We all know the smell of fish, but not everyone knows how to get rid of it. Here are some ways you can try so your hands will be fresh and sweet smelling again!
The “how to get fish smell off hands after fishing” is a guide on how to rid your hands of the fishy smell that comes with fishing. The article also includes 13 surefire ways to do so.
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Is there anything fishy about it – or does it just smell fishy?
Whether you’ve just completed reeling in the day’s catch before cleaning, deboning, and frying it, or you’re just utilizing prepackaged fish for your seafood meal, the fishy odor may remain long after you’ve stopped handling them – or can it?
You’ll be able to wipe away that “fishy smell” once and for all with these tips and tactics, and enjoy some fresh seafood without smelling like it.
Rubber Gloves No. 1
This one is a little apparent, and it’s more about keeping your hands from smelling like fish in the first place than it is about getting rid of a fishy stench, but there’s no doubting it works.
It is, without a doubt, one of the most practical answers to the problem. You just have to put them on, work with the fish, and then take them off when you’re done.
Naturally, this raises the issue of which gloves are ideal for the job. People frequently ignore how hot, wet, and unhappy your hands may feel inside gloves that are excessively tight or don’t breathe well.
As a result, be sure that the gloves you purchase are breathable and that they fit snugly enough to cover your hands completely without being unpleasant.
2 – Vinegar and Lemon Juice
There are two types of lemon juice: plain lemon juice and lemon juice combined with vinegar.
Because lemon juice is so unique in its own way, it may help to mask the fish odor.
However, if your hands smell like an uncomfortable fish meal topped with lemon, you’ll want to combine it with vinegar for a more effective DIY cleaning remedy.
To get the most out of your lemon juice and vinegar cleaning, follow these instructions:
- To make this combination, combine 1 cup vinegar (240 mL) and 1/4 cup lemon juice in whichever Tupperware or mixing dish you’ll be using.
- Before adding a dab of detergent, mix these ingredients for a few minutes.
- Allow 30 minutes for it to rest.
- Dip your hands into the solution and scrub them after it has set for a while.
3 – Paste of Baking Soda
Baking soda is one of the most common DIY staples. With a little inventiveness and the correct formula, it can clean anything, and the same is true here.
You may make your own fish odor eliminator by putting up your own baking soda paste solution.
To get the most out of this strategy, do the following:
- 2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp water
- Using a big spoon, combine the solution until it forms a paste.
- If the solution seems too powdery or runny in one direction, add more of the other component.
- Baking soda absorbs scents naturally, so once the mixture is ready, it should absorb the fish stench from your hands.
Stainless Steel (number 4)
You may be shocked to find stainless steel here if you’re new to dealing and cooking with fish. However, as strange as it may seem, a piece of metal can be used to deodorize your hands – and here’s how.
Sulfur is included in the compounds that generate the fishy smell, which forms bonds with stainless steel. Surprisingly, the same chemical makeup that permits stainless steel to neutralize that fishy odor also makes it rust-resistant.
Naturally, not all stainless steel surfaces are equally suitable to being rubbed with your hands. If you’re really cautious, they could work as a last resort, but you shouldn’t wipe your hands all over blades.
Faucets may be better since they won’t cut you, but do you want them to smell like fish?
Probably not, which is why you should consider purchasing a low-cost stainless steel bar. You massage it between your hands like you would a bar of soap, either with or without water.
5 – More abrasive cleaners
You may be wondering why soap doesn’t just leave your hands smelling clean and fresh, or at the very least fish-free, at this point.
The reason for this is because soap does not eliminate the compounds that generate the fishy odor in the same manner as stainless steel does, namely, by bonding with or otherwise removing them.
As a consequence, if you want to get rid of the fishy odor, you’ll need to use stronger cleansers. We’ll go through a handful of them in detail below, but on the whole, these cleaners are a lot more powerful than stainless steel, regular soap, or even baking soda.
Then there’s the issue that the fishy odor you’re trying to get rid of is stuck on your skin’s top layer. Can you get rid of even the slightest piece of that top layer if you can’t get rid of the smell?
Don’t worry, you won’t be shedding layers of skin like a snake or leaving your hands bare; this just indicates that certain procedures clean a little deeper than others, leaving your skin chafed in the process.
In fact, one thing to remember about this remedy is that it might irritate skin that is already sensitive. If your skin is already delicate or affected by detergent or other strong cleansers, you should definitely go for one of the other options on our list.
Pumice soap and soap stones, for example, are ideal examples of harder cleansers at work, however they may leave delicate skin a little too red and raw for their comfort.
They’re very good at getting rid of slimy or oily textures, which is a common issue when dealing with fish and another way odor may persist.
6 – GOJO is the way to go.
There’s a good possibility you’ve used GOJO previously if you work in construction. Another of the harder cleansers listed above, this one is designed to remove the grit, grease, filth, and oil that comes from working with your hands in construction tasks.
Fortunately for us, it’s also effective in removing the oily, slimy chemical texture and stench after working with fish.
However, like with lemon juice, this is another example of a strong aroma being replaced with a weaker one. The “OJ” in “GOJO” stands for “Orange Juice,” and using it will leave your hands smelling like oranges.
Even said, most of us would prefer an orange aroma to stale fish, so if you don’t have sensitive skin, enjoy citrus-scented cleansers, and want one of, if not the strongest cleaner on our list on your side, GOJO is the way to go.
7 – Make up for lost time with Ketchup
With a little ketchup, you can truly get rid of the fishy stench from your hands, which seems ridiculous but is completely accurate.
The fact that ketchup and tomato juice or paste are commonly marketed as being able to manage skunk stench is one of the reasons why people are so enthusiastic about this response. Granted, that’s a whole different animal and odor, but if it can tolerate a skunk, it can certainly manage bad fish odors.
Odors, on the other hand, don’t function that way. For one thing, they’re chemically based, so a skunk’s chemical makeup would be different from a fish’s. Furthermore, tomato paste and juice, as well as ketchup, conceal rather than eradicate the stench of skunk spray.
Still, it’s better than nothing, and although its efficiency varies greatly between the two species, some people believe it conceals the smell better than other options.
As a result, if you just have ketchup and nothing else, this is an excellent interim remedy. A brief spray of ketchup will help conceal the fishy odor until you can find anything that will completely eliminate it.
8 – Make use of toothpaste
Put this down as yet another strange-sounding cure that, when used correctly, may really help you get rid of the fishy odor on your hands.
This is another option whose reputation as a fish odor remover stems mostly from its ability to eliminate other scents.
When you brush your teeth, toothpaste is inherently effective at removing microorganisms. As a result, it stands to reason that it should also be effective in removing unpleasant fish odor.
That said, it’s clear that what we’re dealing with in the case of fish isn’t bacterial or plaque accumulation per se, as in the case of your teeth, but the oily slimy leftovers from fish skin.
This is similar to the ketchup example in that it is not being used for the odor-removal reason for which it was originally prescribed, but it may still be useful.
One bit of advice: while using toothpaste, make sure that your hands are wet. If your hands are rough, it will not distribute properly. Besides, toothpaste and chaffed hands are probably not the finest combo for your skin.
In an emergency, a little toothpaste mixed with warm soap could help conceal the fishy odor until you can locate something better.
9 – Saltine Crackers and Soap
How stupid of you to believe that washing your hands with soap alone would suffice — obviously saltine crackers are the way to go! Actually, both (as bizarre as it may sound) may aid in the removal of that noxious fishy odor adhering to your hands.
This is another example of selecting an odor elimination procedure based on attempting to transfer the aroma from your hands to something else.
By combining soap and saltine crackers, you should be able to get a soggy crumbly solution that you can wash over your hands to remove the fish odor.
ten – a pinch of salt
When it comes to cleaning up nurseries, “A Spoonful of Sugar” may work for Mary Poppins, but a spoonful of salt could be the way to go to remove that fish stink off your hands.
The idea is to get the fish scent off your hands and onto the salt once again. This treatment is simple to use; just massage it on your hands, add some water, and voilà!
Coffee Grounds (No. 11)
You should be able to figure out how this sort of cure works by now. You’re not going to scorch your hands by pouring coffee on them; it would be a sad waste of a perfectly nice cup of coffee.
Instead, massage your hands together with coffee grinds to get rid of the odor and replace it with the aroma of coffee.
12 – Hand Sanitizer and Baby Wipes
This is another response where it shouldn’t be too tough to figure out how to use it. You just utilize them as you normally would.
They help to eliminate any germs from your hands and, in the process, they may also erase the fish odor.
It isn’t failsafe, but it is worth a shot.
13 – Cilantro is a great herb to use.
We can’t close this list without one more trip into the strange realm of utilizing food ingredients to remove the stench of fish off your hands.
To get rid of the fish odor, all you have to do is clean your hands with cilantro. You should be OK as long as you don’t mind your hands smelling like cilantro.
Some of these solutions may seem fishy, but they may all help you get rid of that fishy odor for good.
The “how to get fish smell off clothes” is a handy guide on how to remove the fishy smell from your hands.
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