The skin on your hands and feet can peel for many reasons. Some include:

• Fungal infections. This can cause itchy, pink, scaling patches on hands and feet, especially between the toes and fingers.
• Certain bacteria.
• Eczema and psoriasis. These can cause patches of redness and scaling.
• Using harsh soaps, detergents or cleaning solutions without wearing gloves. This can result in a contact irritation that can cause redness, scaling and skin peeling.
• Allergies to medicine.

Inherited conditions can also result in skin peeling, either all over your body or just your hands and/or feet. One rare inherited skin disorder is the Peeling Skin Syndrome. Skin peels in sheets from hands and/or feet. It leaves an underlying soft pink skin that gradually thickens before turning pale and peeling again. It may happen to your palms and soles of feet and/or the backs of hands and tops of feet.

Having hands or feet in water for long periods of time, sweating, high temperatures, high humidity or friction may make the problem worse.

As you can see, there are many different causes of skin peeling. So it’s important to see a doctor for diagnosis and treatment. If the condition is inherited, there is no effective treatment. But keeping hands dry and applying cream to soften skin can help. Skin that peels may be more likely to get infected. So see a doctor if redness or soreness persists.