I have recently developed very thin skin on the fingertips of my left hand due to a skin condition and I've just finished up in the kitchen doing things which included chopping 2 red and 2 green chili's very, very finely, all the longer to leave my fingertips attached to the evil things. Thankfully, I'm actually quite sensible in the kitchen and as soon as I'd finished chopping I washed my hands very well with lots of soap on the very unlikely off-chance that I would be silly enough to put my hands anywhere near my eyes. This hasn't happened before, and definitely gloves from now on. Or dried. The ironic thing is I don't like heat in food at all; I like lots of different spices but I only put chili into anything for the flavour not the heat, which has to be added at the table.

What to do? It's starting to get excruciating, has taken maybe an hour to get to this point but the temperature inside my fingers is going up by the minute. I've got them sitting in a cup of cold water at the moment (not freezing, just cool).

I really need someone to tell me what to do next, because it feels like it's just going to keep getting worse and worse.

Try to use some toothpaste. Works well for my bottom after eating to spicy.

Try to use some toothpaste. Works well for my bottom after eating to spicy.

You apply tooth paste to your sphincter,I don't mean to be anal but that's odd.

Thin skin on finger tips.

Pain on finger tips after chopping Chilli.

Treat this as a Chemical Burn - Google !

http://www.thekitchn.com/the-best-remedies-for-hot-pepper-hands-tips-from-the-kitchn-208527

Have read that the offending oils are best negated by other oils or fats. So, when mouth burning up, don't go for the cold water, but rather the icy cold milk. The butterfat in the milk sops up the capsicum oils and the heat is gone.

Perhaps you could try icy cold olive oil and soak the fingertips. May work. Rubber gloves in the future for you, my dear.

Excellent job of typing with your toes, OP

Rubber gloves shalt be thy salvation.....

with the burny fingers, squeeze your ear lobes.

Thin skin on finger tips.

Pain on finger tips after chopping Chilli.

Treat this as a Chemical Burn - Google !

http://www.thekitchn.com/the-best-remedies-for-hot-pepper-hands-tips-from-the-kitchn-208527

Thank you, my brain wasn't working and you may just have saved me from a lot of pain. Lime juice and salt seem to be working better than anything I would have tried - a few of the early 'cures' on that page I'd be a bit dubious about trying, I always thought milk made chili burns worse, but after scrolling down I found lime and salt.

Excellent job of typing with your toes, OP

Didn't do such a bad job with one hand, eh?

Try to use some toothpaste. Works well for my bottom after eating to spicy.

With which end of toothbrush?

Burning finger tips. That's nothing. When I was living in North Queensland a self sown chili bush on my place produced the hottest chill's I've ever know. I used to get a tingle in the finger tips just chopping them.

Absent mindedly I headed for the dunny (hong nam) after chopping a few. A world record followed as I stripped for the shower and the scrubbing brush didn't even hurt. Nothing could compete.

Try to use some toothpaste. Works well for my bottom after eating to spicy.

You apply tooth paste to your sphincter,I don't mean to be anal but that's odd.

I love your humour. Originality.

Anal, I get it. You deserve a few likes for that.

maybe some burn cream on your fingers and cool water with ice.

Try to use some toothpaste. Works well for my bottom after eating to spicy.

With which end of toothbrush?

Let me guess. The bottom end?

I'll give 2 cents for humour

Try to use some toothpaste. Works well for my bottom after eating to spicy.

and there's only one toothbrush in your entire bathroom ....

Thin skin on finger tips.

Pain on finger tips after chopping Chilli.

Treat this as a Chemical Burn - Google !

http://www.thekitchn.com/the-best-remedies-for-hot-pepper-hands-tips-from-the-kitchn-208527

Thank you, my brain wasn't working and you may just have saved me from a lot of pain. Lime juice and salt seem to be working better than anything I would have tried - a few of the early 'cures' on that page I'd be a bit dubious about trying, I always thought milk made chili burns worse, but after scrolling down I found lime and salt.

Milk is one of the few things which does work with chillie. It is the capsicum in chilli which burns and milk contains a chemical known as anti-capsicum

I've been in the exact situation..
Its not pleasant.
I tried loads of "tried and trusted" methods : Washing hands with Salt, Sugar, ice.. nothing made much difference..

Try to use some toothpaste. Works well for my bottom after eating to spicy.

With which end of toothbrush?

Let me guess. The bottom end?

I'll give 2 cents for humour

he has a glint in his shorts and brown teeth.

Make a paste out of cucumber and yogurt or milk......

I highly recommend not to 'wipe' with that hand after using the hong naam, least your burns turn from plural to multiple.

soaking in milk should work......

Thin skin on finger tips.

Pain on finger tips after chopping Chilli.

Treat this as a Chemical Burn - Google !

http://www.thekitchn.com/the-best-remedies-for-hot-pepper-hands-tips-from-the-kitchn-208527

Nowhere does it say the 2 are related Richard.

To Google medical conditions would be naive and best left to a real doctor, not a forum.

You can Google that to get a better understanding for your sake though.

Make a paste out of cucumber and yogurt or milk......

She can't. Her fingers are burnt.

I'd skip that afternoon Sherman if I were you.

Do you know Vic Burns. If not put some on your........

UPDATE

So, I was a bit hasty declaring success with the lime juice and sugar - it certainly helped a lot, but then seemed to start heating up again after about 20 minutes and the heat was honestly down to my 2nd knuckle, but it felt as though the heat was inside not on the surface. It proper warmed my bones, it did. It was getting to be pure torture for another hour or so after the burning came back, I rubbed lots of coconut oil into them then more lime juice and salt and even laundry liquid, and then we hit peak heat. I slathered some burn gel on as it started cooling down (yes, that was the first thing I tried when the burning had first started) and it seemed to go as quickly (or slowly) as it came. It took an hour after first chopping the chili to start getting uncomfortably hot, 2 or maybe 3 hours from that realising something wasn't right to peak heat then around an hour and a half to cool right down and now they're all back to normal. Nothing to see, just a bad memory.

Thank you everybody for the assistance (and giggles). This is the first time it's ever happened (either the thin skin or the burning) in 30 odd years of cooking and I now know that gloves or plastic baggies are not just for pussies.

Unless something has worked temporarily and it is going to try and sneak back up on me later. Must. Get. Drunk.

(Just in case, you understand).

Butter is well known to remove the heat from serious Vindaloo curries - so might be worth a shot if it happens again: or for other followers of this topic.

I don't know about the lime juice - my sister got 2nd degree chemical burns on her hands after juicing limes for a party and had to keep them out of the sun for several months afterward. The milk sounds good though. An NSAID like ibuprofen might help with the pain.

Capsaicin dissolves in alcohol.