On the bathroom counter, next to the sink where I brush my teeth, are a variety of skin care products. There is a had lotion, another lotion for repair of particularly damaged skin, a tube of sunscreen, a different tube of sunscreen for the face, some special cream to heal rough and cracked skin on my feet, and a general skin cream. Just looking at the various products surprises me even though I’m the one who bought them and who keeps them on hand.

I have typical skin for a senior who grew up with light colored skin in the days before awareness for skin cancer. a couple of decades ago, I experienced burns on my hands, face, and chest in an accident. The skin doctor cautioned me that the experience would leave me more prone to skin problems. Add to that a general tendency for dry skin and a couple of experiences with squamous cell skin cancer. These days I set up a new appointment to be seen by a dermatologist on the way out from each visit. Each six-month visit reveals dozens of pre-cancerous lesions that must be treated.

I joke about my skin care regimen and the array of lotions and creams that I use, but I continue to do what I am able to protect my skin and address my tendency for itchy skin.

When we were growing up there were fewer choices in our home when it came to lotions and creams. We always had vaseline on hand. The petroleum-based substance seemed to be a general first aid product. We also generally had a small container of lanolin available. I grew up in sheep country. Lanolin was used to treat dry and cracked skin, prevent nosebleeds, and a variety of other things.

There was one more skin care product in our home, but this one didn’t come from the drug store. It was sold in our father’s farm supply store alongside a few other veterinarian supplies. Bag balm was developed to heal chapped udders of milk cows. Dairy farmers who had dry and cracked skin on their hands and feet used the product to help their skin heal. The product came in half-pound green tins and in 5-pound buckets. Bag balm is a mixture of petroleum jelly and lanolin.

It was common knowledge that many farm families used veterinarian supplies to treat a variety of ailments and bag balm was one of the items that every farm family kept on hand. It helps to seal cuts and prevent infection. It repairs chapped lips as easily as it soothes cow udders. It reduces pain from needle pricks and small cuts on fingers and hands. Generations of farm babies have had bag balm applied to tender areas to cure diaper rash.

Bag balm is also a handy lubricant when other products aren’t available. A little applied to bolts makes it easier to install them. It works to stop a squeaky door hinge. A small amount applied to a drawer prevents sticking.

I hadn’t thought about bag balm for a long time until recently when I read an article about the product’s newfound favor among younger people. It may be the only item that you purchase at Tractor Supply that is promoted in articles in Vogue Magazine.

Apparently the stuff is finding a new market among the users of TikTok. I generally enjoy it when a person younger “discovers” something that I’ve known about for a long time. It amuses me that young people who have never lived on farms, never milked a cow, and don’t plan to ever do so are pleased to find a product that has been around for a century or more. The one drawback to the popularity of the product in today’s market is that it probably is driving up the cost. I don’t know what bag balm cost when I was a kid, but it wasn’t much.

A few years ago the family that owned the company that makes bag balm sold it to a private equity firm. The new company began to market bag balm in small plastic tubes. The new managers even removed the words “sore teats” from the printing on the tins of the ointment. I guess they thought that there was a better market in human skin care than in providing products for dairy farmers. That is probably just good marketing as dairy production now mostly comes from very large commercial operations. The days of small family dairies seem to have gone the way of other small farms. Urban folk who haven’t spent time on farms probably don’t want to use a product that touts its usefulness for animal health care on its label. There is a general sense that products designed for animal care are not as pure as those specially designed for use by humans.

Now that bag balm has been “discovered” by a new generation who are applying it their faces to prevent wrinkles, I wonder whether or not the aroma of the stuff might be another thing that is less than appealing. It reminds me of the smell of turpentine, but I know that the smell comes from the lanolin. Because lanolin was applied to treat and prevent nosebleeds in our household, and I was prone to frequent nosebleeds when I was a kid, I know exactly what lanolin smells like. I don’t happen to like that smell. And it is exactly what bag balm smells like.

I wonder, too, if the appearance of bag balm might be something that isn’t agreeable to some customers. The yellowish paste with the consistency of vaseline doesn’t look all that appealing to me. After you apply it, you have to use quite a bit of soap to get it off of your fingers. Just rinsing you hands in water won’t do the trick.

I haven’t looked, but I’m guessing that they still sell bag balm alongside other animal care products at Tractor Supply. That’s where I’d go if I were looking for it. I suppose that it is also available at the drug store. I bet there is a difference in price depending on where you get it. And I doubt that the drug store has any 5-pound pails available.