skin cream

[bongoron]

Hi folks! As I lurked here, I ran across many posts warning about hand creams on conga heads. The Toca website recommends it (with lanolin) for maintenance of their congas. I have used a couple of different lanolin laden ones over the past two years with no ill effects..in fact the tone was always improved and striking force was reduced for all sounds. My skins are the original bison skin. My bongos are the same...not greasy, good pop, easy to tune, also bison skin.

Is it possible the horror stories are from using too large a quantity, or am I going to suddenly have some dead sounding skins one day? I never even thought about it until I started reading here. I just went with the toca advice. It seems like I read it elsewhere, on another percussion site, too. Is there a danger, and I'm really gonna get it? If so, is there a cleaner I can safely use to remove residual cream and start again? My heads are not greasy at all. Is saddle soap a possibility? Do I need to take action here? Thanks for your replies.

God bless!

-Ron



Edited By bongoron on 1138177289

[caballoballo]

Try to find some Palm Tree oil. Down here in the Caribbean we use manteca de corojo which is a Botanica item. May be you can buy it online at Botanica Elegua.com. Or write to mrios@houston.rr.com 713-660-6767 . It is good to rub this conditioners on the skins at least once a year. If the skins on your Congas and Bongos are too old plus you said they are saturated by the creams they advise at toca,it would be a good thing to upgrade them to Mule skin (you could write to funkytradition@yahoo.com) to enquire about,also Moperc.com & Bongomania.com have some good selected Steer & Cow Hide.

[maelopr]

A friend of mine, who has been around quite a bit (played with la Terrifica and la Sonora Ponceña) recommended me to try a cream that they sell in pharmacies here in PR, called Sebo Flande (don't know how to translate...), been using it ever since and it works pretty good on both skins (hand and drum)!!

[bongoron]

Thanks guys! I have only done it twice in two years, so maybe its the timing. I just checked them again...it's been two days since I treated them. They have a nice warm open tone and good bass tone. Not greasy at all. I guess they're okay. I'll look for the other products for the future.

[caballoballo]

Sebo flande is good for Congueros but not for Bongoceros because at the time of the Montuno,holding the Campana becomes too slipery. On the other half,the Manteca the Corojo will penetrate into the skin and after you wipe off the reminder,is done. This is just my opinion because everybody have his own tricks.

[maelopr]

Sebo flande is good for Congueros but not for Bongoceros because at the time of the Montuno,holding the Campana becomes too slipery.

- very true, it does get pretty slippery. What I usually do when I use sebo flande is that I put a bit on and leave it overnight (or until I use the drum), then wipe of the excess so it doesn't slip that much. Also put a tiiiny bit on the border of the inside of the skin, makes skin slide easy when tuning. But I do have to back u on the manteca de corojo, as I also have used it.

[JohnnyConga]

Okay guys here it is ..a friend of mine brought me a Jar of "Shea Butter" it is the best I have ever used on my hands and its good for the skins too....u can get it almost anywhere....it's called "Shea Butter" it healed up my hands in a couple of days. It melts when it comes in contact with body heat. I would recommend it, very highly..."JC" Johnny Conga...

[bongoron]

Cool!

The lotion I used has shea butter as the third ingredient listed! That means it's one of the largest percentage ingredients...maybe I lucked out. Lanolin is pretty far down the list, with a few plant oils in between, and some stuff I don't recognize...although a google for lanolin took me to a site that says lanolin contains those items. I wonderd about the alcohols and acids on the bottle,but those are in lanolin too, apparently. So... Shea butter...thanks!

[Igor]

My groovy friends !

I will repeat and describe once again my experince with pure lanoline ( find related post, I don t remember from whom)- what is lanoline in fact - sheep sebacea (grease) very similar to our skin "grease". Here it is:

I use 100% purificated lanoline (it is very solid and sold in small tube, not so soft and greasy, no slippery touch occour for shure !) from local pharmacy shop (original purpose: for care of breast-feeding mothers). It works superb on conga heads (aprox. once per month) and on Matador bongos head (I used lanoline more extensively on new bongos). Bongo heads had become "thicker". I rub in allways in high tune position, because, the tension helps to strech and reveal micro spaces in your raw head. No smell or strange odour at all (Babies are sensitive !).

Have a nice groovy day ! Igor

[mco]

Igor,
I was the one who had posted the lanolin info in an old thread on the same topic. Lanolin, a natural animal product, is closer
chemically to the oils found in human hands than those products derived from plants. It is also more similar to the oils found in animal-skin drumheads. The pure lanolin for breast-feeding mothers that you recommend is great stuff.

My job requires that I wear gloves and I must change them often. Our company safety policy dictates that we wash our hands every time we remove our gloves. For me this means that I am washing my hands over 20 times a day. That fact,
plus the cold, dry winter here means that my hands are especially prone to chapping.

This winter I've been using a hand cream called Dumont "No-Crack". In addition to lanolin, it contains allantoin, which purportedly speeds wound healing and healthy tissue formation. I have found this cream to be the best I've tried for hand protection and healing.

CAVEAT: I'm NOT recommending this product for use on drum HEADS, only as a hand emollient. Go with Igor's suggestion of using baby-grade pure lanolin for your drum heads (and hands) or some of the plant derived products JC and others have mentioned.

All the African djembe players I know swear by shea butter for hands and drum heads. One instructor I had from Ghana use to bring in buckets of the stuff (literally) to his classes. We would bring our own empty containers and spoon out the butter from the bucket. All in all, I found lanolin to provide the best protection for my hands, but the shea butter did work well for the goat skin djembe heads.

Here's a link for the "No-Crack" hand cream:
http://www.nocrack.com/handcream.htm

[maelopr]

Where do you find this Shea Butter? Kinda got me interested...

[mco]

Here's some links:
http://www.sheabutterhut.com/bulk_shea.html
http://www.island.net/~ydrums/SheaButter.htm

Please note I haven't ordered any from these vendors.

The djembe instructor I mentioned in the previous post brought the shea butter back directly from Africa.

[Igor]

Yeah, as our hispanic brothers used to say:
"Amar atus manos", correct ?

My winter hand cream: Avon, Glycerine hand cream (with silicone) - not greasy, smooth, fine.

I wish you all a nice and pleasant day, groove on !

Igor, Slovenia, Europe :;):

[rumbaman]

How are all of you doing . Great i hope . I just got some manteca de corojo from a friend and i tell you its just great . Thanks again to you all i learned something new . It is good on your hands and the drum skins . I tried once hand lotion on my bongos and they got ruined i had to replace the skins they got rubbery . Be careful what you put on them skins.

rumbaman

[Bataboom]

I put normal hand lotion on a cheap conga set and the same thing they got rubbery and sounded aweful after...