Sean,(posted 9163 days ago)I developed a nasty allergy to metol, which is in quite a few developers. I've switched to a paper developer which uses phenidone and hydroquinone, rather than metol and hydroquinone. The phenidone actually oxidizes less rapidly than the metol, and it is also a more active developing agent.
Good advice about the latex gloves -- don't use them! I've used regular thin vinyl gloves with great success. They are thin enough to allow good handling of materials, and they are quite strong as well. I got them at a local science material store. I don't know much about the hand creams, but I've seen them used by a couple of people. Try the vinyl. I got a bag of 100 for about $18.00.