Picking up or handling walnut woods can immediately gain stains on your hands. Despite the many tutorials on how to remove walnut stains from hands, it mostly results in no success.
If the stain continues to linger due to little to no treatment, it will only worsen as days pass by before naturally fading away.
Some dermatologists claim that walnut stains are not removable. Walnuts hold two coats, the outer part, and the inner part that holds the nutmeat.
Read also: How Much Is a Black Walnut Tree Worth?
Effective Ways to Remove Walnut Stains from Hands
These stains coming from the coats will stick to your hands the way it sticks to woods. One guaranteed way to remove the walnut stain is to forget its existence and let it naturally wear off.
But who would want to wait that long? So, here are some guides on how to remove walnut stains from hands.
1. Removing Walnut Stains with Lemon
First, wash away any loose walnut shell residue from your hands. After doing that, the walnut stains that needed to be removed will be revealed.
Squeeze out the juice of the lemon and rub your hands with the lemon juice.
The acid in the lemon provides a lightning effect to the walnut stain. However, if you have dry skin, skip this step.
2. Removing Walnut Stains with Baking Soda
Grab an old toothbrush and smear toothpaste with baking soda on it.
Scrub your walnut-stained hands with the toothbrush in a circular motion until the walnut stain slowly disappears.
3. Removing Walnut Stains with Cooking Oil
No specific cooking oil is needed, any cooking oil will do. Pour out a generous amount of oil and rub gently between your walnut-stained hands.
Before rubbing the oil, if you don’t have sensitive skin, you can firstly scrub your hands with lemon juice. If you happen to have sensitive skin, just rub the cooking oil longer in several rounds.
Since walnut stains are extremely hard to remove, do each method at least three times. Once done, wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water.
Dry your hands with a microfiber cloth and put on lotion.
4. Removing Walnut Stains with a Nail Brush
If you have tried all of the methods above without satisfying results, you can try removing the walnut stains from your hands with a nail brush.
Start brushing the stains off your dry hands. Make sure to not water or wet your hands for easier peeling.
Continue brushing until you notice the stains completely fade and then wash your hands.
For walnut stains on your fingertips, file them out while running them under the water and see your hands go back to normal.
Another Downside of Walnut
The walnut stains are not the only problem presented by walnuts. When it is very hot, a bruised walnut can emit a strong smell that causes drowsiness for some people.
The walnut tree’s root releases ‘juglone’, a chemical that can turn the surrounding plants into dark brown and slowly wither and die.
How to Avoid Walnut Stains
The safest way to extract the nutmeat is by putting the walnuts into a bag and smash them with a hammer.
Another way to do it is to put a walnut on the ground, cover it with a board and step on it. This way, the walnut will break open without staining the hands.
If you insist on extracting the nutmeat with your hands, make sure to wear gloves and eye protection while removing the ‘epicarp’ or the outer layer of walnuts.
However, this does not guarantee free of staining. In some cases, the hands will still look like critters because the inside of the walnut gushes out when you crack it open. The stains are strong.
Next time you come in contact with walnuts, you know what to do. Also, next time your hands get black, you already know how to remove walnut stains from your hands.
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My dog loves to pick up walnuts from the ground and treats them like a tennis ball! He likes us to throw them so he can”fetch”! His tongue gets very black from the walnuts…is there anyway to get the stain off or do we just have to wait for it to “wear off”?