asked, “omg, did you burn your hands”? Embarrassed, I explained what happened making light of the situation. I could not wait to get home, the walk was a huge mistake. Once home I took two kitchen sponges, soaked them in water, sealed them into freezer bags and popped them into the freezer. While waiting for them to freeze I placed my burning hands into shallow bowls of cold water. Cold water soothed my burning hands. I went to bed holding the freezer bags with the frozen water sponges. When I woke the following morning my finger tips were sensitive but no burning pain. Lesson learned, wear rubber gloves when handling jalapenos!
Wow! Glad the burn finally subsided!
Victim number I don’t know…but we are now in 2018, and apparently word has not spread, as I had never heard of Jalapeño hands. Chopped up two a couple of weeks ago and had no problem. Cut up six for a large bowl of salsa 12 hours ago, and within an hour the burn was bad enough I was looking for help online. Over the next eleven hours I tried hot water and soap, followed by olive oil, but the burn just got worse. Tried soaking my hands in milk and it felt great until the milk warmed up, then it felt like scalding water. As soon as my hands were dry, the burn was back, worse than before. Cold water made my hands numb, but when they thawed out the burn was still there. White vinegar I swear intensified the burn to the point where I felt like my hands were literally on fire. I tried lotion, hand sanitizer, baking soda, peroxide, rubbing alcohol, and rubbing my hands on stainless steel. No help at all. Didn’t try calamine as we didn’t have any and we live in a rural area, and I had used the juice of the last lemon in the darn salsa. In desperation this evening, I sat watching a movie with a bag of ice in each hand. After three hours like that, I have only a mild stinging across the tops of my palms, and both thumbs, which I don’t even think will keep me awake.
I knew enough not to touch eyes, nose or anything lower down, but had NO idea about this jalapeño hands thing. NEVER again without gloves. These peppers are the vegetable from hell!
My husband appreciated the humour on this blog more than I did, but even I with my fire hands, chuckled at some.
Yikes! So sorry to hear — but glad to hear you’re on the mend! Yes, even after all these years the infliction persists and folk keep flocking to this blog post!
I don’t know how but the burn is in my ear
[…] she is in terrible terrible pain. Something is WRONG. Web MD to the rescue. Turns out, she isn’t alone. She comes across a website where dozens of people are talking about “jalapeno hands” and […]
Ok medically speaking, here is the cure:
It might sound crazy but takes pain rating from 8/10 down to 2/10 instantly
1.Hot water – hot as you can take rinse to open pores.
2.Soap – lather
3.Rinse
4.Oil – Lather
5. Rinse
6. Repeat 4 or 5 times.
This is the only permanent cure
All the other remedies like milk,oil,yoghurt, ice water are only soothing for a few seconds.
You need to open the pores in your hands up to get the chilli oils out!
Enjoy fellow sufferers
Thank you!! You are 💯 right. It helped so much.
Yes! Thank you! I deseeded 10-12 Thai chili peppers and in about 5 mins after washing my hands the pain was excruciating, worse I’ve ever felt, more painful than childbirth. I tried everything and this was what finally stoped it, and pretty quickly. Be prepared – the hot water will hurt (even though it wasn’t super hot) but I was desperate and could feel relief after doing this 4-5 times. I used dish soap followed by olive oil.
Milk, rubbing alcohol, and Hydrocortizone didn’t do anything, but multiple washes of dish soap and a scrub sponge took the burn down from a 8/10 to a 1/10! Who knew the best remedy was also the most simple?
Glad to hear, Lindsey!
I tried this after many other remedies such as emergency lidocaine aloe Vera burn gel, vinegar, Vick’s, milk, yogurt, hand sanitizer, and vodka, which I only had very short term relief. Unfortunately this remedy didn’t work for me. It was incredibly torturous and I ended up staying awake the entire night with my hands in an ice bath just to avoid the excruciating pain. I seriously contemplated going to the ER, but because it was so late at night I hoped and prayed that it would subside after taking pain medicine. I took narcotic pain medicine and let me tell you…it didn’t even touch the pain. I’ve never experienced such burning in my life! I will never dice peppers without gloves again. My pepper hands lasted a full 12 hours. The baking soda and water paste had the most relief. I will say it only worked momentarily at first but I kept trying it out of desperation.
Sooo here I am jalapeño Victim # who knows?! After cutting up 24 jalapeños and gutting them I washed up… No burning yet… Cut my kid up some plum and licked my finger and was like hmm that’s kind of spicy… Husband told me it was in my head and a few minutes later the burn began… I have tried dawn, vinegar, mustard, aloe, Lysol wipes with bleach, the stuff hubby uses after working on cars to wash his hands, olive oil, milk,etc (all of these worked for a few minutes) I have scrubbed, rubbed and patted just about every thing I could think of or google…. Next time gloves will be used… I still have to put cream cheese in jalapeños and I’m terrified lol… I’ve never in my life felt such an intense burn and felt totally stupid until I found y’all! So thanks for everyone else for your stories and advice guess on to the next CURE I go…
I decided to make bacon-wrapped jalapenos today after trying out the appetizer at my cousin’s house over New Year’s. Figured it would be simple enough – cut up 4 jalapenos, took all the seeds out of them (no gloves of course), and popped ’em in the oven. When I was deseeding them I was pretty sure I got a seed on my forearm, so, wanting to be cautious, I washed my hands vigorously under the faucet and scrubbed up my entire left arm.
All seemed fine – I had a bit of a tingling, burning sensation in my left arm but it wasn’t anything bad, and since I knew I got some seeds on my arm I wasn’t really questioning it. It got worse and worse but I figured it would go away. I took a hot shower, and the pain became HORRIBLE. Getting out of the shower I noticed hives that looked like welts all up and down my left arm, as well as on all of my finger tips. My left arm felt like it was on fire and new hives were popping up by the minute. Luckily I live next to a drug store so I popped over and bought an oral antihistamine and a cream to go along with it – which worked pretty well. But wow, the pain was excruciating!
I made the mistake of cutting and de-seeding a bag of jalapenos…without using gloves. The extreme pain set in after about an hour. I tried bleach/water mixture and vaseline, but it didn’t help. I took a hot shower and it made my hands burn even more! It was horrible. Then when I looked in my bathroom cabinet I found some cleaner we had called Tecnu. We bought it for my husband when he had poison ivy. It’s a super strong, yet gentle cleaner that gets all poison ivy residue off people who have been exposed. It was actually developed back in the cold war and it is strong enough to remove radioactive residue from a nuclear fallout. I figured I would try it on my hands to see if it would get all the jalapeno residue off of it. It didn’t take all the pain away immediately, but my hands felt much better after using it and I was 100% pain free after an hour.
1 cup of salt & 4 cups of cold water.. works! it totally removed the sting while soaking .. but it’s a chemical burn, so it will sting for a while, however if you don’t mind soaking your hand in salt water, it’ll re-leave the pain and neutralize any acid that is left.
Didn’t work for me.
[…] thing. Well I am here as a harbinger of terrible news: it is real. See funny/horrifying example here. I can commiserate with this guy. The first time it happened to me I was caught completely […]
I’ve got “jalepeno Hands” right now. I was begginning to think I was developing an allergy, because I cut them so much. Last night I cut some…felt the burn…then today I cut a harmless Bell Pepper, and the burn came back, very painful. Anyway, milk seems to really help me. If anyone is reading this looking for help, most of the time a good soaking or rinsing of milk or any dairy like yogurt will help. Stay away from bleach, yikes!
This has happened to me twice. Both times I used a facial “clay mask”. Slather on the affected areas of your fingers and hands. You need to wait until the mask has dried. I waited about 45 minutes. It pulls the jalapeño oils out just as it pulls oils out of facial pores. It lessons the pain greatly. Good luck
Thank you!!! I have Indian green clay mask and would never have thought to try it. SO glad I did. Burning is only subtle now instead of that intense Chernobyl radiation burn feeling.
The clay mask solution worked amazingly! I tried soap water, milk, aloe vera gel and cream. But nothing worked till I tried applying clay mask on my fingers. The burning sensation continues while the clay mask is drying out, but bear with it! Once fully dry, wash off gently and you will feel sooo much better!
I never cook with jalapeños but my 14yr old daughter has a new found love for them. So I grew some in our garden and she excitedly cut and cleaned them to make stuffed jalapeños. Sooo, last night was one of the most excruciating nights as a mom to watch my daughter go thru this horrible pain. She had a hint of burn and thought milk helps when drinking, so she stuck her hand in milk (we laughed). An hour later the real pain set in and I started Googling. I saw/tried all the basics (milk, baking powder, oil, dawn) but nothing helped except milk eased a bit then would stop helping, she’d scream and cry, and would ice down milk and re-soak. Painful cycle. About hour 4-5 I found this page and more remedies. And about 2 hrs later I mixed up a bentonite clay mask and put on her hand. Once dried, she reluctantly washed with hot water and soap. She would NOT try hot water before b/c if cold water hurt then she couldn’t imagine hot. She did this twice and we were finally about to go to bed at 5am.
#Traumatized
Yikes! Glad you finally found a remedy! :/
Had tried EVERYTHING that had been posted until I came to the scrub your hands with dawn dw liquid in the hottest water you can possible stand (at that point a hot burn couldn’t have been worse) and then soak your hands in warm to hot milk. The moment the hot milk hit my hands (after the initial scream of pain) it has stopped burning!!!! Oh sweet nectar of the gods!
Great to read all the comments and know I’m not alone. Cut up peppers for canning/ salsa sans gloves even though I knew better. Paid and paying for it! Tried rubbing alcohol, bleach, vinegar, lime juice, yoghurt, milk, Bactine, Afterbite (which has ammonia in it)…nothing worked. The ONLY thing that worked–for me, & I’m starting to think it’s dependent on personal chemistry–was the HOT WATER TREATMENT. Hold hands under as hot water as you can stand for 5 minutes. Then take a break. Then do it again. Then take a break. Then do it again…. It’s realllllllly uncomfortable, but if you’re gritting your teeth and gasping, you’re doing it right. For me, the pain lessened after the first treatment and more after that. Started rubbing with olive oil to cut the pepper oils and not dry my hands so much. I anticipate only time will really help, but for me, the hot water is working. After all, I’m able to type!
By the way, I took a chance on the HOT WATER TREATMENT after hearing it had come from a poison control center.
yep bleach and bathroom cleaner worked!! whoop!!!
Normally, I use gloves, but my husband cut a jalapeno last week barehanded and it didn’t bother him, so I figured, I’d try it too……. Bad move!!! My left thumb & index finger (the ones that held the pepper) were on fire. I thought maybe I just had a cut, so I ran them under cold water. Bad move #2. It spread the burn to my whole hand. I tried milk & yogurt and then red this article and your replies. Diluted vinegar did the trick for me!
I’m 17 and I work at a Mexican Bar & Grill. Today I had to cut about 10 decent-sized jalapeno peppers. About half an hour later, my hands were throbbing. I don’t need to tell any of you here how THAT felt because that’s why we’re all Google searching “jalapeno hands.” But my situation was made SO much worse by the fact that every few minutes I had to put a burrito on the grill and the wave of heat on my hands would make the pain agony. I endured my 10-hour shift by putting ice cubes from the bar on my hands which would help only temporarily and now here I am, still in pain, but I found that the vinegar diluted in water helps a bit. I held it for about 15 minutes and now I have ice in a ziploc bag to get through the night. Doesn’t sound like my burns are too bad compared to others’ experiences but I wish some of my Mexican coworkers had thought about warning the white girl to wear gloves.
I literally feel awful for all of you going through this. All I can say is it’ll eventually get better! Good luck with finding what helps!
This exact thing happened to me last night, of course without all the cool story hospital details. I only deseeded 6 jalepenos without gloves. It has now been 13 hours later or more and I still burn in all my joints of my hands, if I touch any part of my body with my now very clean hands it burns and just when I think the burning is going to subside, I have to wash my hands and it comes back with a vengence. typing is a little difficult. The only thing that remotely helped me sleep last night was the icepack of frozen berries I slept with. Clearly, not the kind of trauma you went through, but insane amount of lingering pain for such a small job. Lesson learned. always use gloves! PS I accidentally bit a nail, by habit and my tongue is aching. 13 hours later. whew. Why is it that I can stomach them to some extent, but handling them brings such lengthy pain. I get the pepper spray defense now. I will be having my drinks today.
Holy crap..I just cut one very small pepper and im dyin..cant imagine how this person felt..especially when morphine did not help..which totally helped me after My c section..so basically it was worse than birth
i cut up about 15 jalapenos and stuffed them with cheese and wrapped them with bacon. my hands began to burn so intensivly that i wanted to cry. the pain was agonizing and just wouldnt stop. i tried washing them with dawn and water over and over. it didnt stop so i tried anything i could find: vinigar, soaking in milk, calamin lotion, aloe vera,hand soap, exfoliating scrub, after sun lotion, utterly smooth urea lotion, and nothing worked. the pain just wouldn’t stop. after about three hours the pain subsided to just managable and my cat jumped up on the bed. i picked him up and pet him. right after that, the pain was intense again. i don’t know whats in cat fur but i makes it so much worse. i have no solution to the problem but i would definitly suggest for you to stay away from animals.
i did the same thing tonight and nothing works!!!!!!!! i did the sour cream, vinegar and oil, bleach, lime juice , vinegar alone, milk and mud nothing helps. so instead of sleeping w my hand in water and taking the chance of spilling it everywhere im sleeping on the floor w my hand over the ac vent and aslong as it doesnt shut off it works!
Saliva definitely works. I sucked on my fingers for a while and now my tongue is on fire but my fingers are significantly better.
Saliva worked for me too. I discovered it by putting one of my fingers in my mouth to soothe it. Turns out my mouth can take the spice far better than my hands. 😉
Hey, I’m back!
I must say Brah-Voh to the person who suggested saliva. It was so simple it was brilliant. It’s not like my mouth burns for hours after I eat jalapenos, so my mouth must be doing something right.
Before I fell asleep last night, I licked my hands like you don’t know what. It actually began to burn more at first, but I took it as a clue that it was working.
I slept through the night and am currently pain free.
I had no idea this sort of thing happened.
I am a self-taught user of jalapenos. For years I had simply chopped without using gloves because it never crossed my mind that I would have scorched hands. Sure, I recently had a few occasions where I had minor burning after touching more sensitive skin, but it washed away fairly quickly.
Today, I was in trouble.
When I went to the store and bought jalapenos for a dish that I decided to make, I marveled at not only the abundance of jalapenos, but their sheer size.
They didn’t look like the usual puny things I buy, so I thought they must be in season.
Damn right, they were in season!
I thought I was going crazy and maybe mixed some cleaning fluids and was now paying the price.
I’m about to coat my fingers in Neosporin to see if it works. It’s all I’ve got at this point.
I was intrigued by the antacid suggestion, so I even busted up Tums and diluted in water as it was all I had on hand.
Not quite the result I was looking for.
Let’s just hope that it stays at this pain level and doesn’t progress through the night. Otherwise, I don’t want to have to call in sick and tell my Hispanic coworkers how the white person doesn’t know how to chop jalapenos properly.
Thank you, Tina. The vinegar/water solution totally worked!
I cut up 4 – only 4! – jalepenos on Saturday night. Now it’s Tuesday morning. And anything hot triggers the return of the burn. Seriously? At least it’s 90% more mild than it was Saturday night. I will NEVER, ever, ever work with jalepenos again.
Talked to a chef…wash hands in milk or cream
Use bathroom cleaner spray with bleach in it. Sounds stupid but I swear to God it was instant and permanent!! Nothing else worked so give it a try 🙂
My 10 yr old helped with cream cheese filled jalapenos wrapped with bacon and several hours later her fingers were on fire. I felt really bad being that I had her help me with that but had to find a solution for my baby. Started looking on internet thinking I was going to have a hard time finding my answer. Tried several of methods I read about but yours finally did the trick. BATHROOM CLEANER WITH BLEACH! Thank you!
Ok, just had this happened. Googled it after trying hand soap, dish soap, vinegar, and coconut oil with no success. Tried clorox cleanup with bleach. I feel so much better. Thank you guys
I was deseeding jalepenos from the garden without gloves. Then the burning started…….I used lemon juice first to no avail and then rubbing alcohol. Finally what I found worked the best was Walgreens Aloe Vera Cooling Spray Gel. It’s used for sunburns. I sprayed that on my hands and felt instant relief. The burning came back again a bit later, so I sprayed it on again. The burning never came back. Good luck!
You should try to habanero and cayenne peppers. I cut and sliced several pounds for drying and canning 2 days ago.
I’m tough so I decided not to make a special trip to get gloves (I forgot to get them the first trip). Needless to say, I was on fire. I have tried everything listed. My burning will lessen and then come back. Still as I type I am felling the tingling of a thousand needled on my hands.
Make that special trip to get gloves!!
From first hand experience… please, please, PLEASE, if you’re cutting up jalapenos maybe think twice about getting intimate with your partner… there are worse places to burn than your hands…
I was once burned by a jalapeno peper and i put some a and d vitamin ointment it emmediatly cured my pain.
so my wife just did all of the above and now is worried that she will not be able to eat the jalapeno peppers anymore? urgent care dr. said to be careful now that this has happened. anyone who experienced this go back and eat them with no problem? worried that if ingested after this it could be worse?
Should be fine. I use Jalepenos 2-3 times per week. I constantly burn my hands and have absolutely no problem eating them. I got a pretty hot bunch today, and am suffering from cutting, deseeding, devaining 15 hot Jalepenos. Luckily for me the Aloe Vera Gel is helping. But really, I don’t think your wife will have a problem eating them.
I am currently in this predicament. I hardly ever do anything with jalapenos and thought nothing of it, luckily only my left hand is on fire right now. Just poured some rubbing alcohol on my hand and soaked it in milk…and I’m pretty sure it just spread the burn. I’m currently resorting to holding a cold beer while drinking it and hoping I forget about the burn. Of course, I will probably go thru every suggestion that was put on here until that time. And my mother’s loving piece of advice was “don’t take your contacts out with jalapeno hands or if you do make sure to have a new pair tomorrow because your contacts will burn.”
Never heard of this before tonight. Cut up one jalapeno pepper and took out the seeds using my finger and about one hour later the burning started and gradually got worse until I realized what was happening. Googled it and got here. Meanwhile I tried washing with Dawn, heavy degreaser, and egg whites which only helped for a little while. I had a stain on my shirt and used OXYCLEAN spray and put that all over my hands, the burn never came back!!! The enzymes in OXYCLEAN totally neutralized the burning!! Perfect! Thank you OXYCLEAN laundry spray!!
Good Grief!
These stories are hilarious, and I am pretty ashamed to say that I have had this issue not once, but am at this very moment in terrible pain!
The first occasion, I had been working in the kitchen all day washing and preparing jalapenos for stuffing and freezing. I was out of gloves, and I had been washing my hands constantly, but got so involved with the process, that I eventually forgot. Towards the end of getting all of the peppers finished, I noticed that my hands were really starting to tingle, and by the time I had the kitchen cleaned up, they were on fire!
In the middle of washing them again, I received a phone call from a friend who had an urgent prayer request, so I stopped everything and hit my knees in the living room and began praying. At some point during prayer, I had covered my face with my hands, and it didn’t take me long to realize that my face was on fire!!! Eyes, nose, cheeks, everywhere my fingers had touched, was now blistering with the heat. So then I had to start praying for myself! It was horrible, to say the least.
I tried everything I could think of to stop the pain, to no avail… Finally, I was like, “ok God, I was trying to do the right thing, can you please help me out here?”… That worked 😀
However, it did not stop me from making the same mistake again. This time I had gloves, and had been wearing them throughout the whole process(canning pickled jalapeno rings), but towards the end of finishing up, I had already taken my gloves off, and was wiping off everything before I jarred the rings and put them in a hot water bath. I use a spoon and canning funnel, so I didn’t bother with gloves. Big mistake! Once I filled the jars, I packed them in with my fingers before adding the juice. It was just a little contact, but whatever!!! My right hand feels like its in a pot of boiling water!!! I promise, if I live through this, I will not make this mistake again!!!
Now I’m off to soak in vinegar water 😀
lol i do it every year. i clean the seeds out of a 1000 or so peppers that i grew in of my garden and for five days my arm and hands hurt and every thing i touch burns. the only thing that takes it away is time.
Try Orajel or other toothache cream. It’s basically same as what is in sunburn cream like Solarcaine but more powerful. It’s a number.
ok Ijust did this about 2 hours ago. I was makeing jalapenopoppers the ones with cream cheese and bacon for a poolside bbq. afterI hadfinished my fingers started burning like crazy. i had checked several sites. i tried soaking in milk, lemon juice, and by accident i just tried witch hazel thinking i grabbed rubbing alcohol. it seemed to work for a few minutes in fact the burning sensatin has gone from 20 down to like 4. i then washed my hands with some antibacterial soap to get the smell off. i will be going to do it again in just a few but it seems to be working better that anything else is. i wanted to try the vinigar but i dont have any. i know that vinigar works on actual burns and sunburns like in mustard but not sure about this one. my fingers are hurting still so i think i will go soak them again in hopes that the stinging will go away soon.\
Going to a party, bringing appetizers, I never made before.
40 stuffed jalapenos wrapped in bacon.
It didnt hit me until I had cut, deveined, boiled, stuffed and wrapped all 40.
I wont bother to describe the burn, as Im sure that anyone reading this found this site after googling, just like I did…….desperate for relief.
I tried Buttermilk, goo-gone, soap, vinegar, goo- gone, soap, vinegar, goo-gone, soap, vinegar. not sure how many times as the self-prescribed wine/ painkiller combo has left me slightly less than cognizant.
I’m off to the part. I’m bringing with me:
-80 stuffed jalapenos
-My personal bottle of wine
-A pitcher of vinegar water (for when I cant live without a dip).
I’ll smell fabulous, and hopefully the apps will be well recieved.
Never, and Im talkin’ never….will I ever forget the gloves again.
God bless us……every one.
My OH thinks I made it up! I cant remember everything I used but tried stacks of things always, always wear gloves.
Oh how I had horrible Jalapeno Hands last night! The poor bags under my eyes were also on fire. My husband thought I was nuts until I showed him my red swollen finger (although my whole hand was on fire!) Thank you for sharing!
Had a horrible jalapeno burn today on both hands! Tried aloe, baking soda, milk, cool water…just about everything. Nothing worked and the “on fire” feeling was starting to creep up my wrists and arms. My husband suggested trying Gojo or Orange Goop, since it’s used to remove oils and residue from working on cars. Totally worked! It was almost instant! Just had to scrub real good and rinse! It did dry my skin out big time, but so worth not being in pain anymore. Highly recommend the Orange Goop for the jalapeno burns.
Oh boy, reading these are funny……….except for the pain. I made salsa this morning and only cut up 3/4 of a small jalapeno. I tried oil and soaking in milk, the burn just keeps coming back to unbearable in about 10 min. I have cut up many jalapeno peppers before and have never had burning like this.
PS….I did milk and rubbing alcohol too but baking soda seemed to work the best.
This has been a painful learning experience. Unfortunately this article being the first hit on my google search did NOT help! heh…I dipped my hands in a banking soda paste, let it sit, then washed it off with cold water. Repeated 3x. Then I used an over the counter after-burn remedy. The pain kept coming back in waves for awhile but now (2 hours later) it’s a lot better. I was only chopping one jalapeno though.
Phew!!!
Ha Ha Ha I really should not laugh. It hurts like heck! I have doused my hands in Bikini Zone creme, It is a top-ical analgesic for irritated skin from shaving in the bikini area. The active ingredient is lidocaine. Whew! Lesson learned, gloves next time.
wash your hands with rubbing alcohol to get all the oil off. Soak hands (affected area) in a baking soda and milk paste for at least 30mins, and the pain will start to slightly go away. cold water afterwards when needed. motrin for pain. 15 hrs later, good as new!!
my cousin has her hands in ice water constantly so she cant type, I want her to try the ” pee ” solution (LOL) because nothing has worked so far (eggs,acetone,milk,mustard,dawn,salt etc.)….. me i would head for the liquor store , wine is my drink of choice maybe i would get a shot of tequila to go with the jalepenos , alcohol numbs me and wear glov es next time… her salsa was very good.
I eat and handle jalepenos all the time. Yesterday, I was making salsa & cut up only 3 jalepenos and shortly after my fingers were burning so intensely it was scary. My boyfriend & I tried everything – milk, oatmeal, lemon, alcohol with aspirin, coffee grounds, butter, cucumber, sugar, tobacco (works really well for stings), baking soda, ice. My boyfriend called his Mom who then called her friend who is 90 & has all kinds of cures for many ails & she said SOAK IN VINEGAR DILUTED WITH WATER, I only had apple cider vinegar & IT WORKED. Till I found the cure the only relief I found was cold running water.
vinegar is workin now. when i read this i remembered my mom using this for sunburn
Ok so I was cutting some Scotch Bonnet peppers here (the brown ones), these are *literally* 300,000 times hotter than the average jalapeno, these are a joke compared to this pepper in the caribbean, look it up. I couldn’t do anything, the back of my hands were on fire. I tried lime and handsoap and some other stuff but nothing worked of course. Then I saw this, diluted 1/4 bottle of white vinegar with some tap water and bam, 5 minutes it was like the past 2 hours of pain never happened with only some slight discomfort, maybe another 5 and it would have disappeared completely. Good remedy.
Hi, my wife had this pepper burn last night and we tried everything – lemon juice, vinegar, dish soap, mylanta, window cleaning spray, gum paint. The thing that worked best was Aloe (or Aloe Vera) Gel. First application lasted half hour and second was able to get her thru night.
Ok. I’ve tried everything above. Ouch. Nothing seems to keep the burn away. Washing things off makes it worse. Alcohol helps a bit for a bit. Aloe and honey a bit. I think wine is my next try.
I’m so thankful for this blog! I decided to make my delicious guacamole last night. The adventure started around five pm, when I decided to seed the jalapenos, bare handed. All was well and the guac was a big hit. Around ten pm I started complaining that my hands were tingly and slightly irritated. By midnight my hands were feeling hot, but I somehow managed to fall asleep. At three am I woke up and my hands felt as though they were on fire! I searched the internet and tried the vinegar, salt, baking soda and aloe. At six am, I rushed to the store for milk and yogurt. the milk helped as long as they were submerged. I’m at a point now where I can keep them exposed to air for about 15 minutes. As I type, my left hand feels as though it’s sitting on an open fire. Another 30 minute milk soak and I’m off to get mylanta!
These stories are hilarious because they sound just like my experience. I was cutting up a jalepeno for a soup that I was making. I have cut up peppers in the past with no problem so I thought nothing of wearing gloves. I cut and de seeded the jalepeno, made the soup and was fine…until about 2 hours later when my thumb strangely started to burn. I had cut my fingernail earlier so I thought maybe some lime juice had gotten under my cuticle. I washed my hands but it only got worse. Then all of the sudden the pain spread to the both my hands and now they were both ON FIRE! The pain was like nothing I had ever felt before. I tried milk, soap, cold water, burn spray medication we had here, oil. Nothing was working. The pain got so bad I started thinking I had gotten some poison oak in the backyard. I asked my boyfriend if he had seen any. I grow a garden and had pulled some ivy from growing on my tomato plant so I thought that must be it. Lol. I couldn’t fathom that a damn jalepeno could cause so much pain! The pain spread up past my wrists and lasted for about 4 hours and I really thought I was going to have to go to a doctor if it didn’t stop soon. Finally after I washed my hands about 30 times in several types of soap it got better. All this from one! I can’t imagine the pain some of these people below who were working with pounds of them! Ferocious little things. But it is pretty funny to read that I am not the first person to google ‘jalepeno hands’ 🙂 Shay K.
I just traumatized a five year old. I was cutting thai chillies and jalapenos to freeze. My husband sprayed the child with sunscreen to swim in the pool, but didn’t do her face. I washed my hands briefly and proceeded to put zinc oxide on her face and rub it around. Immediate misery and crying. We tried everything–lemon, heavy cream, and ice. After about a half hour she stopped crying, but I was a wreck. Cortizone 10 Ointment and AfterBite(insect stick) have lessened the stinging on my hands considerably.
i’m a med student and granted we still pretty much know nothing… but i’ve NEVER felt pain like this, nor felt more lost on how to make it stop. I was just about to wake someone up to take me to the ER and i’ve literally never gone to the ER before in my life (knock on wood) when I decided to google this instead.
My story: cutting jalapenos and I guess I really roughed up one of my hands cooking dinner … its been buring for 7 hours now. I also had the intelligence to rub my eye before the pain set in before I had washed my hands… and let me say… i’d take the burning eye over my hand anyday. The eye burn went away in 3 hours.. I took a piece of a paper towel, soaked it in milk, and wrapped it around an ice cube and held that to my eye.. i was also doing this with the hand that also got the burn on it so I didn’t notice until my eye got better that my hand kept burning. so for four more hours I kept holding the ice cube milk combo thingy and it would hold off the pain but if i took it off for second it would come back. finally it got so bad without the cube that i thought my finger tips were going to fall off.. so I looked up remedies and tried to wash my hand under hot water with dishwashing soap.. the pain was a 10/10 and this brought it down to an 8/10 so at least i didn’t feel like I needed to go to the hospital.then people kept writing try rubbing alcohol, windex, etc – dont have any of that stuff so found some NAIL POLISH REMOVER WITH ACETONE and its so much better than the ice. the pain is so much less now.. probably a 3 or a 4.. i can type with the hand and I just keep dabbing my hand on the cotton every few minutes.. and it SEEMS like its steadily decreasing.. i’m hoping this keeps it at bay enough for me to fall asleep considering I have to be awake in 4 hours.
try cortizone 10. i just got done cutting up jalepenos, and washed my hands twice. then i made the mistake of scratching my nether regions (we all do it) and got a burning sensation so bad down there that i was in tears. i put some cortizone 10 on it and got instant relief. it still burns a little but its completely bearable now.
P.S. I just wrote up my own pepper experience on my blog: http://ahappyvalentine.blogspot.com/2011/07/dont-try-this-at-home.html
I tried many of these treatments with no help for my burning hands. Finally, after 12 hours, the burning has subsided. I think the best thing to do is just hold on to an ice bag for comfort, and wait it out. I’ve enjoyed reading all these comments in the mean time though. 🙂
Finally some relief!! Lanacane. Then, about 10 minutes later, thoroughly washed hands in HOT water and used dishwashing liquid (Dawn). I did this three times, wash and rinse in HOT water. Calamine. Leave on for another 10 minutes. Rinse off in cool water. Spray on Poison Ivy treatment. I think it’s alcohol-based and it doesn’t leave your hands greasy.
The burn comes back after awhile and I just repreat the steps, but washing my hands with cool water and regular hand soap.
Geesh! Why don’t recipes warn people about this!
Holy moley! That must of hurt. Here’s my story: I was paring some jalapenos last night to make cream cheese and bacon grilled jalapenos. and for like 5 hours and 30 minutes I had felt like my hands were in an oven! I don’t remember all, but I tried: Icy water (helped the best), flour, lemon juice, ketchup, hair gel, mouthwash, Eucerin , warm milk, toothpaste, and then FINALLY honey did the trick. Then I had to squeeze frozen packs and sponges for like another hour. I just went to sleep holing a pack in each hand, and when I woke up this morning, it stopped burning! Hallelujah!
I like you tried everything as well. Only thing helped for me was holding ice packs and falling asleep. By morning they felt 80% better. Still not 100% but better. Worst feeling in hands ever.
I just happened upon this through google, while suffering from the same problem. Tried lemon juice with no relief, went through our first-aid/medical supplies and found Calamine lotion, and to my enjoyment it worked! I let it sit for a few moments, then washed it off with warm water and soap. Good luck to anyone with Jalapeno burns!
I found the pee and milk soak (no milk here, so I used kefir instead) suggestion and tried it after using the hottest water and detergent suggestion, both of them about an hour ago, and am pain free. Don’t know which worked, maybe the combination.
Interesting. Could this be a breakthrough?
So far nothing is freakin’ working! got my right hand in milk and ice and it’s goin’ numb, but know that when i take it out, will prob be still fighting this horrendous pain. Our first garden and had jalepeno peppers, but I’LL NEVER CUT ANOTHER ONE AGAIN!!!
My hands burn so bad. If you are reading these comments to find relief it is already to late. The only thing you can do now is treat the pain. Any pain relief cream, or burn cream will do. If all else fails, calamine spray will dull the pain if you have nothing better. I am going to bookmark this page to see if anyone comes up with a solution.
Love all the painful comments
I have one that takes the cake.
I was working in a kitchen as a sous chef, we were making some kind of
Habanero salsa. I took a quick break to go to the restroom before dinner rush. Had to go number 1. Know where this is going? My unit was burning for a full day with no relief available! It felt like it was literally on fire! What could I do stuff it in sour cream? Yogurt? Ice water? I could not concentrate on anything! One of the most painfull experiences in my life!
Word to the wise, wear gloves when cutting peppers and go to the bathroom before you start cutting!
none of this shit works.. the hot water/dawn/milk thing seemed hopeful.. but my hand are just sticky and burning even worse.. i used a glove on one hand that i touched the seeds with, the other i didn’t protect..i don’t understand how this hurts so freaking muchhhhh.. i want to chop these hands off!!!! nothing has worked.. alcohol (NO!), bleach (NO!!!) The vegetable or cooking oils- don’t work either. I dont know what to do.. This is agonizing! DO NOT HANDLE ANY HOT PEPPERS WITHOUT GLOVES>> JUST DONT DO IT!!!!!
ok ya my aunt told me to wair gloves im 22 do u think i listened negative so my hands have been burning since 6pm its now almost 4am i tried toothpast which made it burn worse cold water ice musterd icecream aloe gel vegtible oil n water then got on here tried hot water n soap did not work but burned like wild fire so since im a cosmetology student i thought i need to clean out the pores right so i got my peel off facial mask out n put it on my hands put them n front of the fan n waited for it to dry peeled it off n the pain had went away alot but not completely so i did it again omg the pains gone ugh my hands fill so much better n im goin to bed hope it works for u to o ya my face peel is australian tea tree oil and vitamin E works awsome
So I cut up 2 serrano peppers, which I have done a dozen times before. I never knew you could get burned, but I think I made the mistake of washing with hot water when I was done, because it didn’t burn prior to that. I think the hot water opened my pores and let the pepper oil soak in. so long story short, I tried a million and one things, but the combo that finally worked for me was, the hottest water I could handle, dawn dish soap, I did that 3 times and then soaked in hot milk, I used whole milk. Then after soaking for about 10 min, I peed on my hand. I know it sounds grose, but urin is steril. And hey, it helped. It still burns a bit, but nothing like it was. Thank you for all your advice everyone!
I tried everything northing works but relief comes from rubbing you fingers on limes for about 30 mins
Hi!
I’ve become a jalapeno lover and was fascinated with the comments. I garden, learned about rubbing the pepper on my arthritic ankle (amazing relief!) and capsaicin. I have some green peppers right here with me now. I rubbed the ankle, pain gone, and seperated out the seeds. I did use a plastic fork and knife to do that! I had some nacho chips with some shreeded cheddar cheese with spicy ranch dressing and tiny bits of pepper and it was hot but tolerable. I am not an adventurer, lol, but, how do these people bite the pepper itself and go MMMMMMM!!!!! LOL!
My daughter had same issue. We put on Silver Sulfadiazine cream 1% with great results. Used by police to cure pepper spray burning!
tried all the things submitted from lemon juice to aloe vera nothing worked. tried the hot water dawn hot water warm milk treatment minimal pain. auctually no pain til i touch stuff i touched with jap hands . guess i will clean everything. try it it will help!
Tried the hot water,dish soap,milk……still on fire, then put some burn cream after seeing the last post I remebered I had some……relief:)
we’ll I was reading everyone’s stories about “THE BURN” of “Jalapenos”…and I cut them and took out the seeds like a champ, and then washed my hands and….THE BURN! I tried all I could, the oil, dawn, mayo, creamcheese, rubbing alcohol…I tried these things over and over…Nothing seemed to work, but I remember my Mom got a perscription for burn cream, went to her house got the cream, used it…the 1st time , got some relief, waited 25 min later used some more…the burn is gone…So, If anyone does go to the Emergency room or Dr’s.. get some cream…It is called Silverdene cream. Next time I will be wearing gloves, but they say it can sometimes go through them…If so..get the Silverdene cream. I’am feeling my hands now, and the burn is totally gone.
I thought of the “Pee” thing then I thought about it and Pee has acid in it but it has ammonia in it too…so I tried Windex. It took the pain away almost immediately. I just sprayed it on> Then when I washed it off. the pain came back! Tried the oil and hot water thing with Tea tree oil, that worked for awhile too! I hate that the pain comes back especially under my thumb nail. Maybe if I only had it on my surface skin instead of under my nail it would be controlled by now.
O.K. now I will compare the other treatments with the “Pee” thing….B right back!
O.K. the pee thing burns like heck Under my nail ouch! I let it be on my hand for 10 seconds. started to ease pain, the I rinsed it off. Pain left while washing off with water. Came back a little less but it still hurts..think! Think! Got it!
Lidocaine cream helped. if I has Oragel or Preperation H I would try it. still under my nail is the worst!
i am trying to keep my husband’s hands from burning..and he says to write, “nothing f’ing works”
Well….consider me jalapeño victim # Nth…..my fingers in left hand are burning. The funny thing is I cut up (seed, stem and all) bare hand and eat the whole thing with no problem. I sure get minor burns here and there but it usually goes away after washing it off. This is a different case, it’s been about 3 hours now and still burning. The irony is didn’t even noticed it’s hotness when I was eating it, but my fingers are on fire.
Well, I am going to try hot water wash with soap, then the oil, then vinegar (substitute for the pee suggestion) along my trial and error, I hope I find a remedy that works……I don’t have cocoa butter though:) hahah. Anyway, interesting post and my pain is manageable …..see I’m typing, I just hope to remember not to touch my ……when I pee nor forget and take of my contact lesses 🙂
Well, I have no solution, but at least I’m laughing right now. I cut only one pepper this morning to make some salsa. Within a half hour my hands were “tingling”, and within an hour they were on fire–red and very hot. After showering they were worse and I began to wonder if I was destined for the emergency room. But I waited it out and by this evening they started to calm down…until about an hour ago when I started cooking dinner, and they started to flare up again. I started thinking maybe it wasn’t the jalepeno and that maybe I had some weird disease instead. So I headed for Google. I had only entered the words, “burning” and “hands” when Google suggested “burning hands from jalepeno”, and I followed a link to this site. I’m relieved and amused–to the point that I think I can now withstand the suffering–all in the name of a good story.
All I can say is “S.O.B. this hurts alot!!!!!” I never heard of this happening and my friend gave me about 12 jalapenos. I put 3 in my salsa ( I used canned last year.) Then I decided to cut up the rest and freeze them for future use. I’ts been 7 hours now and I’ve held an icecube nearly the whole time. Decided to google this and have come to realize the amount of trouble I’m in for. Have tried just about everything that has been suggested that I have here at the house. The dawn and hot water hurts sooooooo soooooooo much that when you stop it actually feels good….for awhile. I have some lidacaine patches here and I’m currently trying that and the heat is starting to come back. I’m drinking lots of water so I can try the pee tecnique next. This will make a great story tomorrow, right? I do hair and have to use this hand to wash hair tomorrow…in hot water……yikes Anyways, it’s good to know I can type with one hand if I have to…and that I’m in good company…would love to party with all of you.
Just to let you know, I have messed with habanero peppers and jalepeno peppers on a regular basis. I made salsa and pickles and I cut up roughly 20 peppers. Just to note, DO NOT USE HOT WATER. This opens your pores and makes it worse. I cut up these peppers at 10 AM and no pain until I got in the shower at 6 PM. The only thing that I tried after reading all these posts were alcohol swabs. Worked like a charm, well at least I am typing right now. Just thought I would throw my two cents in. I was a firm believer in gloves are for sissys but I think I will go against pride next year when I make my salsa.
Well, I don’t have a cure for you (though lime juice seems to work for me, but I have wonky chemistry) but I do know something that helps prevent this. If you don’t want to wear or don’t have gloves you can try rubbing your hands down with EVOO PRIOR to handling the peppers. Make sure you get the oil under nails and massaged into the cuticles. It makes slicing and dicing the peppers a tad more like an exercise in skill since everything is super slippery now, but just take your time and don’t nick yourself or you’re in for a world of hurt.
Hope that helps in the future, it does for me!
PS: I can’t take credit for this, I saw it in a movie with Penelope Cruz (can’t for the life of me remember the name, but she was an amazing chef and had severe motion sickness…can look it up on imdb.com) and decided to try it the next day in the kitchen and it worked well for me.
Making salsa with jalapeno peppers yesterday – dumb thing to do without gloves. That was about 1:45 p.m. by 2:15 I felt some burning sensation – washed my hands with soap and water. Pain started to spread around my fingers – burning. I soaked in ice water, milk, yogourt, rubbing alcohol, witch hazel, ice cream, aloe vera all with temporary relief and kept alternating these – no more ice water as I was told water doesn’t do much except spread the oils more. It was pretty extreme the burning sensation, I was crying and almost screaming – by 4 a.m. I was almost falling asleep still with my hands in ice cream alternating with rubbing alcool when I thought why not try cottage cheese – it’s dairy like milk or yogourt or ice cream – just maybe. So I did and within minutes – the burning subsided a bit that I was able to sleep with some burning sensation left but manageable. Walk up at 7 for an appointment with no more pain. No more jalapenos for this lady.
What works really good is poison ivy treatments or creams. it gets all of the jalapeño oils out.
Hi,
my lip got burned really bad and i have tried yougrt, milk,
and natural gels. but nothing seems to work!!!!!
My lips burns sooooo bad it just kills me ! 🙁 ! :(! 🙁
any help???
-Melanie
I handled one jalapeño pepper and emptied the seeds with my hands and it didn’t burn right away. I touched my nose first and that burned like hell and I tried milk on my face and eventually that went away but when my hands started kicking in it was unbearable! I tried everything, milk, rubbing alcohol, olive oil, but it hurt all day! It might have gone away sooner if i haven’t kept my hands in ice water all day, which was the only relief I got. And after finally falling asleep, I woke up and the pain was gone! So maybe time is the only cure!
I too was in much pain after cutting up only 3 jalapenos. I found this site and read through many of the comments. I must say washing my hands in Dawn soap 3 times in as hot of water as I could stand and then I put my hands into a bowl of warm milk. After soaking them in milk for a bit I just dried them off with paper towel and didn’t rinse them. I am very happy to report it works like nothing I have tried yet. My hands are pain free. Only the odd flare up if I go near heat. Thanks for the ideas. I will be happy to sleep tonight instead of being awake in pain.
Living in Texas and eating peppers most of my life, I have learned to handle them ONLY with gloves on.
I love the taste but sometimes can’t take the heat.
okay, i cut about 20 jalapenos last night then made a huge mistake and took a hot shower…..I was in pain the worse pain ever my hands were on fire and i most have touched my lips because they were burning too…this went on for hrs and I tried everything, baking soda, milk, vegetable oil. the list goes on but nothing worked I finally just got a very ice cold bowl of water next to the bed and just put my hands in it for awhile ….i would then fall asleep to wake up again with horrible pain so i would just repeat, put my hands back in the water…….this went on from 1am to 7am finally so exhausted i feel into a deep sleep. my hands still have some pain but I can live with it 🙂 Never again will I touch a jalapeno again, lol….
Cortiad, intensive therapy cream… caked on, in front of a fan, seems to be working now after about 26 hours…. I got relief with a bag of ice, but it didn’t end it at all… I as well chopped and deseeded about a pound, spooned the seeds out with my right hand, held with my left- my left has been on FIRE for the last 24 hours, now getting a LITTLE bit better… YUMMY jalapeno sauce though, but I will never do it without gloves again, never, never, never! Typing with my right hand now, seriously, anything I touch brings it right back…. I don’t know why I was not thinking and realizing the gloves, but I will next time, I am never letting this happen again, lesson learned.
I tried the “running ur hand through hot water with soap”, works much better, because u are opening up the pores, and cleaning it out, try it.
I tried the milk and hot water, it worked so far i also put aquafor on it after. Thanks for the help.
I tried rubbing alcohol first, which didn’t stop the burning for more than a few minutes, but I imagine it served to get any remaining oil completely off of my skin. Problem after that was all of the oil that had already been absorbed.
Next I tried baking soda paste. Just mix in a bit of water and smear the paste all over the parts that burn. Let it dry for 10 min or so and then scrub it off. This reduced the pain somewhat, but it was still there.
Next I tried milk. I didn’t have any 2% or whole milk so I actually used half and half. After about 10 min of soaking, the pain was the least it had been since my whole ordeal started, but it would still come back if I didn’t continually soak my hand in it.
The whole time I’d been trying all of these remedies, of course, I’d also been searching the web for various solutions. What struck me the most was the idea of running your hands under HOT water to open up the pores and let the oil get out. So here is what ultimately ELIMINATED my pain:
1) Run your hands under HOT water. As hot as you can withstand. I know it hurts, but it’s for the best.
2) Use some kind of grease-fighting dish soap. I had Method dish soap but some other posters have claimed good results with Dawn.
3) Run your hands under HOT water again. If you can make it hotter than before, the hotter the better.
4) Put your hands in warm milk. Don’t use cold milk as it will close your pores up again and you want the milk to get in there and neutralize the oil. It might be worth noting that I used half-and-half since I only keep skim milk in the house.
This completely stopped my pain. I hope it works for other people too.
I tried the hot water method with Dawn dish soap and then the warm milk, worked pretty darn good, thanks for sharing, thought I would have to go to the emergency room till I read your post thanks
I cut about 30 jalapenos in half and filled them with cream cheese and wrapped them in bacon. I began at 5pm and it is now 9:30pm. I have tried everything listed except pee and my hands are still on fire. I scrubbed them with sugar and that seemed to work but as I now am typing the pain is coming back and the relief was only for about five minutes. I’ve never had them burn this bad after cutting jalapenos but the batch I got this time were really hot. This really sucks.
I did the same thing last wknd. I cut and deseeded 20 jalapenos, filled them with chicken and cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. It was my first experience with them, ( no gloves) and I will NEVER forget it! During the cutting, they had me coughing, and about 20 minutes later my hands were burning horribly. I thought I could even feel it in my arms. I tried all kinds of crazy things…. someone said to try vinegar, but there was none in the house so I smeared my hands in pickle relish. Since it had been in the fridge it felt good until it warmed up. Then I tried butter, mustard, sugar, and pickle juice. They all provided a little relief while they were cold. I tried toothpaste, I thought that helped, but only for a few minutes, then it burned again. The only thing that really really killed the burn was keeping my hands in a cooler full of ice water. Everytime I took them out, it was agony again. My fiance learned how to take out my contacts…lol. I couldnt sleep for many many hours that night, and I kept a cup of ice water by the bed to dunk my hands in. Eventually the pain went away in my right hand, and i fell asleep with my left in the cup of water. The next day, my hands felt normal again, except the finger tips in my left hand still burned a tiny bit. The pain lasted for about 10-12 hrs. HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE!
I made the same recipe. started at five and here i am now 2 am and still in pain! in one hand!!!!! im sitting here ice bag in hand, trying to freaking find SOMETHING to do about it..
OMG child birth did not last as long!!!!!!!! I tried all the remedies. I tried oil, vinigar, and OMG my hands hurt so badly I can not remember everything I have tried. I also tried the sunburn stuff….aloe, solarcane. vinigar, WTF nothing is working. I took benedryl, drinking, everything………..NOTHING WORKS!…..I ran my hands under cold water, it works for a while…off and on. Than the ice thing, ice in a plastic bag rubbing my hands for a while…..that is the only thing that has worked for me
Okay, so I’ve dealt with jalepano peppers before and never had a problem. Had never done much research, so wasn’t aware that I needed to wear gloves when cutting.
Today, OMG!!! I cut ONE, just ONE jalepano pepper and a couple hours later my left hand was BURNING!!! Since I was holding the knife with my right.
Remedies are going to very based on each individual person’s chemistry, but for me, baking soda mixed with water is a HUGE relief and is helping greatly. The idea is, after all, to neutralize the acid. Baking soda does that. But, if you’ve dealt with a lot more than one pepper, it might not work as well.
Plus, make sure you drink lots of water or OJ to help neutralize the acid from within as well.
So far so good for me. Considering the fact that I cut the jalepano about 11am this morning and my hand didn’t really start burning until I got in the shower at like 4:30/5:00ish pm this evening, I figure I’ve been doing pretty good over some of the stories I’ve read. It’s 7:30ish pm now, so only a couple of hours of pain so far and with the baking soda paste helping, I should be in good shape when I go to bed tonight. ::Crosses fingers::
ALl I can say is Penetin and baby powder worked wonders for me!!!!
I just made some guacamole dip, I used one Jalepeno pepper, so I figured I would be good and didn’t bother with gloves. WRONG, my figers are burning a little along with the side of my cheek that I touched. But all this is nothing in comparison with my lips, I’m not sure if I licked my fingers or what by my lips are on fire, I’ve been sucking on ice cubes and sticking my lips to my frosted beer trying to keep them cool. I drank a small glass of milk but everything has been temporary relief? I saw the post about rubbing alcohol, I’m still not sure if that is a bad joke or not? I think I plan to wait it out and just walk around with purple lips until the swelling goes down. If this is happening to my lips, I can’t imagine what my cornhole will feel like. 🙂
I only cut one JA, but boy was it potent! Started feeling the tingles in my cuticles and fingers withing 30 minutes. I used baking soda and water, as well as sanitizer, which both helped a bit. I found that I also got relief using Technu…It’s a wash for poison ivy and oak. I suspect it removes the JA oils just like the poison oak oils. I’m lucky to have had it at home – as an avid hiker in northern CA it’s definitely an essential! If you can find it, I’d suggest it! Using it as soon as possible is probably best, though
Newley – I love that my story has attracted so much attention. 5 years later it’s still a funny read and it makes me laugh to look back at that night.
Great stuff.
CDaw
Absolutely, Chris! It’s amazing that your agonizing experience has attracted thousands of readers and over 250 comments. You should harm yourself in kitchen accidents for our entertainment more often! 🙂
The quickest cure I’ve found is to take some type of oil, vegetable, baby, etc. and rub on your hands for about 15 minutes….I used this because I read on another post that the capsacium is oil soluble….as I rubbed the oil into my hands it turned white and I rinsed my hands with the hottest water I could stand…I rinsed and reoiled my hands for about 15 to 20 minutes and could feel the heat and sting leaving my hands….this worked very well for me….you can tell when you’ve gotten most of the capsacium out of your hands as the oil you are “washing” your hands with will eventually be the normal color…Hope this helps, it sure did for me….
Thanks so much for your remedy with the vegetable oil and hot water. I tried vinegar, alcohol, sour cream, bactine, baking soda and the only thing that helped was rubbing in vegetable oil, cleaning my hands with an olive oil based soap and hot water and then reoiling and rubbing it in for 15 to 20 minutes. The pain has finally subsided and I hope I can get a good nights sleep. Hope this helps others that are crazy enough to work with hot peppers without gloves.
This worked like a charm. It still stings but I repeated the oil (I used olive oil, but switched to veg oil). I also used Melalucea oil (tea tree oil) in between to help take the sting out. I did more oil messages and the hottest of H2O rinses, as I am a surgeon and have surgery tomorrow! The hot H2O rinse was the killer! I turned up the heat and thought this worse than child birth! But it worked and I can do surgery tomorrow!! Best advise and I shall wear gloves next time.
So… I found this Stuffed Chicken with Jalapeno’s and crm. cheese recipie and made it tonight for din din. Sounds good hey? Well I dont know if it was good or not because my hands have been soaking in milk for hours!!!! Yep, I didn’t use gloves. First time with jalapeno’s! While my food was in the oven my hands started to burn. I looked online quickly on how to stop the burning and the milk was the first thing I read, so i tried it. while my hands were in there it was good but taking them out it burned. Tried the soap and hot water.. nothin. so as im typing this i have an over abundance of alo vera on my hands which seems to be calming the pain. nice thing is since your hands are wet you can blow on them to cool them even more. I know sounds silly but…. Im not peeing on my hands
I will never formally admit this, but it worked.
I peed on my hand, soaked it in plain cold yogurt and wiped it off, not rinse. im gross, i know, but my hands dont hurt
Cocoa butter works wonderfully, thank you Gene, i tried everything.
Okay, I don’t know if this has already been posted. Honestly, I didnt’ want to weed through all the comments. I was looking for a cure for a friend. I do, however, have a little advice. The best advice I can give is prevention. If you will cut and de-seed your peppers under cold, running water, it helps to close up your pores and prevent the oils from absorbing into the skin. If you are still affected by the oils, try wearing gloves while cutting your peppers. Also, if the fumes seem to overwhelm you, put a bandana or other cloth over your mouth and nose while cutting peppers. Hope this helps.
I’ve never experienced anything so painful as when I mistakenly carved out the seeds and membranes of 3 serrano peppers with my fingers. I suffered overnight, holding onto ice cubes constantly. I fond the remedy after trying everything in the house. Palmer’s Cocoa Butter Formula, balm. Coated my hands with it and 20 minutes after it gets absorbed by your skin, RELIEF! I guarantee it works.
Ok, whoever said Urine. Thank you!! I cannot believe I just did this, but my hands feel so much better.
The toothpaste made it feel a little better, but it still hurt. Hand sanitizer did nothing for me.
yep the peeing helped me too,then constant washing with soap,soaking in ice water,mouth wash- but it fianlly diapeared totally after i had my hot shower and put on talc powder!!
try a bit of everything i say but ice water is instant releif till you get a plan 🙂
I am rolling on the floor. I have jalapeno pepper hands, too. Sanitizer seems to help.
I only did one J and my hands are STILL burning after 2 days!!!!! I have tried everything and more, I have had the contact trauma, I have had the bathroom trauma, its all bad. I didn’t feel any burning for hours afterwards. I have never had any kind of reaction like this before. Not only will I use gloves next time but I will wear 2 pairs of gloves.
As the reference keeps heading back to the poison oak sort of issue and as it is the oil in the pepper that kills us, the best suggestion I have is Dawn dish washing soap. I get bad reactions to poison oak and it is the recommendation for body, hair, clothes, shoes, bike, whatever you had with you or on you if you go through it. It works, it is the best grease cutting soap out there.
Sadly I didn’t have it in the house this time but I will have it for next time. For all the times I have cut up J for salsa and more, I have never experienced this burn before. I am NOT going to have it again. So, gloves (2 pair) and Dawn Dish Soap!!!
Good eating all!
Had worked with jalapeno’s for years. Grew them in my garden, made jalapeno jelly, no problems. Then last night I tryed to cut up a gallon size bag of them. I thought to god, I must of put my hands in a open fire. I washed them with soap and water, tryed noxezema (didn’t work), slept with my hands in ice-water all night. Still burning come morning. Went to work- they had me try- solacaine. It worked. I will never try that trick again without using gloves. I have never felt suck pain in all my life. This remedy worked for me – hope it works for you.
OMG I just did the same thing………I used KETCHUP and it WORKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oil will not work because oil holds the heat in. Salt works if you rub it between your hands to absorb the chile oil. That is why people use baking soda, baking soda is also a neutralizer of acid.
I also blame Rachael Ray for my disfortune. I cut and seeded 16 jalapenos for mac and cheese stuffed jalapenos. Then the burning started. I found this blog and tried a handful of things. My husband didn’t believe that I could be in so much pain and this made it even worse. I am not sitting here with the pain and my mouth tastes like hand sanitizer because I took the suggestion of sucking on my fingers (after I applied several applications of the sanitizer). I just wonder how long it will really last. One poster said 27 hours. Only 20 hours to go…
Gloves will now be in my kitchen drawer. I still don’t know if I will ever touch a jalapeno with my hands again.
Thank you Google for bringing me to this site quickly!Needless to say, I sliced and deseeded about 20 peppers without gloves, because really, who has gloves in their kitchen anyway?
The pain came on slowly. The burning seemed dull while I was doing dishes then all of the sudden INTENSE BURNING!
Cold water didn’t work. Next step, GOOGLE. So far I just tried the hand sanitizer since it seemed like the biggest help in these posts. And so far so good!!! It’s been about 2 hours since I chopped and 20 mins since I applied the sanitizer and the pain has subsided, not 100% but I would say 75%. I applied a good amount, about 5 applications really rubbing it in the skin and under my nails.
I think I’ll put on some more and try that tequila trick a few posts above :)…
Have been searching the web for help!!! Found one post that suggested face wash for oily faces, I’ve scrubbed once with it and it seems to be helping, I’m going to give it one more good scrub in a few minutes. You have to use really hot water and lather your hands with the face wash, I feel some relief. All I know is my husband better thank me and buy me flowers for making him this chili!!!
I managed to turn last night into a fiery hell of misery. I am only typing this today as I could not last night for fear I would melt my computer keys. About 5 pm last night I thought, wouldn’t jalapeno poppers taste great for a snack? Hmm, just think, beautiful home grown peppers stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon YUM!
Now, I considered myself a fairly intelligent person (notice the past tense), but when I decided to forge ahead and make these poppers when I had NO RUBBER GLOVES to put on, seriously, what was I thinking? I slit the little beauties and proceeded to scoop out the seeds and membranes with my bare fingers, stuff and wrap them. Perhaps I should add that we had been noticing that the peppers we grew this year seemed to be extra hot when we were putting them in other dishes, so why wouldn’t I have thought to be extra careful playing around with the seeds?
So, the little beauties are baking away and the cream cheese is starting to ooze as the bacon turns a golden crisp. I think I’ll wash up a few dishes while we wait to eat these. Hmm, this lukewarm dish water doesn’t feel so great on my hands, in fact, it feels awful. I ask my husband sweetly, “honey, can you please do the dishes, my hands are burning a bit and it is worse in the dish water”. Things went sharply down hill after that.
Within an hour, I was in complete misery. Relief only came when I had my hands submerged in cold water. About 8:00 I thought I’d just go to bed and not deal with the pain as I was tired and knew I’d fall asleep immediately. OH NO, NO, I got into bed and as I warmed up and settled in, the pain only intensified. I think at one point before I got out of bed again, I may have scorched the sheets with my hands. Ok. I’ll get up and go out on the internet, someone who is much smarter than I am will know a way to ease this pain and burning.
Oh good, I found a blog right away, let’s see what is recommended. Wow, this blog is popular. I started reading stories of other people in distress. Hmm, this is not looking good. So far, the things people have tried are not working. Some people even went to the emergency room and couldn’t be helped. It has been several hours now and I have been through several remedies people suggested, soaking in milk, rubbing in baking soda, rubbing on stainless steel, hand sanitizer, etc… Let me mention as I am doing this it is getting later and later. Dear husband is tucked away in bed with a belly full of poppers, snoring away. At this point I hate him. With each snore I feel like smothering him with a pillow if only I didn’t fear the pillow would combust when I picked it up. And of course the cats want attention. Shoo, go away, or I’ll singe your hair with a stroke of my burning hands. I go back to the bowl of cold water, it seems to be the only relief for my now shriveled hands.
To try to end this saga, it’s just about midnight and I’m afraid I’m going to fall asleep in the bowl of cold water that my hands are submerged in. I have to go to bed. Finally, I got an icepack out of the freezer, wrapped it in a dishtowel and took that to bed. Clutching it in a grip of death, I finally fall asleep only to be awaken at 2:30 when our dear dog starts barking at an owl hooting in the tree by the house. Lovely…………… Thankfully the icepack is still somewhat cool and I can return to my much needed sleep.
Dear Santa, if you are reading this, I want a full HazMat suit for Christmas. I fear I will never touch any kind of pepper again without one. I just won’t take the chance.
Oh, so how did they taste? AWESOME! They gave my husband a case of uncontrollable hiccups and I enjoyed them immensely even though I had to stick my tongue in a glass of water between bites.
Lesson learned. ALWAYS wear rubber gloves. And, keeping your hands in a bowl of cold water or using and icepack is the only way to get relief.
I made dinner for my boyfriend for the first time a few weeks ago and used raw jalapeno’s on the tostados and in the guacamole. Same problem burning up and down both arms and hands and anywhere i touched burned. After trying next to everything my mum told me to try Vitamin E oil. I initially luckily had some for scars and used a lot of the capsules for my hands and arms and the burning went away almost immediately. Hope this helps!!
I should have known better. We all should have known better, but how great is it that this is here? 4 years of jalapeno hand support! I seeded and cored 1 pound of jalapenos – no gloves and actively used my thumbs. Back of hands hurts the worst and the spots between the fingers. So far milk only helped while hands were submerged. Rubbing avacado into the skin brought temporary relief which has been extended by a liberal application of tequila both on the hands and down the gullet. The tequila technique has outlasted all other attempts including flour, dish soap, butter, etc. But then again I might be drunk.
Try soaking your hands in a full bowl of vegetable oil (I used Olive Oil) for “at least “1 hour (put a good movie on). If you have the luck of only your palms stinging, it’s late at night, and need rest, my suggestion is to take Motrin, get an ice bag from a 12 hour CVS or Walgreens. Lay bed with a thick towel on your tummy with the ice bag on top of the towel which will help to saturate the perspiration from the bottle and your palms on the ice bag; this will numb the pain and allow you to sleep. Good luck!
We garden and have a bunch of tomatoes right now. I thought I would help out my husband and peel a bunch of them for canning, along with chopped onion, chopped green peppers, and some jalapenoes. It never occured to me to wear gloves. I was using a food processor and thought that I had minimal contact. WRONG! In the process of washing off the counter, using a dish cloth, I totally covered my hands with the dreaded oil. By the time that he got home I was really suffering! I tried plain yogurt. It helped while it was cool but that didn’t last long. I dipped them in sugar and water…actually I had him pour a bunch of sugar in my hands and rubbed vigorously! Then he poured vinigar over them!! It was awful. Meanwhile,,,while we were trying to cool the burn…he kept reminding me that he was wanting to get all huggy snuggly with me! It wasn’t going to happen! Finally, I got despirate and went to Google to see what I could find. Wow! The “cure” I decided to try was the hot water and dish soap. I was relieved that, while it was TERRIBLE, it did break up the oil and relieved the pain. I soaped up with Dawn and then used a soft bottle brush to scrub the pepper oil out of my skin. I rinsed off the soap in water as hot as I could stand. It hurt…but it eased the pain. I vote for the soap and water..after the gloves of course.
holy hell…i made a dank dinner with stupid jalapenos and my hand is on fire. i knew i should of wore gloves or something but i’m an ass. i had this feeling it was going to happen since it’s happen to me before when i helped make a huge dinner for american cancer society. i seriously cleaned out hundreds of seeds in peppers. after that my hands burnt to the ground. after going pee i wiped, of course, and my hand must of brushed against my junk because my vagina was on fire for a long time. i had to serve food and clean up the rest of the night. i have no cure except to just wait it out and stop being a pussy.
I just tried most of those things and it still was hurting. So i went into the bathroom looking for the calamine lotion. I had some band aid aniseptic with lanacaine in it. One hand is much better the other is still tingling, but they are not as bad, will go and try it again since it seems to have taken some of the bite out seems like the lanacaine might help. Do you guys know that drs recommend rubs with this stuff in for OA, yeah, and it hurts just like this! I got some one time and never used it but the one time..so guess we are helping our hands uh? Hope all are better, i am still working on it stopping,its back up to hurting again one hand worse than the other.
JALAPENO PEPPER NOSE (don’t itch or rub the nose)
So I got from work today with my wife waving her hands in front of her nose as if she were watching a chick flick and could help but cry. She wasn’t quite crying but since she wasn’t watching a chick flick and seemed a little distressed (or a lot) I realized that something wasn’t quite right. She was on the lap-top seeking for a remedy while franticly asking me to get her a bowl full of cold water so she could dip her entire nose in it. Her hands weren’t burning but her nose was and she said that she felt as though it was going to burn off. She looked as though she was in agony. She said that as she was cooking she was cutting jalapeño’s for dinner and she remembers itching her nose (oh what the chef does when no one is looking 🙂 ) and she imagined that it could have been from the jalapeños that she cut up. So I got on the net and found this site and realized that she was suffering from the migratory part of burning Jalapeño hands. The burning went to her nose. Her hands never burnt. Well she stuck her entire nose in the cold bowl of water for about 10 min and then finally took it out. She says it still burn a bit but it is at least tolerable. Then in the recipe book that she was using we found the following warning under the “cook tips” section: “Wear plastic gloves when working with fresh jalapeno peppers. Their seed and membranes contain oils that will irritate your skin…” Lessons #2 don’t neglect the “cook tips”. FUNNY FUNNY 🙂
So glad I am not the only one!! Was making poppers around 6pm in the evening, just like my husband did a few weeks ago. He is unfortunately injured with a broke foot, so I did the “unfortunate” duties of making poppers this time. Cleaned out about 30 homegrown peppers, and was okay until about an hour or so after I was done. Then it hit. Gradually but with a vengeance. I had no idea what the heck was going on. Had never heard of this before, and he had not either. I tried it ALL. NOTHING helped but ice in a baggy gave instant relief. Thank goodness my mother was there, being that my husband can’t walk, and my hands were useless. I had to refill my baggy every time the ice melted (went through about 1/2 bag of ice) all through the night while sleeping on my back with my hands touching the ice baggy laid on my stomach. The last refill of ice I remember was around 2:30am. I awoke to my alarm at 5:30am with my pj’s soaked as well as my bed from the melted ice that had escaped from the baggy. There was finally relief, but I was a tired puppy. Thank GOD! Just threw a towel on the bed, and fell back in for a few more minutes of sleep. The pain slightly came back as I was getting the kids off to school. Not terrible, but it was still there. My hands just feel a little numb at this point and it is 12pm. That has to be one of the worse pains I have ever felt. I have no remedy to add, but I do have MUCH sympathy for the poor soul who has to endure this pain. This has now been deemed the husband’s job from now on!! LOL
Following up on prior blog.
I tried the butter thing, you know where you take a stick of butter and coat your hands down good with it and rub it in, let it sit for approx 5 min and then wipe it off with a paper towel. after if first tried it, it did not give me immediate relief, but in about thirty minutes all the pain had stopped.
Yaeh!!! Anyway for the next unfortunate fellow citizen that has one of those not-so-great moments
in pepper preparing. I recommend the butter!!!
Ben
I had the bright idea to make pepper jelly from my neighbors home grown jalapeno peppers. As we were picking the peppers, my neihbor explained exactly how
to make the jelly using 5-1/2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of deseeded and devained jalapeno peppers, apple cider vinegar,etc. basically just look on the surjel box if you want the recipe. Anyway, back to the delima, the one thing my neihbor did not tell me was to use gloves. i guess he assumed he did not have to tell me that, oh well i am a moron!!! Well obviously since I am sitting here typing on a jalapeno hands website you know where my story goes as well as the tremendous pain that my finger are currenlty experiencing. I have tried the milk thing, the ice water, the washing and washing and washing and washing, with no results. It almost seems that everything i try makes it worse and worse.
I am glad i found this site because i am about to try butter and hand sanitizer. if that doesn’t work, at least i have drawn some comfort from some of the other unfortuate experiences that other people have had to endure.
I only cut one small jalapeno pepper! the heat didn’t it me till several hours after and the it was brutal…tried alcohol, baking soda, and aloe..the hand sanitizer works the best! what a nightmare, next time no peppers!
USE HAND SANITIZER YOU HAVE TO KEEP APPLYING IT BUT IT REDUCES THE BURN GO OUT AND GET SOME IT WORKS.
BUTTER!! mine were burning!!!! i oculdn’t take it..i tried several tips i heard and looked up none worked….I grabbed a handful of butter let it set all over DO NOT RINSE just wipe with towel…burning stoped within 1-2 minutes!!! amazing!!
I got jalapeno hands after making a few batches of hot pepper vinegar. My Fiance laughed at me, but I was in soo much pain! After searching online, I came across a website about protesting, and how protesters get rid of pepper spray burns is to flush with a liquid antacid and water mixture (known by street medics as L.A.W.) So I soaked my hands in straight Mylanta and it gave me immediate relief! Types like Maalox and Mylanta work the best. Anyways, I’m glad I’m not the only one. I learned my lesson!
Peeled and chopped 13 jalapenos ‘coz I was canning salsa today from my great tomato harvest. Didn’t even think about using gloves. About 1 hour later the burn started and about 3 hours into it I thought I was going to go insane. Thank goodness I don’t wear contacts and knew better than to rub eyes etc.. so it was just my hands. WOW! That really hurts! Tried Dawn dishwashing detergent, rubbing alcohol, bleach, 1% hydrocortisone cream, heavy whipping cream on a wash cloth. More hand washing. Hand sanitizer. The pain started about 1pm and by 4pm I decided to head on down to the store (we own a marina & RV park so we have a convenience store) and get me a 6 pack of Coors Light. After the liberal application of 3 Coors and the whipping cream – things started getting better. Found this site and added 3 more Coors and some Gold Bond Foot Powder and by golly, it’s about 7 hours after I chopped those little SOB’s and I’m feeling pretty darn good!! My 12 1/2 pints of Salsa are looking pretty darn good too! I know for sure I’ll never cut jalapenos without gloves again. I’m thinking about 3 more Coors Lights will completely ease the pain and I’ll save the Advil for tomorrow morning!! 🙂
I tried many of the suggestions, some brought very temporary relief, others had no effect. I believe two things account for success/failure rate of all of these suggested remedies for the dreaded “pepper hand”:
Individual body chemistry and abosorbtion level of an individual’s skin.
My hands are rather dry and a little caloused, so the oils from the jalapeno were drawn deep into the surface of the skin.
Of all the remedies listed above that I tried, (baking soda, hand sanitizer, alcohol, lemon juice, calamine, etc.) FOR ME, Dawn diswashing detergent followed by body powder first loosened the oils, then absorbed them. Until that combination, only soaking in cool water brought any relief, and only lasted as long as my hands remained in the water.
I had no baby powder, so I used Gold Bond Medicated Powder, but I think probably any form of talcum or body powder would probably work. I recommend trying this first. Butt I imagine, like me, you will try the first suggestion you see to stop the intense burn.
well, i hate to admit that my wife was right. It’s gloves for me next time. Mine had been burning for about 5 hours with little relief. I tried hand sanitizer and it worked temporarily but the burning returned quickly. I think the relief was more from the cooling sensation you get when you put alchohol on your skin. The best remedy for me so far has been to soak my hands in EXTREMELY HOT soapy water. It hurts like a son of a gun but it seems to help cut some of the oil. I had to do it 4 or 5 times, dry my hands between each one then dip them again for 10-15 seconds. The pain is still there but it is managable now. Probably just have to wait it out!
I had this happen last night. I only cut one, and it got on part of two of my fingers. I sucked on my fingers. My lips tingled awhile, but my saliva must have broken down the oil, because it got much much better quickly. Good luck!
never replied to a blog before but after spending last night feeling as if my hands were stuck in an oven, I feel compelled to add on here. I too did the no gloves thing but with habenero peppers , the meaner older brother of Jalapeno. Went through all the same food remedies all night long ftom 12 -4am—no relief. Here’s the only one I stumbled after ransacking my medicine cabinet that did alleviate the pain…I coated my hands in benedryl cream and left in on till it started to dry out. I began rubbing my hands until the cream started flaking/rolling off…as it did, it seemed to almost “lift” the painful pepper oil off my hands. It was still by no means gone but I actually feel asleep for a few hours after that. Still feels like a bad sunburn but I too was debating emergency room last night….
I didn’t have time to read all these comments, so excuse me if I repeat someone’s remedy. Same story — 75 Ja’s and no gloves. Fortunately I had not put in my contacts yet, so I didn’t have to worry about getting them out later. Husband was out of town and I was in charge of his garden. Picked the Ja’s and decided to “be a nice wifey” and get them cleaned, cut and frozen. That was early in the morning — hands on fire for the better part of the day. Tried some of the stuff I read about in GOOGLE but some things just sounded worse — rubbing alcohol, degreaser and paint thinner????? What were they thinking?? Anyway, quite by accident late that night I was cutting up a watermelon and by the time I was done my hands were 90% better. Next day, my fingers are just a but sensitive at the tips. Attempted to put in my contacts — not a good idea yet!! Ate the watermelon for lunch — THE JA OIL IS IN THE WATERMELON!!! Hey, better than on my roasted fingers.
Hi,
I made poppers tonight, fresh from the garden.
They turned out great , but my hands are on fire!
I tried honey, aveno paste, lemon juice, peroxide soak, alcohol, scubbing in hot and cold water with soap, aloe vera, stainless steel ect…
The only thing that helped was ice water but it burns as soon as I remove my hands again.
I hope you all find something that brings you relief.
I’ll make the poppers again, but with gloves on :o)
I was brilliant today cutting jalapenos and serrano peppers to put in the freezer. I have only ever had very mild burn from peppers, but I usually used the canned ones from the store. Needless to say I GOT BURNED today. It kind of felt like it was getting better so I gave the dogs baths…wrong thing to do, I thought I could light a candle with my finger tips and fry and egg in my palms. After trying several of the remedies the hand sanitizer is giving me some relief. As long as I leave my hands open and not curl them up its a lot more tolerable. I work in health care and guess who’s bringing gloves home from work before anymore peppers are handled. Thanks for all the suggestions.
Cut 5 peppers by hand at 7 pm to grill. Once dinner was ready, my hands uncomfortable around cuticle and nail bed. I washed hands (again) and no improvement. If anything, pain got worse and in both hands. Have tried everything – running hands in cool water, ice pack, lemon juice, vinegar, milk soak, and hot water and soap. The milk felt the best but only with hand in it. I went to ER and guy at desk laughed at me so I bailed. Now it is almost 5 am and no sleep at all and I like to sleep. So now I am just throwing back some beers. I am not typically a beer drinker, but hell, throw it back and maybe take the edge off.
I cleaned and sliced my hubby’s harvest of jalapenos tonight. Fortunately, it was only about 2 pounds worth. I was even a big sissy and wore rubber gloves. I knew that some had leaked into my gloves, because my hands felt nice and warm 🙂 It didn’t concern me because I never had a bad reaction from jalapenos before. Well, tonight was different! Shortly after taking off my gloves, my hands went from warm to blazing fire help me make it stop!! I tried a few of the cures here – milk seemed to help a bit, vinegar – maybe, and then I saw the one about peeing on your hands ROFL – and before anyone gets all grossed out – the #1 hormone therapy for women – premarin is made from HORSE PISS . . . ok so now think about it – you’re EATING the pee of another species, and yet you’re too prissy to get your own urine on your hands. Besides, you can always go back to the hand sanitizer afterward LOL. So, I tried it, and it really did help – within a few minutes, the burn was back down to a warm glow, and now, 3 hours later, my hands are completely normal. I really just wanted to point out that premarin is horse urine so people could get things into perspective LOL. Thanks for all who gave ideas, help and encouragement. If nothing else works, pee!!
in so much pain,will give anything a go-just wished i needed to pee right now!!!!!
wow that semmed to help a little. just wish i had a bit more urine to go around. will start drinking water now ready for the second applitcation 🙂
Tried EVERYTHING now. Thank you so much! I don’t think I could’ve lasted much longer. Pee works..
First take the maximum dose of ibuprofin or tylenol. I took ibuprofin in between trying butter, milk, dishsoap, olive oil, hand sanitizer, cortizone cream and anything else I could think of. At first I thought the cortizone cream had done the trick, but when the pain got worse again after for hours and cortizone cream didn’t seem to help as much as before (it did still help some), I realized the refleif had been the ibuprofin kicking in. Definitely try the other stuff (except bleach, which I saw recommended somewhere but which will burn your hands for real) but wash your hands and take an ibuprofin first. It’s quick, it won’t interfere with your other remedies, and it worked best for me.
My boyfriend has Ja-hands too! He used this stuff called SSD it’s used for burns. It’s 1% silver sulfadiazine cream….whatever that is? He said it helped….
anyone else had similar i adjusted my underwear i had cameltoe it burns sooo bad help my privates and my hands burn
Craig! You are awesome! I tried the hot water with soap and it worked! I am a total chile head and got all excited about this cool Jalapeno popper deal I picked up in Santa Fe. 18 stuffed J’s cooked on the grill. Uber! Anyhoo, in all my excitement to try my cool little dealy, I didn’t think and didn’t wear gloves. A few hours later, the left hand is on fire! I cut the tops off, cored the little beasties and used my left hand to get all the seeds out…tap tap tap. Seeds…the worse part of the chile as far as oil concentration! I tried the rubbing alcohol…worked for a few minutes. Then I moved on to lemon juice…again, only a few minutes of relief. I made a baking soad paste and that worked pretty good until I washed it off. Then came the toothpaste, newp. I came across Craig’s post on the hot water and soap. The water seemed way hotter than it was and it was a few seconds of agony…but, it paid off. My hand feels so much better! Next time I WILL NOT forget the gloves. I am very happy that I didn’t grab the Habs instead…just thinking about that is making me cringe.
Best of luck to all y’all sufferin from Jalapeno hands. Always remember your gloves!
~amanda
I put tons of windex on a paper towel and it seems to have relieved the burning, although when I stick my thumb in my mouth, my tongue still feels the burn.
Haha I thought it would be a great idea to make salsa for my family for burritos. Now my hands are burning but before they started I scratched my eyes lets just say worse pain imaginable. I made my salsa 7 hours ago this is awful. I was trying to find something to make them stop I am off to buy Milk and Lemon juice hopefully that does the trick. Lets just say no matter how good that salsa is I will never be making it I will buy it already made
This is HELL!
Cut up only 2 jalapenos for sis’s birthday dinner. They made my eyes smart (which has never happened before)…1.5 hrs later, ,burning hands, under the nails, top lip too.
Have done milk, baking soda, honey, babypowder, ,stainless steel, antiseptic wash , astringent…
Evil.. Evil Evil…
Am holding a frozen watter bottle, pathetically typing. Hoping I have to pee soon…
2.5 hr. car ride ahead, ,oh joy 🙂
Omg! I just made 65 stuffed jalapenos for my sis”s wedding reception. I have the burning in my hands, it started at 11am and still going strong. I cant even stand outside, the heat seems to set off the burning worse. This really sucks.
ok – I tried everything to get the oils off my skin…but like many, I was too stupid to try anything until about 5 hours in, so I was stuck. Ice water to keep my hand numbed did provide some relief. But – I found the magic at about 2am…Penaten – zinc ointment that is used for diaper rash! It says right on the tin that it’s also good for scalds, sunburn, etc…and as you all know, you will try anything whne your hands are on fire…so I gave it a try. Well, it took a good 15 mins, but suddenly – IT WORKED!!! Complete relief – ahhhhhhh.
I say give it a try if you have it around – it totally worked for me. But I would caution not to try it until you’ve done everything humanly possible to wash the oils out of your skin first – then if you’re like me and it’s just too late, try the zinc cream. worked for me!!
I also read that calamine lotion works well too.
good luck everyone
i had no idea this could happen!! I’ve made poppers 2 times before and NO problem…. today I cut and cleaned 50 jalapenos and OMG my hands are on fire!! I’ve tried lemon juice…..o.k. for awhile….maybe just wishful thinking… getting scared…. big day tomorrow with daughters grad party.. i’m going to try some of suggestions on the board
Tomatoe seems to be working!
Early today I was cutting and de-seeding jalapenos to make salsa, with my bare hands.. And at first my hand also did not hurt.. but after while the pain was excuricating! I tried ice cold water, milk, vegetable oil, alcohol, vaseline, antibotic ointment and non of it worked! I’ve been having the pain for 5 hours!! My mom told me to use the antibotic ointment and it did no justice. I finally convinced my self to wash my hands and put it back into ice cold water, while washing my hands with DAWN dishwashing soap, the pain INSTANTLY went away. I believe the soap relieves the oil from our skin. But DAWN soap works!! TRY IT!
I cut my 1st jalapeno today! And I knew not to touch my face blah blah and wash my hands afterwards….but didnt realize how fast the oils can get into your skin and pores. So about an hr later…my hands catch fire. Of course I search the net for helpful pain relieving tips…and try them ALL. None of it worked, but about 3+ hrs later the pain and burning subsided. I was constantly putting something on my hands every time the sensation would come back and finally …I was free! But the most helpful I believe was putting sunburn releif liguid on my hands repeatedly. Gloves for me from now on!
Nothing is working for me!! Feel like, I have tried it all. Have been making salsa for 20 years, a little burn a few tims. Not like what I am experiencing right now! The burn has lasted for over 24 hours!! I have gotten a kick out or reading everyones stories!!
So, this isn’t a “jalapeno hands” story, but is pepper related. Late Saturday night the boy and I got tacos from from a taqueria down the street. Half way through my taco, I could no longer taste it because of the extreme burning in my mouth. I tried to scrape off the salsa and a large piece of jalapeno, a little over 2 inches in diameter, plopped on my plate. I assumed I must have eaten another large junk of pepper, drank some soy milk to dull the burn, and then thought nothing of it. The next morning I woke up with the worst allergy attack I have had in years. I had sore spots in my throat, my nose was running uncontrollably, and raw feeling allergy bumps had cropped up all around my cheeks and mouth. I was also unbelievably lethargic and weak. I’m usually pretty spry, getting up early, running up stairs, etc., but I was exhausted! I was winded walking up 2 short flights of stairs, I tried to run errands but felt like I was going to pass out after walking a few blocks. I ended up sleeping for the majority of the day and still feel tired today. Has anyone heard of an allergy attack caused by jalapeno peppers?
I don’t know if it’s the fact that is has been 24 hours since i chopped up serrano peppers or if this really did work, but i rubbed a cut piece of tomato all over my finger tips it seems to have worked. By the way I think serranos are worse than jalapenos. Who knows but either way that burns like true hell!!!
I love to make fresh salsa and made it for my new girlfriend a few weeks ago… It was delicious, no burning hands, no problems that is until later that night when we were getting “frisky”
…
Let’s just say she doesn’t let me anywhere near her after handling jalapenos anymore. Still together though 😉
My pain came from an idiotic, albeit innocent, culinary mishap. I was making huevos rancheros when I smashed a bowl w/ a mix cup & had to fish the pottery from the disposal. Lalala. I keep dicing jalapenos. Lalala. Didn’t realize the pottery had sliced up my hands. Lalala. Brunch comes out on time. Yummms… all around. Was the pain considerate or sneaky when it waited till I had loaded the dishwasher to become a red hot flame? Don’t know but I was hoppin’ around doin’ the Hotza Hotza Dance so my guy, him being a scientist, came up with this idea. Realizing jalapenos have lipoxagenaze & cumin has lipoxagenaze inhibitors he suggests I rub a cumin paste on my hand. Didn’t work but I think I’ll keep doing it coz it smells good.
From everyone’s input; relief comes in any sunburn remedy.
Ice & patience works for me. A little wine doesn’t hurt either.
THE ONLY GOOD PART THAT CAME FROM MY JALEPENO HANDS WAS READING ALL THESE SIMILAR FUNNY STORIES! GOOD LUCK ALL!
I just was cutting jalepenos and rubbed my nose with the back of my hand and had intense escalating burning. I couldnt believe how painful it was! I though we might need to go to the ER it was scary as I am in Mexico. I tried milk, soap and water and Neosporin with pain reliever and nothing really helped. I put lemon juice on it which stopped it from escalating but did not dull the pain. I cut open an Advil Liquid gel and rubbed that on my face and within ten minutes the pain was gone. Be careful not to get the gel in your mouth as it burns a little because it is so concentrated.
I chopped 1 jalapeno yesterday and experienced the worst pain of my life!!! it killed my eyes/nose/mouth for about half an hour- then that stopped and suddenly my hands were on fire for the next 17 hours. only relief was from ice cubes- nothing else remotely helped. everything’s fine now, I had to sleep with both hands in a bowl of iced water while watching 8 episodes of west wing back to back to distract from pain.
thank god for this website for making me feel less stupid.
Okay! The laughter from the stories on this site have at least made this night somewhat tolerable. My wife is in excruciating pain and we have been running through the list, trying everything. Our coffee table looks like a combination of a pharmacy and a farmers’ market.
My wife wants to be Rachel Ray and cooked a great Jambalaya Pasta dish (despite my skepticism of pasta in jambalaya). The burning on her hands has gotten worse and worse. I’m waiting for her to curse Rachel Ray (“Rachel wasn’t wearing gloves!!”) so that maybe there will be more room on our Tivo for my Daily Show episodes… and maybe even Colbert!
It seems that one of the variables here is whether the oil is on your skin or already into your skin. She’s gotten some relief from hand sanitizer, alcohol and milk, but not much lasting relief. It’s into her skin. A chef friend said there was no cure then laughed and told her to be careful going to the bathroom.
I suffered jalapeno hands yesterday and after five hours of intense burning I found this site, and it helped because some of the comments made me laugh and took my mind off the pain!
i tried everything from milk, alcohol, baking powder (which I soon learnt is NOT the same as baking soda – painful mistake), hot water, orange juice (helped a little for only for a short while), honey, face mask, powder. The only relief I got was from cool running water but I was exhausted and had to sleep.
Luckily my bed is right next to the window, so I just stuck my hands out into the freezing cold all night and that helped to numb the pain enough so I could finally sleep. In the morning they are tender but the pain has gone.
Good luck to all the future jalapeno victims, you are not alone!!
My husband made us a nice, romantic, shrimp brochette dinner…. Included several jalapeno’s! Being the good wife I am, I wanted to show him how much I appreciated his gesture… Needless to say, I felt the “burn” of his love in a way I’ve never experienced! Bad idea!
OMG!!! I was cutting up a jalapeno and accidentally rubbed my nose! The burning was intense. I found that a combination of shoving an ice cube up my nostril, playing my nose like a violin with a stainless steel spoon (has to be stainless), and swabbing Rite Aid Brand Chloraseptic spray for sore throats into my nose worked quite well. Keep fighting the good fight you all. We will emerge stronger from this.
My friend told me that peanut butter helps with Asian peppers, do I tried it far my burning jalepeno hands. The pain was lessened. Really rub it in and then rinse your hands under cool water. I will hope for relief for all of you!
I am so thankful for this website! And thankful for the internet!
Last night, hours after preparing a vegetarian dish from ‘La Dolce Vegan’ which used one serrano pepper, I was just fine. In taking a rather hot bath, I found that when my hands were in the water they BURNED. After I got out I was still in pain. Then I remembered preparing the peppers, and how going to itch my nose actually gave me a nosebleed – I thought maybe it was those peppers.
This helped me – thank you to whoever posted this remedy: rubbing alchohol, rub that oil off your hands. Then wash with soap and water. Then rub hands on a stainless steel sink. Then swathe on cortizone creme.
Again, thankful that I was spared a trip to the ER or many remedies.
If anyone is looking on this site for an answer, like I was an hour ago, try this:
Soak your hands in a baking soda paste for 10 – 20 minutes, gently rubbing. This rubs out the oil. Then soak them in cold milk (I had some 2%) for 20 or more minutes. So far this has helped me a lot. I cut up just two (but had dry winter hands, so I believe I absorbed a lot of pepper juice) but now I feel like I have almost no problem. If it comes back I will repeat this. I also had to take out my contacts. My sincere empathy to anyone who is going through this. Hang in there. (Recipes with chopped jalapeno peppers should have a little warning, in my opinion!)
LOL, its amazing how many people have had this happen! I felt stupid last night, but feel so much better after this site.
I chopped 2 jalepenos last night for my chili..deseeded them, threw them in the pot and everything was fine until i realized i accidently touched my lip before washing my hands…so after drinking vineger, eating baking soda, etc, it finally went away…i washed my hands VERY well after that. Then a few hours later took my contacts out…i have NEVER felt anything like that in my life…and…like everyone else on here, attempted to put them back in this morning…baad idea. I figured i could deal with a little stinging…not so much! within seconds i couldn’t open it and had to pretty much pry it open. wish i would’ve read these posts before!
I am like everyone else on this post and I made jalapeno poppers for a dinner party and now my hands sre completely on fire. I cut and took out the seeds around 4:00 on Saturday and it is now Sunday at 2:00pm and my hands are still messed up. I really can’t believe it. I tried milk, hand sanitizer, baking powder, detergent, and lotion. The only thing that helped me was holding a bag of frozen vegetables. That helped and I managed to go to sleep. My hands were okay when I woke up, but I did some dishes and took a shower and now they are back to the way they were last night. I really can’t believe this. I may just start drinking. I think that is the only cure.
Im going through almost the same thing aside from needing to go to ER.. my sister and I were just preparing dinner together 6 HOURS ago. the strange thing is we were both cutting and removing the jalepeno seeds with our bare hands. So why is it only MY HANDS and FINGERS ARE ON FIRE?!! and she doesn’t feel a thing? Can anybody explain this? we were both handling the same amount. and we’ve been trying milk, aloe vera, yoghurt, sherri vinegar, tar coal shampoo, canola oil, butter, hand soap, dish soap.
Yeah, I tried vinegar, baking soda, milk, honey, aloe, lavendar oil, paint thinner – and nothing worked – until my husband drove to the store and bought me some Maalox – I had to soak my hands in it for about an hour, but it worked. I don’t ever plan to cook with jalapenos again!
Fast Orange!!!! that is it! i tried everything, i scrolled and paused to try all the things i saw on this page, fast orange(as in the hand cleaner for mechanics etc.) solved it immediately! good luck all!!
Misery loves company…ha ha ha, I mean seriously, why isn’t there a warning with these things?!?! I blame Rachel Ray…here I am trying to take the mundane out of dinner with one of her famous slider recipes and now my fingers are absolutely on fire!! In addition to my fingers being a-blaze….I also attempted to fetch a stray eyelash out of my eye and now have a burning eyeball!! Thanks for all the suggestions everyone…I am headed to the kitchen with a quick stop by the medicine cabinet for some experimenting!! Happy Holidays…Jalapeno Free Holidays that is! 😉
Annie here again–so, I can no longer eat Jalapeno, or even Cayenne, without re experiencing a burning sensation and recurrence of the same dizzy spells and gastric burning.
Okay, I think I have a story of Jalapeno torture that tops anything here. I made a chili-spiked dish which included Jalapenos and various sorts of other chili peppers. It sent me and my best friend to the hospital with high fevers. For at least a month afterwards, all of my bodily excretions were Jalapeno flavored. The worst symptoms, though, were a weird, trippy feeling, as if I had somehow gotten my brain poisoned. I’m not kidding. This was nearly death by pepper. Turns out, in India, they actually use hot peppers to MURDER people. Thought: maybe people shouldn’t be eating them? Pepper spray, anybody?
Me too! Making Christmas tamales for the first time. Didn’t think to use gloves. All was fine until I itched my eye, then my nose, and then my lip. Ouch! I first tried washing it out, but that seemed to worsen the burning. Then I remembered how bread under your tongue helps when cutting onions. So, I took the middle of a slice of bread and smashed it into the corner of my eye. It soothed it, and the burning stopped within a minute. Go figure. I’m glad it worked, but I will now try the rubbing alcohol to get the oils off of my hands! Definitely gloves next time!
Man, I am always told I get melodramatic about things like this but thank god for this giant post of comments! There should really be a warning label when you buy jalapenos! A HUGE label with gloves on it. Stainless steel and sanitizer are what worked for me. I felt quite silly rubbing my hands on my kitchen sink and kitchenaid bowl lol but it definitely took the burn away. I’m still a bit hesitant about taking my contacts out tonight though.
I wanted to try a new recipe so I tried making stuffed Jalapenos. What a bad mistake I made. I cut up 25 Jalapenos as the recipe called for & the burning did not start immediately….but when the burning sat in, it stayed with me for like 4 to 5 hours. I am a contact wearer too. I tried all the tips listed. I think time is the cure. Someone told me to use sugar…. But when your hands are burning like this you will try anything. I did!
Arrrgghh I’ve cut jalapeno’s before but for some reason the 2 that I chopped and de-seeded tonight left my hands burning 🙁
I tried milk, nail polish remover, and proactive solution. I just put some benadryl goup on and it alleviated the pain a little but its definitely coming back. How miserable, never again!
Thanks for the tips, I feel a little less crazy 🙂
Here I am joining the “Jalapeno Hand” club….WAHHHHHH!!!!!!
It has been 27 hours since I chopped 3 large peppers and it still hurts. Only cold things relieved the pain at first. I woke up and thought I was fine but no, if I apply any pressure to my fingers it starts all over, then if I don’t touch anything it goes away. It’s getting better but I’m sure I’ll feel it still tomorrow! 🙁 That’s all… it hurts to type.
P.S. nothing but time helps!
After reading all of the comments the following regiment worked for me…witch hazel pad to dry up the oil from the pepper, hot water with soap (10 sec. at a time for a minute), rubbed my hands on the stainless sink 30 seconds, and finally applied cortaid. All of the burning is gone and I will be carefully removing my contacts tonight! Thanks for the tips.
Hello my name is Carmen and I have jalapeno hand. Mother#@%* it hurts like hell! I cannot believe that I didn’t use gloves when I was told to. I sliced, seeded and diced a 2lb bag of jalapenos and I did not anticipate this pain. I Dipped my hand in milk, iced milk, washed with soap, scrubbed with lemons,soaked in rubbing alcohol and even wore those stupid gloves and filled it with calamine lotion(which made it burn more). I have tried just about everything you guys have suggested even the stainless steel idea but the only thing that helped so far is holding a blue ice-pak. I have 4 of them Ive been alternating but they just dont stay frozen long enough I took 800mg of motrin then when that didn’t work, i took some vicodin I’m rollin but i still feel my hand burning from inside out…I’m so angry with myself arrrrrrgh! I just wanna sleep. But I have to say that i never expected there to be a jalapeno-hand epidemic, but i was wrong…Its kinda nice to know that i’m not alone. Nobody understands how much this really hurts. B/c they wouldn’t be laughing if they knew.
i JOINED THE JALAPENO HANDS CLUB TODAY, I WAS MAKING PICKLES AND SLICED 1 IN HALF AND SEEDED IT. WITHOUT THINKING I WIPED MY FACE, HOLY CRAP!! DID IT BURN, I EQUATE THE PAIN TO THAT OF BEING PEPPER SPRAYED. I WANTED TO RIP MY FACE OFF. I RAN IT UNDER COLD WATER AND SAT INFRONT OF A FAN, WHICH HELPS A LOT, BUT ONCE YOU LEAVE THE FAN, THE PAIN COMES RIGHT BACK. THE WHOLE TIME MY BOYFRIEND IS LAUGHING HIS *SS OFF AT ME, GOSH DARN IT HURTS! GOOD LUCK ALL!
I joined the jalapeno hand club tonight! Fortunately, I only de-seeded four and diced them. That was all it took. My hands are very “warm” now: even after multiple hand washings and TWO scrubbings with that really expensive soap for poison ivy (and a couple of stainless steel rubbings). I was making a paste for chicken from a recipe I found in a spin-off from the Joy of Cooking. Of course, no warning re jalapeno hands. Anyway, tomorrow when I actually apply the paste to the chicken I’ll be wearing gloves.
I’m so glad to know there are so many unfortunate souls out there such as myself! I’ve cut many raw peppers before without experiencing too much pain, but not tonight! I’m not sure if it is because I’m on accutane and my body soaks up every drop of oil it can find or what. But MY GOD! Excruciating! I only diced up one jalapeno and de-seeded it using my left thumb (seems to be a popular way to do it based on these responses!) only to have the most God awful burning sensation under my nails. I was making fajitas, so I immediately dunked my fingers into the sour cream… made it feel better until I washed it off. Then I tried regular hand soap and a nail brush, scrubbing like crazy even though it was so painful. Genius I am, I decided to put on some Neosporin “Pain Relief” type cream… OMG, do NOT attempt this… it is Pain Maximizing! So then I came online and started reading these posts. Tried Goo Gone, which made it much more tolerable for a few minutes. Then I tried Dawn, which calmed it a little more. I also have a Rub Away bar which is just a stainless steel bar of “soap” and that seemed to help the most at this point. But it started coming back about 10 minutes later, so I dunked my fingers in honey for about 10 minutes and wa-la. That seems to have finished the trick. Of course, my hands look like I’ve been in the Sahara for a month, but at least I’m not biting my tongue in pain. I think I’ll wait until tomorrow to remove my contacts just to be on the safe side!
OMG! I have never felt more stupid in my life. I was given a bag of fresh jalapenos by my friend. I had heard of a great recipe for creme cheese stuffed jalapenos and I thought I would try it out. I wash, slice, and de-seed the peppers and stuff them with creme cheese. About half way through the 20 min cook cycle my hands are ablaze. I have never felt any pain like this in my life. When I was a child I actually had a third degree burn on my arm from a camp fire and this ” jalapeno hands” hurts 10 times as bad as that. I have tried everything. What I did that helps is to take a pumice stone and gently exfoliate your hands while running them under cold water. The pumice stone helps to remove dead skin saturated with the oils from the pepper. I swear by God almighty I will never EVER cut another pepper without gloves so long as I live …..Good Luck to all of those with JALAPENO HANDS ~
Ha ha ha…. Yep, I’m like 169 and I’m feeling the pain right now so bad it feels like I shoved my fingers into a vat of acid. And I only cut and cleaned one! And minced it. And moved it. With my bare hands. I didn’t know about Jalapeno burn, but I thought it was the cuts on my hand reacting but this is horrid! And it’s all over! I’m about to go try more things…. Anyway, thanks for the laughs and suggestions!
I tried one last thing that worked! The note about tea tree oil was excellent. I read that one after my original post #167, and thought….”hey, I have some of that in a foot wash” so I tried it. Instant relief! I don’t understand why it worked, but I’m quite pleased!
I love the great tips on here!!
I baked 2 jalapenos, and peeled them for a recipe. My nose was running all afternoon so at some point I rubbed my nose and got the oil on my upper lip. 3 hours later, I’m not so happy.
Now I have tried hot water and soap, calamine, tomato sauce, rubbing my hands on stainless steel. The oil in my knuckles still burns. I live in a very small town, and there is no way to buy any of that fancy stuff people mention this late. But after all the washing and other things, it’s not so bad and I think I’ll just try to sleep it off.
Love all the input though!
I cut one jalapeno from my garden and my thumb is on FIRE! I found this site, and the hand sanitizer helped a bit. I also tried some Rescue Remedy (the liquid, not the cream) and that helps a bit too. I’ve never had this happen before, and I don’t know if I will ever ever cut jalapenos again – even with gloves! Thank goodness I wasn’t wearing my contacts!
I chopped ONE SINGLE jalepeno for chili I was making at 11am today. It is now 10:10pm and I am in agony with this burning and tingling. I have tried all of the “cures” mentioned here and so far have only found slight relief dipping my hands in tomato sauce. I usually have a very high pain tolerance but this is crazy! (did I mention I am a psych nurse in a hospital???) I am thinking about calling every doctor I know for some kind of relief! I have spoken with 2- they both say “ice & time”. I say the heck with that- I am going to the store to buy booze– TO DRINK MYSELF STUPID)
I’m experiencing Jalapeno Hands for the first time after cutting some up to make salsa. We had a bumper crop from 3 plants and I figured salsa was a great way to use some of them up. Arrggghhhh! My hands have been burning for about 3 hours now, and *really* burning. Rubbing the stainless steel does give immediate relief, but for me, it hasn’t lasted. I’ve tried alcohol, olive oil, dish soap, milk/cream and ice. All give temporary relief for about 5 mins and then the burning is back. I’ve learned my lesson!
without this website, I don’t think my husband would have believed me when I said my hands were about to combust. Tried several things (washing, alcohol; hand sanitizer; aloe); each seemed to work for a few minutes, then burning would come back. Strangest (from perspective of husband, who was trying to get some sleep during all of this) was my coming to bed clutching a large stainless steel mixing bowl and periodically rubbing my hands on it. Finally, 1:30 AM, I went downstairs and made a gloppy mixture of flour and milk, smeared it on my hands. Instant success. Left it on all night (slept with hands folded neatly on chest on a towel) but oddly, when removed the flour in the morning (by soaking in warm water and then rubbing with washcloth), the pain returned. I’m going to the drug store to try the Lanacane/Bactine suggestions! My sympathies for those of you who touched your eyes/noses!
162 and I’m laughing SO HARD after reading 161 posts on jalap hands that I can almost recommend a LARGE glass of red wine and reading this list as a way to take your mind off your fiery fingies. As a veteran of pretty much toasted everthing, from privates to contacts, I can only suck it up since I clearly know better. Ditto to the wearing of two pairs of gloves, oils seem to march right through one. and of course, I had none on tonight for roasting those little devils that just needed to picked, roasted and skinned. I clearly deserve a high ranking position in the idiotic rankings of hot-pepper-hand-hood. Just to make it even more fun, I washed a bunch of dishes in hot soapy water which as many have noted elevates your short term misery. LOL ~ thanks to all my fellow sufferers ~ misery LOVES company ~ : )
161! My husband and I made jalapenos with cream cheese and bacon. We did this two nights in a row. The first night was fine. Last night, surprisingly, was fine too. I got up, started my morning, took and shower, got out and realized my hands were burning. I thought I had turned the water up to hot! I tried aloe which did nothing at all. After finding this site, I rubbed a few pots, which brought the pain down from “gnaw your hand off” to “this is seriously freaking annoying.” I just coated my fingers with a face mask. I’ve had it on for about 20 min and the pain has stopped completely. Good luck!
My hands were on fire after cutting fresh jalepenos and tried many of the above suggestions except for the poop and urine. I did try milk, washing vigorously, hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, first aid burn cream, aloe vera after sun gel, lotion, honey, epsom salt, THEN I used a first aid atiseptic and anesthetic pain relieving cleansing spray that actually worked. After a couple minutes of waiting, the fire was gone. This is a Walgreens brand that is compared to Bactine. After the trial and errors I found something that worked so you may have to do the same. Good Luck!
I found this thread for the same reason everyone else did, sadly. I was making salsa and I DID wear gloves and only chopped 4 peppers (albeit the most freakishly hot Jaapenos I’ve ever had)! I must have cross-contaminated my left hand sometime after I took the gloves off though, cause about an hour later my hand started to burn like hell! WOW!
What worked for me? I scrubbed my hand with handfuls of baking soda and the hottest water I could tolerate 5 times….in between washings I sprayed and massaged my hand with generous amounts of “Goo-Gone” (it’s a cleaner/sticker and crayon remover/degreaser product…it smells like orange-oil and it’s not at all harsh). After that, I was left with only a warmish tingle for the rest of the night, which was almost pleasant (whereas earlier I couldn’t take the ice pack off of my hand for more than 30 seconds and had tried alcohol, lidocaine spray, hand soap and aloe vera gel to no avail).
I cannot IMAGINE what those of you who chopped pounds of the little bastards with no gloves went through because my hand was on FIRE!!!
I recommend the baking-soda/Goo-Gone (or likely any degreaser product). Hope it helps somebody!!!
Rub a spoon or two of sugar onto damp hands, gently massage for a minute or so, then rinse with cool water.
Also soothing is a slice of bread soaked in milk or water, held against the skin.
Buena suerte.
I seeded two jalapenos today and tonight my hands are burning. I slathered hand sanitizer, no luck. Same with caladryl, minimal short relief. Since people said the oils in the jalapenos is the problem so I washed my hands with Sol-u-mel a product by Melaleuca, like tea tree oil. It worked great on my hands. I still have a little burning under my nails but the reileif is great!
Im so glad to find this thread….i thought i was the only one!
My question: has anyone investigated if this is an internal reaction vs a topical external one? The burning in my hands is far widerspread than any contact and im questioning if its some kind of alergic reaction??
After letting spew forth a stream of loud profanity, I found you site via the Goog. Just one pepper…my hands are fine, but I just rubbed my eye in a late night attempt to stay awake for the extra innings baseball game, and OW!
Sadly, there’s nothing here I’d put in my eye…and my dog is avoiding my hands for some reason after a very short “fetch” session…
Well, Halleileuh for Technu!!! After about 4 really vigorous handwashing sessions and alot of praying I have finally felt some miraculous relief!
Thanks for all your tips. I tried milk, alcohol, and lotion, none worked for me. Then, I sprayed my hands with Lanacane, and that really, really helped. But, you have to reapply after awhile.
im living in italy right now and i grew jalapenos in my garden because they dont grow jalapenos here. after letting my husband’s family have a taste of them.. his cousin felt the burn and immediately went to the kitchen and used lemon juice. i guess it worked for her. i wish i had a lemon with me know because my hands dont burn but i touched the corner of my eye and i feel the heat.
Tried everything – Tecnu, hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, benadryl
cream, hot water (ouch), cold water, but what finally worked was
Gold Bond Powder. Instant & continuing relief. Hallelujah!
My poor hubby chopped the jalapenos for our salsa and rubbed his face. We tried a milk soaked washcloth first which didn’t do much. I had some plain yogurt though which he rubbed all over his face and that did the trick. Definitely will use gloves next time!! Thanks all for your tips.
*BIG SMILE*… you guys RawK !! I too have been attacted by
“THE JALAPENO FROM HELL”. I am a collector of swords and knives so I tried the stainless steel rubbing on one of my knife blades….
*deep sigh* NO WORKIE… now I am to the point that I may as well just cut my fingers off and call it a day !
It hurt, so i got drunk. That works!
my hand stopped burning finally after 6 hours.. i tried everything but nothing worked. the cure for me was to dip my hand in a bowl of water and bleach didnt really work so i put baby powder on i think that did the trick 30 mins later pain free
I am victim 146. Last night I offered to help my friend make some jalapeno poppers from jalapenos she had grown in her garden. (Let me first say that I’ve never handled or cleaned jalapenos before). I would say I probably cleaned and took the seeds out of at least 15-20 jalapenos while she made the filling for them. After I finished cleaning them up, I washed my hands twice. And apparently..I must have touched my face afterwards because before my friend even had any of the jalapenos stuffed–my face was on FIRE. It felt like the worst sunburn I ever had in my life. And I’m Irish so I’ve had many sunburns. I looked into the mirror and my face was red all over. I went to bed awhile later with my face still hurting. My hands didn’t start hurting until this morning. And they are on FIRE! I first tried the lemon juice and then the hand sanitizer. I then (stupidly) decided to take a shower…and had to turn it on cold because my hands hurt too bad. I tried the astringent while in the shower. It didn’t work. I also tried the stainless steel which didn’t work. I’ve tried probably everything and nothing is working. I’m waiting for the need to pee and I will try that. I don’t care. I will try ANYTHING to make this pain go away. I gave birth to my daughter with NO pain medicine or anything. And this is somehow WORSE!
I’m glad I found “Jalapeno Hands!” And I will extend words of warning to anyone about it. The pain is just unbearable. And I’m hoping it doesn’t last too much longer.
I cut up a jalapeno for chili con carne last night. the pain started at ten oclock. The only relief came from sticking my hand in a bowl of ice water. I tried the stainless steel suggestion and as I had no hand sanitizer or rubbing alcohol I just poured vodka on it. I would have been better off drinking it! Natural youghurt worked until the burn warmed it up. My advice is to try everything but if nothing works then just wait it out with your hand in icy water while watching a good movie and drinking some vodka. After a few hours I took the icy water to bed along with ice in a tea towel and managed some sleep. Woke up with no burn and a wet duvet and matress – ice melts! Good luck to everyone. I am going to buy kitchen gloves for everyone I know! Never again will I chop a jalapeno without a glove x
My gf and I made a jalapeno cheese squares and cut and de-seeded 4-jalapenos, after 20 min or so I itched my eye and it started burning. Soon we both noticed our hands were burning as well. I flushed out my eye and in aboot 15 min. the pain was bearable. My gf wears contacts and figured washing with soap and water would be fine… it wasn’t! her eyes started to burn and the only remedy we found was to soak hands in milk or clean them using lemon juice and alittle salt. The lemon didn’t work, the milk helped somewhat. Time has worked the best. I soaked my gf’s contacts in milk for alittle bit and it still burned when she put them in (after rinsing of course), but in time burning went away. It’s now the next day and our hands are tingling, but listening to these stories made us feel much better, lol.
Fresh squeezed lemon juice works. You might have to do it, wait and do it again, but the relief is instant. I just had to do it from a batch of Hatch chilies. Thank goodness for Lemon.
This is strange but the one person who suggested rubbing your hand on stainless steel is right. I rub them on the sink until I felt the burning go away. Don’t get it.
I was making chicken breast w/ jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon for my mothers birthday party. Holy Crap! This is the most horrible thing ever! I felt as if my fingers were laying on a hot burner on the stove. I started cooking around 11 a.m. today and it is now 9:30 p.m. and the burn is finally, slowly going anyway. I’ve taken so much advice from this page. I alternated between rubbing alcohol, soaking my hands in a bowl of milk, washing them numerous times w/ warm water and dish soap, and hand sanitizer. I tried the honey. It made it worse. It trapped the heat in. I also tried the urine thing. Didn’t work for me. But it seemed after I started using the hand sanitizer (Purell w/ Aloe) it started to take some of the burn out. And if I apply any pressure to my fingers it starts the burn back up. So I am being very careful to not use my hands much. I will never touch another Jalapeno! Ugh…. what a miserable, painful day! The chicken was good but NOT WORTH IT!
I helped my mom this evening make cream cheese jalapenos and after I cut four jalapenos and “gutted” them (3pm) .. my hands (12:30 am) were still burning until i came upon this website.. i didnt have lemon juice or any of the other things but I tried mustard.. and i am telling you it worked!! Just make sure to wash all the mustard off or it will stain your hands.. i used dish soap and water afterwards and surprisingly it worked!! The moral of the day for me is to always wear gloves or use a spoon when “gutting” jalapenos!!
So far I have tried cold water, lemon juice, hot water and soap, hand sanitizer, baking soda (which actually worked for about an hour), honey (made it worse), saliva, milk, peroxide (OH MY..don’t do that!), sucked on my fingers, and even peed on them. Through all of this it is down to a moderate burn instead of hands on fire. Alcohol and hand sanitizer are the only things I keep coming back too….I wish there was an antidote for this. The pain is on my left hand. I’m a guitar player, I need these fingers to get better soon.
I made salsa this morning and cut 3 fresh jalapenos. I’ve done this before and never experienced anything like this. My fingers were burning so bad for over 6 hours. I read all of these home remedies and did them all, milk, hand sanitizer, astringent, vinegar, washed with hot water & soap, aloe, alchohal, hair spray. Then I saw the post about the person that pee’d on their hands. I was so desperate I did it and OMG it worked instantly! I know this sounds very nasty but when your that desperate, what the heck. After I did it I washed my hands thoroughly with warm water and soap. That was a little over an hour ago and my hands and fingers feel no pain! What a relief!
I cut a jalapeno for salsa, and my left hand was on fire! I have done this many times before and never had any trouble. I tried lime juice, hot water and Dawn, lemon juice, and corn starch. Then I stuck my fingers in my mouth. IT WORKED! Thanks for the suggestion!
I had the same experience with one small jalapeno, We took lidocane spray and sprayed my hands thoroughly that numbed the burning sensation, later that night I washed my hands with peroxide rinsed them with it several times until there was no more bubbles, and then sprayed them again. They were much better the next day
oh and ps….I ate the food (with one hand in an ice water bowl and the other hand holding the fork….alternating frequently)….and it was delicious. So I guess no worries to this happening to the insides of you!! ONly the hands and wherever else you touched on the skin.
Oh man
I pretty much tried everything on this site….except for the peeing. My hands are still on fire. It is only on the tops of my hands because I guess my palms have enough natural oils to repel the jalepeno oils. I cut 3 with my bare hands and took out all the seeds as well. I felt a slight burning but not I can barely do anything without having to wave them in the air like a bird or put them in ice water (which really helps numb the pain)…..I tried, alcohol, hot water and soap, hydrogen peroxide, hand sanitizer, aloe, stainless steel, drinking lots o wine 😉 , calamine lotion….nothing is helping AT ALL, it is reeeeeeeeeeeeeally hard for me to even write this comment. This SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I guess I’m sleeping with my contacts in tonite!!
I’ve cut jalepenos before and have never had this happen.
Next time GLOOOOOOOOOOOVES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Haha. I’m loving this website (not laughing at you, but with you I hope).
I feel bad for those of you who have much worse stories than me. We had a fajitas party last night and I cut up three fresh jalapeños and punched all the seeds out with my thumb. It didn’t really hurt for a long time, but like others, I splashed some water on my face shortly after. Thus began my fear that I would join some long and unknown list of people blinded by jalapeño. My nostrils, lips, and eyes were all on fire. I just kept my eyes under cool running water for about 5 minutes, dried off, and took it like a man for the hour and a half or so that it was bad. I just have an annoying stinging in my fingers this morning.
I’d be careful with trying too much stuff. Seems to me the more you mess with it (trying different stuff) the longer the pain persists. Try to keep pressure off the hurting areas and try the sanitizer (I’m about to give this a shot) or hot water (things that make sense to remove oil). Don’t use acids. You want to absorb the oil.
Here’s hoping that you guys find some comfort and that Josh’s mother and neighbors recover from their beatings.
AV is proud to be burn victim 133.
I knew capsaicin was an oil like poison ivy oil, so I used Dawn to wash my hands after cutting up 1 1/2 jalapenos. I did get some burn under my nails and on the hand I held the pepper with, so I sucked on my fingers until it burned my tongue. I then tried the vinegar soak/rinse followed by the calamine lotion and finally hydrocortisone. It wasn’t unbearable, but I worried it would get worse. But maybe 20 minutes after I tried the various remedies, it went away when I just stopped fussing with it and left it alone. Maybe one of the remedies worked. Maybe I’m not that sensitive, maybe the soap prevented major exposure. Or maybe it hurts worse when you focus on it. Whatever the case, learned my lesson– gloves next time.
I know there are a lot of remedies posted here, but I would imagine that doing anything to really aggravate the skin when it’s worked up over peppers is not a good plan. That’s why I stuck to more soothing options and something seems to have worked.
I wish I was dead. I cut up one pepper. Just one, now my right arm is on fire up to my elbow. I would punch my own mother in the face if that would make it stop. I tried all the stupid “cures” on this and some other websites, no luck.
Something like this happened before, but never this bad. I am contemplating cutting my arm off, running into the street, and slapping the first person I see with it.
Holy shit.
I just want to start off by saying, I’m glad I’m not the only idiot to not think about wearing gloves before dicing jalapenos. The pain is immense…Today I cut up about 2 pounds of jalapenos for a pico…and my hands feel like they’re ON FIRE!!! I have tried yogurt, milk, cold water, hot water, hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, aloe gel, dish soap, and caladryl, and nothing seems to be working. I guess I’ll try taking some aleve and just wait it out. If i find something works…I’ll let everyone know.
Thanks for the hand sanitizer suggestion. It worked great! I will use gloves from now on.
Thank you so much for this page – I thought I was dying last night. I made a simple batch of mango black bean salsa and cut up 1 little jalapeno. About an hour later, my hand started burning and it was intense. It felt as if I had put my hand in a fire!!! At first, I was able to fall asleep with a bag of ice on it, but about 15 min later, I woke up in extreme pain and was up all night. I tried ice, hand sanitizer, stainless steel, hot water, cortaid, honey and finally mylanta (I read in an earlier post about pepto bismol – this was the closest thing I had). I figured that mylanta helps soothe your stomach, so maybe it would work for my hands. It took a little bit of the edge off, and that, combined with a bag of ice to numb my hand, seemed to work. It’s now the morning and my hand is still burning, but just not as much. Needless to say, I will NEVER EVER cut a jalapeno again!!!
I’m glad to have found this site so that I now know that I wasn’t crazy. I only cut up ONE jalapeno, which I’ve done many times before. I remove the seeds so the gazpacho I was making wouldn’t be *that* hot. My fingers on both hands burned all yesterday even though I soaked them in milk and washed them any times. The pain kept me up at night and were still hurting this morning so I did the baking soda paste thing and that did seem to help.
My question is this: is it OK to eat the gazpacho I made? I mean the severity of the reaction I got seemed to indicate an allergic reaction and I don’t want to trigger that again.
(I did take a dose of benadryl though it was the kind for a cold and sneezing…and it didn’t help.)
So…if anyone can tell me about *eating* the pepper that caused the burn, I’d like to know.
Ok I made it to post 53. I too have had a case of jalapeno hands since yesterday. I bought two packs of “Bell Pepper” plants and put them in the garden they grew into cute little jalapeno’s LOL I can’t waste them so I’ve been chopping them in small batches and freezing them. Well it got ahead of me and I had a large bowl.
I can’t believe how the heat grew, last night it was tolerable but this morning after washing dishes I was starting to squirm. I’m almost pain free now. Here’s the ones I tried. I washed with backing soda water, milk (good for a bit) vinager, alcohol. Then tried the hotwater, soap and some face astringent and I’m feeling much better.
I’m double gloving from now on! and also spreading the glove gospel!!!
Thanks everyone.
I’ve been thinking about how there should have been some sort of DISCLAIMER at the grocery store about jalapeno hands. Or perhaps a special about it on the food network because I feel like I watch that religiously. Where were my parents, or grandparents to teach me these words of wisdom “Use gloves to prevent massive discomfort when playing with jalapenos”.
I cut up 73 peppers. 73. If I could make those numbers any bigger I would. I can barely think it hurts so much. I tried milk. I have no rubbing alcohol or calamine lotion, or any of these other solutions. Milk helps but I feel that it only helps because its cold. I’ve been doing alot of reading and found out that alot of home remedies apparently aren’t good for neutralizing the burns bt something in milk does the trick. Well it’s 2am, and I swear these people b etter loves these things because I may just cut my hand off for relief.
From now on, I shall PREACH the message of jalapeno hands!!! Please do the same!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of all the time i’ve spent in the kitchens with my family… why has this never come up?!?!
I was smart enough to wash my hands after I cut a jalapeno, but I guess I pushed my eye glasses up before I did. My hands didn’t burn, but my face did. Water and hairspray (something I read from here) did nothing, although the hairspray made my eyelashes stick together. I used my wife’s cosmetic removers to make the pain go away. I used an Origins’ charcoal face mask and that worked awsome, and finsihed up with a Pond’s pore clenser, and some Clean and Clear face wash. I don’t know if it would help on hands or under your nails, but it really helped my face. Good luck.
Alright heres how it is! DON’T resort to covering your hands with random household bullshit like milk, honey, bleach, baking soda, or stroking the stainless steel water faucet like a 13 year old boy who just figured out he could masturbate! All u need to do is get a good soap and run your hands under HOT water numerous times, while washing them with the soap. Repeat until the pain is gone. This method hurts like a bitch, And is not for those who can’t handle pain. but it has always worked for me. Also, refrain from handling your personal areas until your sure all the oil is gone. Test this by rubbing a finger on an area not affected by the oil. If it doesn’t get irritated then it’s probably gone. Good luck! And remember that a few minutes of immense pain is better than dealing with this for multiple hours!
I was in terrible pain from jalapeno chopping last night. I tried some of the remedies posted here. Lemon juice made the pain worse, cold water didn’t help, I was ready to go to the hospital I couldn’t stand the pain, then being somewhat of a hypochondriac I started thinking maybe it wasn’t the jalapenos, maybe I was having a stroke!!!
Finally after reading more posts I decided I had to do something to absorb the oils from the jalapenos. I sprinkled some Summer’s Eve Feminine Powder on my hands & rubbed it in. It was like a miracle the pain subsided immediately!!!!
I cut up one jalepeno last night for my husbands favourite dish. I had done the same before many times without gloves and never had felt a burning like this before. This morning the burning is still there and was ten times worse while blow drying my hair. I am an esthetician and am on my way to work and am worried to work on my clients concidering I do waxing in some private areas and would hate to pass the burning on to them! I had some topical cream left from a skin irritation and put it on and so far the burning has subsided substancially. The cream I used is a Cortisteroid cream and am not sure if it is safe to use in this situation but it sure helped for me.
one day when i was cutting jalepenos for a big batch o’ salsa i had to postpone my prep work for a little jaunt to the loo. now of course i always wash my hands after taking care of business, but not so regularly do i think to lather up prior to doing the deed. anyway, i’m sure you’ve figured out where this is going. i peed, standing, holding and aiming my business per usual and without much thought. finish up. wash my hands. back to the kitchen and my pico. fast-forward twenty minutes. i start to feel a little tingle of discomfort down below. within a matter of minutes that tingle turned to burning turned to flames – pure torcher!! thanks god it was a fairly isolated problem and only lasted about half an hour. and needless to say, i definitely learned a valuable lesson.
at any rate, dear CD, i sho do sympathize and feel your pain, my brother!
I am so glad I came across this site. Stupidly, I did not wear gloves when cleaning out about 20 peppers and within 30 minutes I experienced pain like I had never before. I have had 2 children, surgeries, tattoo, all kinds of stuff, but the burning sensation I had in my fingers was like none other. I thought I was going to go insane from the pain. I tried milk, vinegar, oral benedryl, topical benedryl, ice packs, soaking hands in water, but nothing worked. Finally 12 hours later at 3 a.m. I somehow fell asleep. I was so relieved when I woke up that the pain was gone. I just called my husband about this site to let him know that I was not crazy!
THE BURN………….
I helped my sister-in-law make those yummy jalapenos with cream cheese and bacon. Well I figured I would help her cut them. As soon a we got done I went outside and started rubbing my mouth and face……and it started to burn. At first I couldn’t figure out why. So I run screaming into the house looking for my mom. For some reason not matter what, I think my mom knows a unknown cure. Well told me to try and wash my hands and face really good. The cold water felt good. But it didn’t really help. Then she gave me some anti-itch cream. That help a bunch. I just didn’t put any on my hands……will next time. The funny thing is my sister-in-law was not in pain like me either and she did it the same as me. WTF!!!!!!
So normally, I always have food prep gloves in my kitchen for everyday use. Tonight, after making and setting out all of my various “stuffings” for my freshly grown jalapenos I realized I was out of gloves. My husband works nights and my 4 year old son was sleeping. I promised my brother bacon wrapped stuffed jalapenos for his pool party tomorrow. 40 jalapenos later, I regret not stopping at 20! I’ve tried the cold water, the lemon juice, the ice, etc. I’m just about to locate my lysol kitchen cleaner as one poster suggests – I’m a bit fearful of this, but what else is there? Thanks for the posts!
What an evening. I went over to my boyfriend’s house after eating some pizza and relaxing (cheese pizza that I put tomatoes, chunks of cheddar and hardboiled eggs on… surprisingly good actually) thinking I would chill with him and play some video games while eating some ice cream (yum), but we decide to get a head start on the party we are helping with tomorrow. So he pulls out the 3 lbs of jalapeño peppers and we start on them. We have to stuff them for the party. At first, I wasn’t even helping, but then I felt bad so I jumped in to help. He and I both cut off the top part of it, he de-seeded it, and I stuck a hole in the end for the oils to drip out of while they cooked. The vapors/smell alone got into the air and I couldn’t breath it. He was fine, but I had to keep my mouth CLOSED or start hacking up a lung. After we finished ALL of the peppers, I noticed I had a cut on the back of my hand. I figured it would hurt, but I never realized the whole hand would burn as if it was directly in a fireplace with a very lively fire. I have tried calamine lotion, baking powder, milk, olive oil, honey, hot water (very painful, not helpful), face wash, toner, bactine, a hand sanitizer wipe, alcoholic beverages (for drinking of course), benadryl (the med kind), stainless steel, cold water, ice, baby oil, and a variety of soaps… nothing really worked. My latest endeavor was the spit… which didn’t help either. Next I am going to try milk in a bowl with ice, though this is mostly just to deal with the pain. I have been letting it go for a while now (trying the let it burn itself out approach), which hurts, but since I have to deal with it anyway, I am just trying to distract myself with all these strange remedies. My boyfriend, who actually seeded them, has no pain whatsoever so far and is completely shrugging off the burning I feel. Thank you all for your comments, and hang in whoever is reading this… try everything because apparently different things work for different people. And do something IMMEDIATELY because I think waiting is the worst idea. I think Jonathon’s suggestion (#100) about oil repellent soap sounds intriguing, but it is too late for me now. I still have my contacts in too o.o Good luck to you and maybe just try to sleep. lol.
Oh yeah also please don’t let your poor dog get a burning tongue from licking your fingers! If you want to try the saliva option, lick your own fingers. 🙁
It has been two hours since chopping ONE jalapeno, and finally now only my fingertips faintly burn. I’ve chopped jalapenos before (not in the bulk that some of these people have!!) and have not had close to the pain as tonight!
I went thru every suggestion on this list that I had available: ice water first–until my hands were burning IN the ice water, then on to lemon juice, hydrogen peroxide, warm (HOT!) water, stainless steel, astringent, listerine (I thought, hey, there is alcohol in this)…. nothing provided anything more than temporary relief. Did not have baby powder, baking soda or hand sanitizer. Then I tried honey and i thought it was my miracle, until about 5 mins later. Burn was less, but still there. Then talked to a friend who said milk was the answer. soaked in that a bit, it helped. something about countering ph levels? not sure. anyway, i shall live to see another day–oh yeah i also tried mayo after i read about the woman who stuck her hands in a tub of margarine which cracked me up… but desperate times… !! Didn’t become desperate enough to try the pee though. I guess also wasnt desperate enough to run to walgreens to get calamine lotion. But i did walk around my house at one point with my arms above my head to drain the blood from my fingertips, yeah that doesn’t work a bit. Good luck everyone, glad we all have a support system, haha!
Advil probably is a good idea.
Ok so here I am…another victim to the dreaded jalapenos…I thought I would be a good hostess and make popper for everyone while they waited for dinner to be ready…I had seen on Food Network to wear gloves…which I did…I thought I was so smart…So I am cleaning the peppers…crusing alone…I got a real juicy one and it squirted right in my eye like a grapefruit…my eye was burning so bad right away…I went to the bathroom and put my head under the fauset…the water didnt help…then I remembered when I would eat something spicy to drink milk and that would help…so I take the gallon of milk to the bathroom and start dumping it in my eye…it helped…I had to do it for a few times and let it run in my eye for a min or two…thank god I had milk in the house…so the milk helped my eyes!!! But like 45 mins later my hands started burning…under my finger nails…so even with wearing gloves my hands were still on fire…dumped milk on them too…helped a little…used ice that helped while I had it on but as soon as I took it off it burned again….so I dumped vodka on my hands…that seemed to help…So lesson learned…I will wear two pairs of gloves next time and wear my sunglasses so I dont get it in the eye …..I am so sorry for anyone who has gone through this pain…it really sucks…they should have a warrning label at the store with a cure so people can be prepaired for it….Good luck to all…hope my story helped.
I too, had the extremely painful burning hands tonight. This has happened before. It doesn’t happen every time I chop jalapenos, so, I forget how bad it can get, and I never have gloves (I’m getting some tomorrow though).
Anyway, my hands were on fire tonight, so I got on the internet to see what to do. On another site concerning this, someone mentioned sucking on your fingers, it seems the saliva helps. So, I did that and it helped a lot. Then I applied peppermint schnapps and the combination seemed to work pretty well. Then I found the hand sanitizer and applied that, and that seemed to do the trick. My hands were burning for about 6 hours, and not getting any better til I used my saliva. Sounds weird, but it was a quick and easy thing to try. Earlier, I had tried the hand washing in hot water, too painful. Soaked my hands in half and half, relief was very brief. Then tried vinegar, also brief relief.
Damn painful stuff!!!
HAND SANITIZER…IT WORKS…MAY HAVE TO USE IT A FEW TIMES, BUT IT PUTS THE FIRE OUT. CHIPPY
So funny. Tonight’s my night, apparently! First and foremost: TAKE SOME ADVIL. I tried baking soda, hand sanitizer, milk, lemon juice, and ice water. The ice water helped numb it, but the edge didn’t come off until I took a couple of advil. My hands are still burning, but not nearly as bad as they were. Good luck everyone.
And just fyi: this was a poblano pepper! I’ve roasted and peeled them a million times, but this was apparently some sort of demon-pepper.
Victim #109. I’ve never worn gloves to cut jalapenos before and have not had a problem…until tonight. The burn is unbelievable. I’ve tried stainless steel, hand sanitizer, baking soda, oil, lemon, rubbing alcohol, honey, hot water and soap (ouch), and my hand is currently immersed in mashed banana. The latter may have worked for #92’s junk, but it ain’t helping my hand! I am getting desperate, and may wake the bf and send him out for Calamine lotion! Next time, GLOVES!
okay well yesterday(sunday) i cut 36 jalepenos for an poppers appitizer for the family and my hands started to burn right around 5:30 till the next day and it now 3:11 p.m. and it is still at a constant burnn what should i do. i need some more suggestions. right now though some ice cold water and sugar and baking soda is working for me. you have to let your hands soak in it though to numb your hands and you wont feel the pain as much. 🙂
Sad… Victim number 107.
Choped one jalapeno for guacamole, washed hands several times, before handling contacts, but they are contaminated.
Best thing so far is putting milk in a cup, holding it up to my eyes and pouring it in while keeping eyes open…
Not sure if this is good idea, but stopping the burning.
Glad I have a spare set of lens (rigid)
im typing wth 1 finger as the calamine dries pretty good relief compared to the burning fire i was experiencing just a minute ago THANKS for all the laughs, im wearing gloves from now on!!!
Unbelievably i own a mexican restaurant and have no cure. my wife diced and cleaned 30 japs and is only findinf solace in margaritas. when i asked my chef how he does it and why did he let my wife do that silly thing…he said you get used to it and go on cooking and it goes away. my thought is after trying all of these remedies and still no help, the heat from the kitchen equipment is what really helps but we havent tested the thoery. ps no love for this guy tonight…thats just scary
I’m writing this with the pads of two fingers because i can’t curl my hands enough to type properly. i officially hate my “spicy bean salad” that required three deveined/deseeded jalapeno peppers with a passion. i’ve tried everything: milk, lemon juice, hot water, cold water, baking soda paste… and while some things provide temporary relief, i end up having to roll around, waving my hands frantically to get the burning to ease up.
it really does make me feel better to know that i’m not the only one who took a dummy pill and forgot to glove up before handling the chilies. now if i could only figure out how long the burning lasts…..
I am having a bit of luck with pouring rubbing alcohol into my hands an scrubbing it around and then using milk of magnesia. I don’t have any hand santizer but think the alcohol cut the oils and the milk of magnesia is soothing the burn.
back tryed everything i had that so sujested and not hepling don’t have hand sanitizer bec’s jids use it all lol have baby powder now husband is going to shit in the morning if i don’t clean it lol
thanks everyone good luck
i now my hand has been on f ing fire for12&/ hours it hurts can sleep just acedimedaphen for pain not helping lol
lmao! When it starts burring, wash your hands with an oil repellant soap & cold water (closing your pores) and then leave it alone. Do not start washing your hands with hot water and a 1000 soaps, this opens the pores and spreads the burring, all the chemicals, and scrubbing are contributing to the burning. If it’s just too much pain.. try a bag of ice. It’s the only thing that works for me. My left hand was on fire tonight.. it lasted about 2 hours.
But… I’ve heard that if you let your dog lick your hands for a minute or so, and let the dog saliva set for a minute. Then wash your hands with cold water and apply the ice bag. the enzymes in the dogs saliva will actually begin to break down the burning oils and drastically degrees the burning time. I donno tho.. try it.. 😉
Hand sanatizer is amazing … thanks to who ever suggested it!
Wow, whoda thought so many people go through this! Yes I’m feeling the burn too – I made chili using Rotel tomatoes and green chilis. My husband can’t have seeds of any kind so I separated the seeds from the tomatoes and chilis under running water, never thinking about the fact that there’s CHILI PEPPERS in there! It really just tingled for awhile, but later after I cleaned up and washed dishes in hot soapy water my hands began to feel like they’re on fire! I’ve tried most of the remedies, everything works for a few seconds and then back to the burn – worst part is I’ve burned my hands with fresh jalapenos before so I should have known better!
My Goodness! It’s funny and not so at the same time, to have found this blog and all of the experiences everyone has had with Jalapeno Hands.
Last night around 7pm I minced just 1 Jalapeno for some delicious salsa. I took a little nibble to test the hotness of the pepper and realized it was far too hot for my boyfriend. I then removed about 1/2 of the minced pepper with my bare hand and an hour later I felt like my fingers were on FIRE!
I soaked them in ice cold water and that felt good but when I took them out they still burned.
I tried coconut oil because I know that fat in milk, and chocolate helps to cool a burning tounge, it only got worse!
I tried rubbing alcohol, that felt good for a little while.
Then at 10:30pm right before bed, I used Dr. Bronner’s Peppermint Soap because peppermint has a cooling effect, it felt good only while my hands were wet.
I also had some Peppermint Hand lotion from philosophy so I put that on right before I turned off the lights for the night.
I woke up this morning and My boyfirned asked it my hands were burning. I said no but after I took a shower 8:30am the burning sensation came back.
Now at 10:15 am I find comfort in knowing that I am not the only one who has had this experience. I know that only time will cool my Jalapeno Hands and eagerly approach the day in hopes of relief.
I will always remember this and vow never to handle this hazardous pepper without gloves again!
i find myself laughing at all these stories as my hands, under my nails, and eyes continue to burn! victim #95
The sink thing did work. I just rubbed my hands on the sink and they do feel much better. I am going to do that every so often and hope it helps. Thanks!
Haha, I too found this site while searching for a jalapeño hands cure. I read most of the replies, and nothing helped.
Then I thought I should give some ammonia a shot, since its basic and may bind the oil. Put some Afterbite (which is just ammonia in a gel) on, and stupidly took a quick whiff of my hands to see if it was working. I instantly got a head full of jalapeño-scented burning, and my hands immediately stopped burning (for the most part, just a little under my nail now).
Contact lens wearers beware!!! I chopped one jalapeno w/o gloves and washed my hands right after. There was no sensation on my hands at all and I didn’t even think about it. I wasn’t wearing my contacts at this time and a couple hours later went to put them in… the second I put the first one in it was searing, my eyelid snapped shut and wouldn’t open. I was almost screaming and somehow managed to pry my eyelid open and get the lens off. After splashing with water the burning subsided, but my eye was blood red and watering for a good 15 minutes. I contaminated my lens and this was hours after contact with the pepper and washing! Later the same night after having scrubbed my hands with many products, I rubbed my nose and it started burning! Never without gloves again. Never.
I chopped up a few jalapenos this morning. Went to the bathroom. Noticed a bit of a burning sensation in the nether regions. The burning increased to an unbearable level. Two hours later, I was sweating profusely and couldn’t stand the pain anymore. A friend recommended bananas. Peeled one, mashed the fruit into a balm and coated my junk. Within a few minutes, the burning and redness were gone. An effective treatment, and an interesting way to use a banana.
okay everyone i have the answer you are looking for – i hope for your sakes.
i didn’t burn my hands on jalapenos but on chili peppers so maybe it’s not the same, but after calling the emergency nurse for my insurance company and her suggestions did not work at all (can you believe it’s in a medical database somewhere to soak your hands in vegetable oil?) – i was visiting my mom, and was putting my hands in cold water (again) and so my mom called my uncle who’s a doctor in the middle of the night.
he didn’t know what to do but he said to call poison control.
the poison control lady told my mom she knew exactly the condition she was talking about and that even though it sounded really weird, to have me soak my hands in maalox or mylanta for 20 minutes. she said it does something to your nerve endings. my mom went out to buy the maalox.
by the time she was home, having soaked my hands in cold water for twenty minutes actually eased the pain and i thought it was fine. i went to bed and put my hands under the covers and they started to burn again!
so i poured out the entire bottle and soaked my hands for twenty minutes. the pain really was gone and this was days ago so it’s def not back. my hands did feel a little weird though for the next 24 hrs – she was right about the nerve endings – they just felt a teensy bit numb.
i had actually done this once before (i am the only one on here who has done this twice!) and rubbing alcohol totally did the trick, but it did nothing this time.
do the maalox, i’m telling you.
It has now been 24 hours since my jalepeno hands started. It is true, nothing really works. The only advice I have is try keeping your hands as cool as possible. My hands only burn if I get warm. I stayed outside in the cold today and had no problem until I got inside and started a fire. Now my hands are bathing in an ice bath. If I cool my body temp, it definatly gives some relief. It sure is an experience like no other. The pain is almost unberable. Good luck to all and remember WEAR GLOVES!
you lot are making the mistake of putting it on your hands.. drink lots of water. it wont stop it or anything but if you drink lots of water to flush it out of your system it’ll reduce the reaction time. it worked a treat for me last night and this night.
Alcohol…rubs hands together…repeat. This works!!!!
Thanks, everyone, for the feedback. Keep the comments coming…
I had a similar problem last night, albeit not as severe as yours. My jalepeno hand was localized to just my left hand but when I put lip gloss on it caused me to have jalepeno lips. I also had a burning hand for the better part of the night – hence the reason I found your site. Fortunately ice soothed it somewhat. I only cleaned 2 peppers so I can imagine what it would have been like if I did all that you did. The odd thing is while I felt the reaction a bit all day it intensified at night.
I hope everyone enjoyed the poppers at the super bowl party, but I’ve been 24 hours with intermittant pain. It seems that getting my hands wet continues to trigger the burning. Taking a shower this morning triggered at least an hour of pain, and doing the dishes tonight triggered it again, although washing my hands throughout the day after using the restroom didn’t seem to trigger any pain. The hand sanitizer helped marginally tonight, but there is still discomfort 15 minutes after a heavy dousing. Stay away from getting your hands wet for long periods of time even the day after you are exposed!
Oh my God! thanks for the belly laughs! My left hand and eye have been burning since I made guacamole and chile for the superbowl yesterday. The burning made its way up my fingers and woke me from my sleep, but I’d say the pain has been worth it because it compelled me to find this page, and I can always benefit from a healthy dose of laughter! Thanks!
okay, I am finally cured. After hours of pain I rubbed alcohol 70% like 3 times, Felt good then burned again then sour cream was the magic relief for me. I coated my hands in it twice. Oh, the joy I felt. I don’t know if it was because it was done like 6 hrs into the burning terror that made it work but who cares, I have total relief. I hope this helps someone else. The other things I tried were milk, vinegar, baking soda, stainless still, hand sanitizer(helped a little) alovera plant and gel, hot water (sucked bad)
I am so glad that you guys understand the pain of Jalapeno hands it isnt something that you can explain to anyone unless they have expirenced it. My husband says I am over reacting about the burning pain in both of my hands after deseeding 15 peppers with my hands. I did this 5 hrs ago and still burning.the best relief is cold water, but only when my hands are in it. I take them out and the burn is back and maybe worse. I would rather be giving birth.
This blog entry was a godsend, as I just happened to be incredibly stupid and not use gloves while chopping up jalapenos for chili, but I believe I’ve found the perfect remedy – Lysol Food Surface Sanitizer! I didn’t have any calamine lotion, but I tried everything else we had, and I was dying of pain until I sprayed my hands with Lysol and waited 60 seconds, according to the directions. I’m pain-free!
I have now joined the Jalapeno Hand of fame email with all of you!
I actually feel better reading all your stories…..thanks for the laughs…I feel better knowing I’m not the only one out there!
Hands still burning………..
Soaking in astringent worked great. I only chopped one of those little boogers and it got under my fingernails – talk about some serious pain!! I can’t imagine how much worse it was for some of you, those are some crazy stories! Thanks for sharing and best of luck finding relief!
Ihave tried all of the aforementioned suggestions and nothing has worked!
Help!
i had this same problem after slicing about 1 pound of jalapenos, the pain lasted well into this morning. as i was getting ready, doing my hair i had to use hairspray because i was out of my pomade. so i guarded my eyes from the spray with my left hand, then went to find my belt. as i put my belt on i relized my left thumb which had been in excruciating pain no longer hurt. so out of curiosity i sprayed my right hand with the same hairspray (“proffessional” hairspray aerosol it’s what was on sale at wal-mart at the time). it’s now been 11 hours since i sprayed and have washed my hand numerous times and no burn to be mentioned
Many years ago, I worked as a waiter as a popular Tex Mex restaurant. One day when the poor kid who was chopping jalapenos for nachos came out of the washroom in tears because he, well I guess you can figure out what happened – and that was just with the pickled ones. I’ve told the story many times, and boy do I feel bad now that I have a bit of an idea of what he must have been going through. Here I am on holidays in Mexico and I decided to buy some fresh jalapenos to put in my fajitas. I diced one very finely without taking any precations. Afterwards, I carefully wahsed my hands twice. Midway through dinner, I noticed a slight tingling on my hands. It gradually got worse and worse (particuarly around my fingernails), but from what I have read here, I think I got off pretty lightly. I thank God (literally) that I did not have my contacts in and that I did not have to go to the washroom. I am also grateful for the suggestions that have been provided here. From the other responses, it seems that the top three remedies are #1 hand sanitizer, #2 stainless steel, with calamine lotion as a distant #3. Astringent also looked interesting because it is used to cut oil. I had already tried milk, because I thought it would possibly neutralize the acidic oil. It gave temporary relief, as did ice water. I decided to try a few of the remedies listed here to see what worked best. I tried hand sanitizer on one hand and astringent on the other. Both offered partial relief. Then I decided to try the stainless steel on one hand (even though this remedy seemed to make the least sense). To my amazement, it worked! Then I tried the hand sanitizer again on the other hand. That also cleared it up. I’m sitting here 15 minutes later completely free of pain. That being said, I am going to wear my glasses instead of contacts again tomorrow – just in case. Hopefully others who are in pain can find this site! In the future, I will think twice before laughing at the misfortune of others – after all, we reap what we sow! (Galatians 6:7)
I had the exact same thing happen to me yesterday. I had never felt burning like that before and the only relief was from keeping them under water or with ice in my hands. i could not touch anything remotely warm because the burning would increase, not even my own face. It burned to go outside because it was so hot out there that the air killed (live in Australia). I went to a pharmacy was was told to rub milk or olive oil on them. I did that but they burned even more from the rubbing. So I called a different pharcamy and was told that the best thing would be to put them in warm water. I had to let the burning continue if I was going to get over it, the faster it burned, the faster I would feel better. Can’t say I was crazy to hear that news, but it worked. For about an hour I didn’t put anything on my hands, they burned like mad, but it finally stopped too. Hope this helps someone….
Wanda
So, here I am on a wonderful ski vacation in Steamboat Springs, I decide to bake jalapenos with the cream cheese and bacon etc. and get a case of jalapeno hands ! I tried everything just like everybody else on this blog and finally got to hand sanitizer. So far it’s the winner. I’ve been outside in a blizzard off and on all day with my hands in the snow just to be able to stand the pain! Forget pain killers, you can’t take enough to get you out of your misery unless you OD on morphine. Try the sanitizer..I’ve been pain free for an hour now.
Another success story with the hand sanitizer. It worked immediately (after trying baking soda, milk, limes, and hot water). I’m hosting a New Year’s Eve party tonight and was terrified that I’d have to walk around with an ice pac on my hand.
Do NOT!!!! do limes/lime juice. It made the burning so much worse and more widespread.
So yea. Hand Sanitizer. Best of luck everyone!
Okay, I cleaned and deep fried 35-40 crab stuffed jalepenos around 2:00 pm. My hands were on fire within and hour…I tried lemon juice…didn’t bother with the milk. I decided to try TOMATO PASTE not sauce. I have to say I was surprised, it actually took alot of the sting away almost immediately. I of course used half of the 6 oz can. I just rubbed in like any hand lotion, then rinsed and repeated several times. It worked for me. Hope this helps someone who makes this mistake.
This happened to me and I thought I was going to call 911. My husband said to check the net and here I am. I scrubbed my hands with a washcloth and soap then applied solarcaine aloe (for sunburns) then I mixed water with baking soda and it is relieving the pain enough to be tolerable. What a way to start Christmas Eve.
try mustard. it seemed to work for me…
Ok, my turn I only sliced 6 jalapenos they were tho ones in the can not raw and my fingers were burning as if they were on fire!! I sliced a lemon soaked them and relized I had the Neutagena face sope so I used that as well … pain is gone … !
My turn to suffer…..nothing is working for me. The baking soda does ease it a bit, but only for a few minutes. I have tried the hand sanitizer, alcohol, honey…everything except Calamine lotion which I don’t have. Best advise I have is grab a cold beer, hold it where it hurts, then drink it and start over! I’m on my third one and it’s definitely getting more tolerable!
Just tried the following with some success (pain free for half an hour now): wet hands with cold water, coat with baking soda and wash clean with milk. Apply more baking soda.
I tried the Calamine lotion. Initial relief and then burn again. I tried alcohol and the stainless steel. Hand sanitizer too. The only thing giving me relief unfortunately is an ice pack. I’ll go try the baby powder and if that doesn’t do anything, I’ll stick with my ice pack. For sure I’ll have on gloves the next time.
How about Calamine lotion? I know it worked for me for a sunburn so maybe it will help for pepper hands and in my case, peper face..lol.
I don’t feel so stupid then. I got the oil in my EYES!!! I literally couldn’t breathe for maybe 5 minutes but just continually flushing my face with cold water and keeping a cold washcloth on it helped. That was about an hour and half ago that I did this and my fingers are still tingling. It’s not that bad. It’s bearable. But I can totally sympathise with the pain. It felt like someone poured hot oil in my face. I can understand now why they use peppers for spray..lol.
As with almost everyone else here, I’ve chopped jalapenos before; thought, “I don’t need no steenkeen’ gloves!”; and have come to this site in search of a cure for the pain that won’t go away. I endured 4 hours of burning with intermittent relief (for seconds or minutes depending on the remedy I tried) then finally gave in to the ‘final resort’: Using medications. I reasoned that the pain itself involves neuropathic, or nerve pain and also may involve the histamines, or allergic reactions. I took the meds prescibed for my restless leg syndrome (gabapentin/Neurontin) and diphenhydramine/Benadryl; put Benedryl gel on my hands then puttered around the house until I got sleepy. I still needed to put Benedryl gel at my bedside, coating my hands at various intervals, but basically slept for 8 hours and awakened pain-free.
Bless you all! You provided remedies and fellowship and a lot of ideas for jalapeno recipes. Remember to DOUBLE GLOVE (wear 2 pair of latex or plastic gloves) and WARN YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT ‘JALAPENO HANDS’!
Honey worked the best for me. Thanks for the tip. I have an apartment devoid of anything remotely medical or hand sanitizerish, and I can’t leave to the pharmacy because the chili is still cooking. I tried lemon, baking soda, and even poured cheap tequila over my face, because it was the closest thing I have to rubbing alcohol. I had resorted to drowning myself in a bowl of milk to aleviate the pain (my nose and lips were affected), but the honey has finally worked. Now I just have a slight hotspot in my ear, where I apparently stuck my finger while cooking (I know, not very hygenic!). However, I am rather hesitant to spread honey in my ear, so I think I’ll wait out that comparitively small nuisance. Good luck to everyone.
Hahaha. that story is gold.
Hey guys, my wife did the same as you all….She tried everything from milk to alcohol and nothing worked…but rubbing your hand across stainless steel immediately got rid of the pain and burn. We just used a stainless steel coffee mug
I made a bunch of jalapeno poppers for a snack before T-Day dinner, and they were great, however, as with the rest of the people in the comments table, my hands are on fire.. These things should come with warnings and have gloves available at the pepper stand in the market. I am extremely tolerant of pain, so its only a minor distraction to me, but I figured I would check if there was some easy remedy and came across this blog.. I almost fell out of my chair lauging at how many comments you had with the same thing!
add me to the list…the baby powder worked well for me, which makes sense since powder soaks up liquids, water, and so on…it hasn’t stopped burning completely but it’s a lot more tolerable. I also tried using different cremes for eczema and even an antifungal lotion which also seemed to take the edge off. it’s under my nails that’s the most painful. I didn’t even try the lemons and didn’t have any caladryl lotion so….good luck
Try azule oil. My hands were burning horribly last night after cutting up some jalapenos. I have a very low pain tolerance and I tried many things listed above to ease the pain. I finally remembered this wonderful oil I used after I wax my legs in the summer. The azule oil comes with the Sally Hansen wax from Walgreens. It soothes the burn insantly and about ten minutes later the burn was gone completely. You can also buy the oil from day spas however it is much cheaper from Walgreens. 🙂
Feces and urine are the key to helping jalepeno burns. It cured my hands almost instantly after I ran into my backyard and picked up some dog poop and rubbed it all over my hands. Right afterwards I rinsed it out with some pee. Sure, it’s not completely sanitary, but it stopped the burn.
Caladryl lotion. It’s amazing. It totally makes all feel better!!!!
Good lord! I, like the many others here, have found this through a google search. Hand sanitizer, I shall tackle you and make you work for my burning.
So, good story. As we ate our dinner last night, complete with jalepeños, we shared some stories of past “‘peño hands” experiences. My friend, a lesbian, shared a humorous story regarding a delicious dinner followed by some not-so-delicious post-grub sex. Laughing at the pain, with her—not against, I headed to the head to #1. Wouldn’t you know it, I got my karma. 🙂
Maybe we should do some AdCouncil awareness or public-info website regarding “los manos de ‘peños.”
Oww it burns!!! Who would have thought such small peppers could cause such pain. Yesterday, I cut up two jalapeños w/o gloves and wouldn’t you know – I started to experience a burning under my nails 2 hours later. The pain has lasted through today. I just tried soaking my fingertips in straight bleach hoping that will work. I think I will try some of the tips you all have left. Next time, I’ll be sure to wear gloves. I didn’t realize jalapeños caused burns. Man, I’ve cut the peppers before and did not have this problem. Gosh, how stupid.
Technu worked great. Definately worth the money! If you are looking at this post and suffering, find a 24 hour walgreens in your area and make the trip. Made my day much better!
owwww
Here I am, thinking I am the biggest idiot alive but it looks like I have company. stupid stupid stupid.
“wear gloves” she said. Now I get to hear “I told you” so all Sunday long.
Oh and more good advise, Let her hold it for you when you take a leak. Now I am sitting at the computer try to find out what else to wash myself with. Okay. SHE WAS RIGHT! I will never tell her but I will mention it to you other wives on this forum.
Ok, another jalapeno chopping idiot here, looking for relief. I was ok until I got my hands wet 2 hours later, now, owie. This was my first time chopping the little buggers, never, EVER again. I thought wearing gloves was a bit overly cautious, and mainly to protect your eyes if you accidentally swiped them later, I didn’t know the damn things just BURNED. I have tried so far: lime juice, alcahol, hot water washing, and calamine. The calamine made it worse! It seems just getting them wet is what’s activating it. Every remedy feels good for a few seconds, especially alcohol. In desperation, I dunked my fingers in a tub of margarine, it felt sublime! But didn’t last (probably because I washed it off). I guess I am stuck wearing my contacts all night, and I wonder, is everything I’ve touched cursed with this horrendous oil??
My girlfriend made me some chili tonight and decided that some jalapeños would be a good idea. They were! It was awesome. She’s great. However… She used one whole jalapeño. Shortly after her left hand had a very unpleasant burning sensation. Long story short, it was like everyone else’s burning sensation (only in the hand though).
We tried vinegar, vegetable oil, olive oil, ice, and FINALLY the hand sanitizer. The hand sanitizer took the burning from the “I-wish-I-was-dead” level to a “Oh-that’s-unpleasant-and-I-wish-it-wasn’t-happening-but-at-least-I-can-stand-the-pain” level. So out of all of the suggestions and what-not, go for the hand sanitizer. It helps!
My heart goes out to you 5 pound jalapeno-ers! I only chopped a half of an jalapeno and my hands were ON FIRE! The only reason I can sleep tonight is because of the advice received here. Before reading these ideas I tried soap, gojo, baking soda, burts bees hand salve, and aloe more than once. stainless steel didnt work for me but hand sanitizer did after many layers. I went out to buy latex gloves to use when I take out my contacts later. Thank you to all the fellow jalapeno handers out there, I’m so glad to know that I am not alone!
The contacts thing really, really, really sucks. I have worked in kitchens my entire life, and have cut numerous amounts of jalapenos; but, last night has started a new chapter in my life. I have never felt such a sensation on my hands or even in my eyes when attempting to put in my contacts.
Jalapeno poppers got me. My hands were also burning. I read through the stories of all that have come before me after i had tried washing my hands in warm/cold water with no relief. I rubbed some Benadryl cream on my hands and read some more ideas on this page. I have to say, I tried the HOT water with soap idea. I filled the sink with soap and HOT water, and put my hands in it for 5-10 seconds at a time and then took them out rubbing the soap in. I did this about 10 times. After drying my hands the burning is completely gone! Thanks for the advice!
….now lets see if my eyes burn when i take my contacts out later…
I made those jalepeno poppers for the first time , 35 peppers, and I did not use gloves because I cut up one or two lots of time for salsa with no problem. Anyway, it started making my hands burn while I was making them, but I had to finish to go to my Baptist church for the ladies night fellowship. That was 6 hours ago I started, and it has been terrible. 20 ladies were giving me suggestions, also about half said they were too hot to eat,even though I removed all the seed with my fingers. I was telling them this feels like I just burned them in the oven and it won’t stop. Man, it really hurts. I drove home and it seemed better so I decided to wash the dishes and carefully with a knife get all the seeds into the trash, anyway, not a good idea, now my hands are burning again. I’m so glad I repented and trusted in Christ to save me from hell, because I wouldn’t want anyone to experience this, and I know hell (far worse) is imcomprehendibly hot, seperated forever from the only one who can save you, I kept telling the ladies at church that having my hands on fire makes me want to warn everyone that they do not want to go to hell. So I’m thankful for all the suggestions, tried hand sanitizer, aloe gel, still burning but I will go see what else I can find. I’m really glad the Lord saved me from hell, but I’m even more glad that my sin, that was going to put me there, was done away with because of Jesus thought I was worth it, and He willingly went to the cross for me. ( and you too) I’ve known him since I was eleven and I’d have to say; he really did come to give me life, and life more abundantly John 10:10. My hand are still burning, but I feel better now, when I think about how much he loves me. He is truly God.
You need to get the plant oils off of your fingers. The best way to do this is the same way you’d get poison ivy oil off your fingers: with Technu or Burts Bees Poison Ivy Soap. I’m really surprised the hospital didn’t think of that. It could’ve saved you a lot of pain.
Chalk me up as another victom. Only one jalepeno for my pre-game chili & I rubbed the inside of my nose. Lesson learned. Don’t pick your nose after cutting up jalepeno peppers!
Tomatoes, the acid in tomatoes counter acts and gets rid of the sting! Fresh tomatoes or canned or even tomato juice.
Tonight my roommate and I made two batches of and super spicy jalapeño poppers and the burning set in about an hour ago, especially on my right index finger and thumb. After trying dish-soap, alcohol, vinegar, hand sanitizer, stainless steel and left over cream-cheese from the poppers, I remembered when my brother got stung by a jellyfish in Australia…. Okay, this might sound a little bit crazy, but I was desperate and the pain was only getting worse; if your hands are burning as bad as mine were two hours ago I’m sure you will understand what I did next.
I peed on my hands. Yes thats right, pee.
Initially, the heat from the urine increased the burning. I left the pee on my hands for about 1 minute until I couldn’t take it anymore and I rinsed them about 5 times. The burning COMPLETELY stopped in less than 5 minutes. I know it sounds gross but if you are in pain and nothing is working, just try it.
I just cut up 4 of the hottest japelanos and suffering fro all that is mentioed above. I tried the hand saitizer, it works for a few minutes and burns again. I tried vineger, no good. I am ow in the process of soakig my hand i a mixture of baking soda and water. Alternated with baking soda poured directly on the hand. It does bring relief
After several hours of excrutiating pain, a call to poison control, and absolutely no relief, despite having tried every suggestion on this page, my husband came up with a BRILLIANT suggestion that worked instantly. He had me coat my throbbing hands with Benzoyl Peroxide – like the stuff you find in Oxy or other acne drying medicines. I left the stuff on my hands for about 5 minutes, and it dried up all of that pesky pepper oil – INSTANT RELIEF. I did one more precautionary treatment, rinsed, went to bed, and awoke pain-free.
I hope this works for everyone as well as it worked for me!!!
Thank God for all you boneheads who, like me, had that “Doh!” moment when the pain kept getting worse and worse…
Tonight I minced 4 jalapenos to make homemade salsa for a friend’s going away party. No gloves. Didn’t burn at first. Slowly discovered, much to my horror, that this wasn’t a ‘brief discomfort’ that would ‘go away in a minute or two…’
In my middle-of-the-night attempt to find a home remedy, Google brought me to your site (top of the results list for “jalapeno burn,” I might add!) The rubbing alcohol worked. Not completely gone, but I’ll probably be able to get some sleep tonight.
I’m just darn glad I took my contacts out and went to the bathroom before I started cooking! 🙂
Thanks to all of you who posted remedies — one of which is actually working for me! My husband is a pharmacist, and I’m going to make SURE he knows what to tell folks if he’s ever asked what to do about jalapeno hands…!
Wow, I cut a jalepeno once and didn’t have any problems. Tonight I cut up one for dinner and all hell has broken loose. The fumes started burning mine and my husbands lungs. I had a runny nose, so I washed my hands and blew my nose. I ended up with burning hands, nose, and mouth. My husband and I took a benadryll and that seems to have helped the lungs. Also, the dinner was a chicken soup, and the chicken broth seems to have helped my lungs and my nose as well. Nothing was working for my hands until I tried the hand sanatizer. Thanks for that suggestion. Now I have learned that my apartment is too small and too poorly ventelated to cook with jalepenos again.
We grow Jalapenos for a variety of uses including cream cheese poppers. We have found through trial and mostly error nothing works better than gloves and even then sometimes the oil gets through. If you process these little firecrackers do it outside and spred the wash water along fences or decks as a critters repellant. Usually, the water is what starts the heat process so wash and dry them after all peppers are deseeded. Another tip is to throw the wash clothes and hand towels into the laundry after use as others may get some on them from the towels. I learned this after my entire face and eyes began to burn the next day when I wiped my face with a towel I had dried my hands on the day before and had been using gloves.
Me again! I just found another site. Tecnu, a wash for poison oak, ivy and sumac, this really works. All the others from above helped for a second. This actually took the burning away!! Try it!!
Maybe tomarrow I shall have relief. This is horrible. Calagel (for poison oak) helps a little, for a minute!
I know this is at the bottom, but the suggestions above didn’t help as much as bakingsoda in water did for me.
I cannot believe how many of us there are! I must say I am probably one of the biggest fools here. I was watching a Paula Deen show the other day and she warned everyone to wear gloves when cutting jalapenos. My husband says “What a baby she is. Jalapeno’s aren’t even that hot.” I shake my head in agreement. That Paula Deen sure is a baby. So tonight I am making Baja Beans for dinner. Only 1 Jalapeno (I am so lucky). Yum tastes great. But then my hands start burning. Paula’s show starts playing over and over in my head…oh crap! She is not a baby she is an intelligent woman. So here I am like everyone else trying to find a remedy. So far the rubbing on stainless works the best for me. Weird. Good Luck everyone. Embrace the pain.Oh and next time let’s wear gloves 😉
So we tried hand sanitizer, milk, butter, vitamin E oil, tanning oil, washing with soap, ice water, frozen towel, rubbing stainless steel, and ranch dressing. Hand sanitizer BURNED!!!! Milk, ice water, frozen towel all felt good until I removed my hand from them. Ranch dressing not advised… stainless steel… NOT. Its so bad my husband is typing for me as we try to find something to help. It has been about 6 hours and still hurts as bad as in the beginning. I guess it looks like the only option is waiting it out. 🙁
I found the cure for “Jalepeno Hand”!
Don’t mess with the lemon juice, bleach, etc. Now I know this may seem counter intuitive, but I was on a garden web site forum (http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/pepper/msg081330274973.html) and they recommended running your hand under hot water. The Capsacin oil breaks down and comes off the skin. My hand, fingers and cuticle areas were all burning. I ran my hand under hot water (not steaming hot) but warm hot.It was painful, but I did it 5 times in 5 second intervals using soap. After that my thumb which was the worst still hurt some, but the rest of the pain was gone soon after drying my hands.
I just had the worst experience cleaning jalepenos….I stopped, rinsed my hands in water to blow my nose. I ended up with my nose, lips, cheeks and under my eyes on fire! I tried everything I could think of and nothing was working. I called my sister and both of us were looking everywhere on the internet for a solution before I went to the hospital. Well, we found a solution! I covered the burning area with honey and almost instantly the burning stopped. Truly amazing.
Jean I used honey and the burn did go away instantly. Thank you so much.
I tried everything for my lip and nostrils burning from the jalapeno I cut at 8am. I decided to go ahead a take a shower. The hot water did hurt. Afterwards I used my Neutrogena Clear Pore oil-eliminating astringent on it and the pain and heat went away. However, I did get a hot spot on the back of my hand and it has not completely stop it. Hope this helps.
Hola from Acapulco. living in Acapulco has opened a new world of culinary facination for me. i have fallen victim to Jalepeno hands a few times now. Nothing major until today. Today I cut up one jalepeno and added it to some mango salsa I was making. It was especially hot on my hands and caused great lament. I read a post above that mentions rubbing your hands on stainless steel appliances. i have a stainless counter top and rubbed my hands on it for about 30 seconds and immediately began to feel relief. Upon 30-45 seconds completion time I quit rubbing them on the counter. The relief was rapid there after and was measurable. So now that i feel so much better I think I will continue to enjoy this icey cold Vodka Tonic with limes picked from the tree outside my door. If you ever move to Mexico i highly recommend getting a place with a mature lime tree. Trust me, you will need them. Oh, and limes do nothing but cause Jalepeno hands to be worse. They do however go well with Corona. We are getting alot of rain down here, I love it. Acapulco is sexy in the rain.
Cheers Bebe..
I, too, got the jalapeno hands. I wore gloves to clean 1lb of the little devils while making chow-chow. As I pushed them through the grinder the juice coated every nook and cranny of my hands. Now I am in misery.
The pear chow-chow turned out delish but the pain is not worth it. Will try to calamine lotion as I do not have hand sanitizer around the house.
BEWARE ALL!
This is a really, truly painful experience. I am holding/drinking a cold beer which feels better, but is hardly a cure.
I made the mistake once of eating a hot sauce called ‘endorphine rush’ that made burn mark literally under my nostrils. I was breathing fire!
The ‘rush’ attained was not worth having a numb mouth for three days…
This is NUTS! I thought I’d make some fresh salsa for lunch and not only seeded and sliced the raw jalapeno not know what I was in for, I went ahead and used my hand to mix it up because we were at camp and I couldn’t find a suitable spoon. Yeah!!! That burns!
My husband of course has no sympathy thinking I’m being a wimp and just dismisses my complaining that my hand is on FIRE, not to mention when when I wiped my eye without thinking.
Well, isn’t this interesting. He wanted another batch to snack on tonight so I said fine, as long as he cut the pepper this time. He was fine ’till he wiped his hand across his face. So, now his face is on fire and he’s been running around the house for a half hour begging me to find something to make the burn stop. Apparently THIS is the worst pain ever felt according to him.
He finally tried putting baby powder on let it set, wash it off and reapply it every couple minutes. It seems to have dried up the oil and eased the burn.
I finely “french cut” jalapenos to deep fry (Texas toothpicks). That was at 5:30 pm. My hands are burning so badly that I tried looking up help. I found this website and tried the hand sanitizer. It worked for the backs of my hands, but the palms are still burning. Going to try more. My thanks goes out to everyone who has had suggestions. And my pitty to all who are experiencing the pain of the jalapeno meanies.
I am the latest victim of the jalapeno pepper. I cut cut up about 10 jalopenos for salsa. All was fine, and then the burning pain hit. I came on the internet to look for a remedy. I can totally relate to all of your stories. My left hand is on fire. I am trying hard not to touch any other part of me, especially my eyes! Now I am glad I was wearing glasses when I was chopping because a few times the juice squirted me right in the face. I tried the lime juice, yogart, caladryl, stainless steel, and the rubbing alcohol. The alcohol took the pain away for a few minutes, but now it is back! I am not looking forward to suffering with this pain for the next several hours…it really is a bad burn! I can’t believe there is nothing I can do to stop this! There should be a warning with these things!! Ice cold water feels good, but doesn’t make it go away! Lesson learned.
I cut up about 4 jalapenos, with gloves, and accidentally rubbed the oil all over my lips and nose. It was horrible. The minute I would take ice off of my lips, the pain would return. I tried yogurt and milk, but they didn’t help. The burning continued for another hour or so. I then tried pasting on baking soda, and continued to keep ice on it. It actually helped me a lot.
I went through the “jalapeno hands” torment two nights ago. I tried calamine lotion and it didn’t work for me at all. Maybe everyone reacts differently to different solutions, or maybe it only helps with mild burns. I also tried vinegar, milk, yogurt, bleach, soap, orange juice, coke, and vegetable oil – none of which helped. As long as I kept my hand submersed in cold milk, it was fine. But as soon as I took it out – the pain returned! The only thing that seems to work is time. Sadly, all I can suggest is remembering to wearing gloves when you handle jalapenos!
I recently found a cure (the hard way) for jalapeno hands: Calamine Lotion. It’s a drying lotion intended for poison ivy or mosquito bites, but it also worked on my burning hands. It took the sting out right away. NONE of the other remedies I found on the internet worked, but the Calamine did.
Here’s my original post about it: http://yaktalk.blogspot.com/2007/08/jalapeno-hands-something-that-actually.html
Try it….trust me, you’ll have immediate relief.
OMG, I cut 2 jalapenos up tonight for spaghetti(in attempt to make spaghetti half as good as my father’s) and my hands have been burning ever since. I tried everything, milk, oil, noxema, shampoo, dawn, liquid antacid… nothing work. Went to the Pharmacy and asked them what they thought… he laughed at me. Just used the hand sanitizer. This is the best fix yet. Not completely normal, but cut the burn greatly!
Steve,
Thx for the hand sanitizer suggestion. I cut and cleaned 2 doz jalapenos this afternoon at 1pm to stuff with feta cheese and bbq on the grill (try it, btw…they are GREAT! The feta cuts the burn when you eat them). I did not feel a burn earlier today cos i thought I was smart to wash my hands throughout…but I just happened to remove my contacts! OUCH! Never again will I try that the same day! after grabbing saline and dousing my eye (it is okay now)…my hands started to burn. Dont know why it just started..anyway ran across a site that said Rubbing Alchohol was best to cut the “capsacin oil”. I did not have any and kept searching until I read your entry and found that I DID have hand sanitizer!
Thanks! It worked wonders (dousing my hands…not just the single press of the pump … 10 presses worth got the sting out.).
Guess it is glasses for the next couple of days until my eye heals!
I learned a lesson. I cut up 25 jalapenos w/o gloves on last night and my hands are killing me now. I’ve tried everything–rubbing alcohol, milk, tomato juice, all types of soaps and cleaners, grapefruit and lemons and nothing is working.. this really sucks. Does anyone have any cures? Is there a cure? hindsight is 20/20 and I won’t be doing this again.
I made salsa this morning and chopped and removed seeds from 12 jalapeno peppers. My hands were burnimg so badly I could hardly stand it. I tried acrtone, vinegar, alcohol, milk, soda and all helped for a few minutes,but did not cure my problem. I tried Caladryal lotion and got instant relief! It has been three hours and I am still free of pain. I thought this might help someone else!
UPDATE: reader Kimberly writes:
“After having the same problem, I found if you rub your hands on a stainless steel bar, sink, bowl… anything the pain goes away immediately. I would love for someone to be able to find this remedy before they go through the hours of pain like I did.”
Ok I’m not very encouraged to see that no one has a remedy for this BURNING!!! My hands are ok, probably because they are used to harsh chemicals and such but my eye and my nostrils ARE ON FIRE!! I washed my hands several times after cutting up my jalapeno’s for pico but it didn’t seem to help. I was actually mad at my wife for buying foo foo soap. I thought if I only had real soap this wouldn’t have happened. After reading the stories I think I owe my wife an apology. I tried sugar in the nostrils because ice cubes wouldn’t fit and I remember seeing contestants at a hot sauce contest emptying packets of sugar into their mouth to kill the burn. That was a bit messy and didn’t really help. I’m just waiting it out with wet tissue stuffed in my nose. Oh and thanks to Mayoclinic.com for a quick reference to wearing gloves and a chili recipie. Big help!!
I was just up this evening trying to cure my burning “jalepeno hands”! It hurts like hell, but it’s funny that so many people found your blog when they googled trying to find help! I just actually rubbed my hands down with pepto-bismol and have actually found some relief. Not completely gone, but definately eased. Hope that helps other gomers like myself who prepared Jalepenos with no gloves. . .
So I tried something new last night – mango salsa with freshly minced jalapenos. It turned out great . . . . but at a price! I didn’t realize how much my hands would burn! I couldn’t touch anything without feeling any pain. I tried soaking my hands in milk. Nothing! The excrutiating pain lasted since 2 p.m. yesterday afternoon until 9 a.m. this morning. Now, the pain’s subsided a little bit. I still feel like my fingernails and fingertips are radiating heat. Had I known my contact lenses would be affected, I would’ve had my husband take them out for me. I so wanted to rip my eyeball out this morning!
ok, so the hand sanitizer seems to be helping, they still burn, but not as much as they did before i used it. A friend of mine also suggested using Rubbing Alcohol.
ok, so me being a really nice person, cut and seeded about 2 dozen jalapenos and stuffed them with string cheese, wrapped each in about 1/3 slice of bacon, stabbed with a toothpick and threw on the grill, they turned out great, everyone loved them, but as we started to eat them, the captian on my boat asked me if i used gloves, and i said no, that i had worked with green chillis in New Mexico in the past and have never had a problem, well sure enough, 2 hrs later the burning started, and it has now been about 24 hrs and they are still burning. I’ve tried soap, aloe, dish soap, limes (i didnt have lemons) bleach water, Mr.Clean, running water, more aloe, sun screen (spf 45), shampoo, and conditioner. Nothing has seemed to work, but i am going to try some alcohol based hand sanitizer as a last resort, i know it can disolve Sharpie Marker Ink from most plastics. I hope someone eventually finds something that will help. I know i will keep making poppers, cause they are really good, but i will start wearing gloves from now on.
All I did was mince 4 jalapenos so I could have fresh salsa at my party! That was at 6pm. It’s now 11 and everyone just left. Everyone had advise to give: milk, bleach, gojo hand cleaner. None of that worked. I am in agony. Stephanie I’m heading to the kitchen right now to try the lemon juice!
I just had the same horrible reaction only with fresh jalapeno’s I was cutting up for making hot pepper jelly. I really only cut into and seeded (with my bare hands) about 5 jalapeno’s total for the recipe. The burning I felt lasted all through the night and created numbness in my right hand all the way up to my shoulder. It has finally subsided. In the middle of the night I got up and ran cold water over my hand again and scrubbed it with lemon juice. It did not stop the pain immediately – but a short time later it did. Not sure if the lemon did anything or not – but I will NEVER again touch a raw hot pepper of any kind. Wow what an eye opener!
This is the worst pain I have ever been in. WHATEVER you do, do NOT beleive the vegetable oil myth. That was obviously somebody’s idea of a bad joke. There is NO answer to this. I just want to go to sleep. These people at my party better LOVE these damn jalapeno poppers.
Wow, Blyss — I wear contacts and can only imagine the pain. Thanks for the words of warning.
I seriously recomend using gloves if you wear contact lenses. You do not want to be in that kind of pain, having burning hands is one thing, have burning eyeballs is another. I learned this the hard way. I took out my lenses in the evening a few hours after handling jalapeno peppers, assuming that since my hands weren’t burning that I was fine. However the moment that my finger touched my lense there was this intense burning. I also tried to put my lens in the next day thinking an over night soak would be enough, alas it was not, as again I was in excruciating pain. I left my contact to soak for a month. So to all those contact lense wearers….use gloves or wear you glasses during and for a few days after handling jalapenos!
well, i am herelooking also, just made taco’s, pulled out the seeds and went to the bathroom!!!!!!! guess where my buring is!!!
I’m affraid, Brittney, that only time appears to heal the dreaded jalpeno hands — I think you just have to wait it out. Good luck. I’m sure it’s no walk in the park!
i have that right now. i am holding an ice pack on my hands and typing at the same time. it hurts so bad! idont know what to do…do you recommend anything? please!!!!! *ow
Wow, Azadeh — what a story! Glad the burning finally went away, though…
The one thing I found to somewhat help is scrubbing with palmolive eco gel dish soap lemon, it didn’t help right away but about 5 minutes late it calmed it down a little.