What could be causing this?

I’ve never had dry skin and my hands seemed perfectly fine until I went to get rid of a small hangnail and the skin just kept coming off with it.

You say that you haven’t “exposed them to any chemicals or products”, but … unless you live in a literal vacuum it’s not possible to “expose them to nothing”. So, if there are no chemicals that you’re aware of being exposed to, have you changed any routines lately? Perhaps someone is bleaching a countertop (for disinfection, for example) and you’re touching that soon afterward? Your exposure may be slight enough that you don’t feel or smell anything, but unless you rinse your hands right afterward, you could still be feeling a residual effect.

If it’s the “pads” of your thumb and fingertips that are peeling, it’s a near-certainty that you’re touching something that is doing this. Because otherwise your hands (and feet) have palms (and soles) and related surfaces that are tougher than you think, and used to “normal wear and tear”.

EDIT: I just read your own follow-up to your Q. If it’s occurring at the sides of your fingers (because of the hangnail), then it sounds like it might be a problem with excessive dryness. Especially if you occasionally get your hands wet during the day and they go wet-and-dry frequently.

Are your hands prone to being very cold?

Is there any redness?

Would you describe the skin as cracking?

All peeling on the same hand? Are you a lefty?

My guess is possible Schleroderma if you want a disease name, but don’t get all wound up that you might have the worst case scenario of this disease if you google it. It easily could be something else. Some simple explanation easily remedied or will go away on it’s own.

If you have some sort of rash with it or recently started a new medication I would stop the need if it is safe to and possibly have your hands checked by a doctor.

That’s what I would do, that’s not medical advice, I’m not a doctor.

@CWOTUS has a much more likely reason for this, sensitive skin due to different circumstances over which you don’t have control.
Looking things up on the Internet will likely cause an unnecessary panic. If you can, go see your doctor, or at the very least call a medical help line staffed by actual medical professionals and describe your symptoms. You will get much more reliable suggestions from them than from us.

Even wearing gloves frequently, as most of us do pretty regularly at this time of year, will tend to dry out your hands more than you realize. Especially with the high quality of modern glove linings, that stuff just wicks out whatever moisture is in your hands – which is probably already reduced anyway because of the dryness of most ambient air.

The simple, easily tried and inexpensive (as well as healthful for other reasons, too) solution is to try to introduce some humidity to your surroundings. Simmer a pan of water on the stove (don’t let it run dry!) while you’re nearby; invest in a room humidifier; if you have a wood stove, as Lucky_Guy describes, just put a pan of water on top of that and keep refilling it. (In fact, if you have a wood stove or forced hot air heating, you’re already drying out the already-dry air even more.)

My uncle used to have an area humidifier that we’d fill every day with more than two gallons of water. Every day that thing was putting two gallons of air into the house air! And it was hardly noticeable, except that the slightly elevated humidity in winter will make a difference.

Using too much hand sanitizer can cause peeling.
http://www.livestrong.com/article/174149-antibacterial-hand-sanitizer-side-effects/

My fingers aren’t cracked, red, dry, or itchy, I don’t even have any callouses. We haven’t changed any of our cleaning or bath products and I haven’t painted my nails in at least 7 months.
I occasionally get a small cuticle snag or whatever you want to call it but they aren’t a frequent occurrence. I just happened to have one last week so I started to mess with it and it just didn’t stop peeling until I got to the knuckle. This is gross but the part that freaked me out the most was that half of my thumb pad came off in one huge piece. It’s wigging me out just thinking about it.

How about checking this out at your local urgent care center? It does sound scary. (Picking at hang nails often cause infections.)

Update us when you find out what it is.

The only time this ever happened to me I was using a cover on my keyboard. I didn’t know it was made from latex. My sister, who is an actual, qualified, working RN suggested I may have developed a latex allergy. Is there any chance you are using latex gloves or touching anything latex?

I have also had less serious peeling on my fingers and it had to do with stress that was draining my vitamin B and it resulted in a deficiency. If it is that, it is an easy fix.

@JLeslie Schleroderma? Way to guess a horrible disease that is just below the plague.

@chyna I didn’t guess Schleroderma I said a possible disease to consider and after the answers from the OP it doesn’t sound like Schleroderma. We are just brainstorming here not diagnosing. I warned the internet will make it look scary and not to jump to the worst. My mom was diagnosed with Schleroderma over 30 years ago. It doesn’t have to be worst case scenario with that disease.

@cheebdragon in case you didn’t read it in my response to @chyna it doesn’t sound like Schleroderma. Especially since it’s just peeling and not loss of elasticity in your skin. The computer keyboard cover was an interesting answer above. You would thing that would cause redness? The B vitamin sounds worth checking too.

I’m thinking go to a dermatologist. Sounds fairly unusual.

scleroderma.

Yu due it on porpose. It is laffable at this ponte.

@chyna has a point. It’s like someone asking about a red spot on their nose and you going straight for malignant melanoma or flesh eating bacteria instead of saying it might be a pimple.

And one misspelling could be a typo. Four more times indicates either carelessness or ignorance.

“If you hear hoof beats in the night” is one of the first things they teach you in medical school.

So I won’t suggest leprosy?

Oh – the poor zebras!

Carelessness usually.

This time I just really thought I was spelling the word right.

Obviously, the best option is to speak to your physician but I’ll add a couple of ideas you might consider too.

Are you taking any new prescription drugs? Some drugs can have the weirdest side effects. I did a quick Google search and couldn’t find anything, but it might be worth checking with your pharmacist if you are.

I also wondered if you might be vitamin deficient. Again, a lack of certain vitamins can cause weird symptoms. I did a search and a lack of vitamin B can cause peeling finger tips. Perhaps consider your diet and if you could boost your vitamin B intake.

@Jleslie My guess is possible Schleroderma if you want a disease name Yes, you did say that was your guess.

Sometimes there is just something in the air. Last week I had a horrible case of chapped lips with no explanation. My hands were also extra dry. This week it’s better. No weather change or anything. It’s been acting like spring here for a long time so my guess is that I am allergic to some sort of pollen.

Cold weather can really do a number on peoples skin. I have seen people with normal healthy skin have bad skin issues during prolonged cold weather.

@cheebdragon I’m curious to know what might have caused it, too, so if you get it/had it checked out, let us know what the doctor says/said.

@chyna Yes, my guess as a possible disease name. Possible, if you want to google somethng, read the symptoms, and see if it fits. Just like if someone has a headache you will get a string of jellies say possible aneurysm. Have you ever said something like that?
The OP already guessed allergy, some jellies suggested allergies she might not have thought of and some vitamin deficiencies. Those all sounded good to me. I suggested she go to the doctor.

Do you know how often I give answers that are less scary than most jellies on a Q? I don’t go straight to cancer, stroke and death, all the time, I just lay out possibilities for the OP to research. We cannot see the OP nor know how they really feel, how much discomfort they are in or even if they are reporting their test results accurately, especially when they don’t have the actual numbers.

Today my hands are fine for some reason, wtf? You would never know that just yesterday they were looking pretty scary. I’ve noticed that every morning when I wake up you can hardly see the peeling at all, but by later in the day it will go back to being awful. I haven’t even used any lotion at all but you can see the difference

That is the same hand btw.