You’ll have seen professionals wearing disposable gloves, such as Unigloves, when you visit the dentist, doctor’s surgery, hospital or beautician. But have you ever considered using them at home? There are actually lots of uses for disposable gloves in the home setting, and they play an important role in health and safety…
Cleaning
The products we use to clean our homes are great for getting rid of bacteria and germs that would otherwise make us ill. However, the chemicals used to make your home sparkling clean are often very strong, as you’ll know if you’ve ever attempted to clean your bathroom thoroughly without protecting your skin!
So use disposable gloves (available in lots of different sizes and made from various materials from Brosch direct) if you’re using products that contain bleach. Without gloves, you’ll find that your skin becomes red and inflamed, and could result in dry, cracked or blistered hands. For health and safety reasons, dispose of each pair of gloves after you’ve finished cleaning—you don’t want to use the same ones again in a week’s time if the gloves have seen the inside of the toilet bowl!
Preparing food
It’s also a great idea to use disposable gloves while you’re preparing food, particularly if you’re put off by strong, pungent ingredients! For instance, if you don’t like the way that the smell of garlic lingers on your fingers long after you’ve chopped it, wear a pair of gloves before you handle it so that there’s a barrier between the ingredient’s natural oils and your hands.
You can also use gloves when you’re chopping food that can cause burns, such as hot chili peppers for instance. Bird’s eye chillies can be very, very fiery, and if you’ve ever been unlucky enough to get chili oil in a paper cut in your skin, you’ll know the value of a good pair of disposable gloves!
Colouring your hair
Dying your hair at home is an inexpensive way to change your natural colour, but it can be a messy and occasionally risky process. Once you’ve performed a patch test to confirm that you’re not going to have an allergic reaction to the dye, pull on a pair of disposable gloves. This will prevent you from staining your hands an unsightly colour.
Of course, most hair colourants include a pair of protective gloves, but they’re often too flimsy or too large and therefore allow hair dye to leak through the opening of the glove. Disposable gloves that you’ve bought especially for your hand size or skin sensitivity will make the process of colouring your hair at home far safer and easier.
In the garden
While you’d be sensible to wear gardening gloves when you’re tending to your flower beds (after all, you’ll certainly need thick good protection from those rose thorns!), it could be worth wearing a pair of disposable gloves for some tasks instead. For instance, if you need to root around the compost heap or find yourself face to face with creepy crawlies that make you squeamish, a pair of disposable gloves will act as a good barrier between bugs and your skin.
You’ll also find disposable gloves really useful if you’re planting seeds in soil and want to protect your manicure from mud: gardening gloves will be too unwieldy to get adequate control, but thinner, more flexible gloves will serve you well, and they’ll also protect your skin from chemical pesticides and fertilisers too.
In the medicine box
Finally, keep a pair of disposable gloves in the medicine box for emergencies. You’ll be grateful for them if you find a neighbour or friend needs medical attention, as the gloves will serve as an effective barrier against the transmission of blood-borne viruses.
