How-to Clean Greasy Hands Tutorial

I use this technique to clean my greasy hands. This technique also seems to work when cleaning hands soiled with pine sap as well as the tar which comes in a can. This tar product is often used to coat wood in order to preserve it.

I pour lots of sunflower seed oil or olive oil onto my dirty hands. Then I rub the hands together, as though washing with soap. The oil dissolves the grease, tar, or pine sap. I then use some liquid dish cleaning soap and water to clean my hands of the dirty oil. This two-step process seems to work really well. I think what is happening is the kitchen oil dissolves products which are oil soluble. Cooking oils (sunflower seed oil, olive oil and maybe even vegetable oil) are all safe for humans (we use cooking oil from the store for cooking food). Grease is not water soluble.

Water and soap alone do not work as well on really oily and greasy substances. Using the oil first before using the dish soap really seems to work. I also think the oil gets between the skin and the pine tar, thereby breaking its chemical ability to stick to human skin. The dish soap is there to wash away the oil. Dish soap is really good at cleaning greasy kitchen plates. Using this technique, you can quickly and safely clean really dirty greasy hands using materials which are already in your kitchen (water, cooking oil, and dish soap). This two part process gets rid of the need for expensive hand cleaning, grease removing products.