Touched the barrel of my iron last night, here's how the aftercare went

Did the same thing with my Hakko a couple years back, except I caught the tip itself while reaching over to grab my tweezers. Grabbed a cold can of soda from the fridge and held it against my thumb, which honestly worked as well as running water would have. The sting faded after about ten minutes and I got back to the joint, badly, because my hands were still shaking a bit. The one thing I'd add to your routine is that the second and third day are when it gets itchy. Both times I've burned myself the healing part drove me crazier than the burn did. Resist picking at the dry skin around the edge, because that's how I turned a small mark into somethig that took weeks to settle down. I also stopped using aloe after the second burn and just kept it dry and uncovered once the first day was done. Seemed to heal about the same, and I wasn't peeling off a bandage every time I picked up a board. Your covered approach makes more sense if you're working with flux all day though, mine would've been filthy by lunch. Since then I've gotten in the habit of putting the iron back in the stand between every single joint, even mid-project. Feels slow at first but it kills the whole mid-air grab problem.

The reflex grab is the part that gets everyone, and I did the same thing with a Weller a while back except mine was the heat shield behind the grip, wich apparantly stays hot way longer than I assumed. What actually changed my habits wasn't the burn, it was moving the stand. I used to keep it off to the left where I had to half look at it to set the iron down, so my hand was always traveling somewhere near the barrel. Once I put it directly in front of me at the edge of the mat, within easy reach without looking, the grabbing stopped happening entirely.

On the aftercare side, my take is a bit diferent from yours. For small contact burns like that I've had better luck skipping the cover once the first day is done. I still clean it and keep gel on it while I'm working, but overnight I let it breathe, and the tight shiny skin seems to dry out and toughen up faster that way. Might just be my skin, who knows.

The one thing I keep in the drawer now is one of those little foil packs of burn gel from a first aid kit refill. Cold water is great but it's not much help at the bench when you've still got a molten joint hanging there.

Reminds me of the big unregulated irons we ran back in the day, no dial on them, just whatever the wall gave you. You learned where your hands were or you didn't keep soldering long. My old shop teacher kept a bar of soap at the bench and had us rub it over a fresh burn and let it dry. probaly nonsense by modern standards but the sting settled down quick enough. What got me worse than the iron though was solder spatter. A little bead bounced off a joint and stuck to the back of my hand, and that tiny dot stung worse than any grab I've made. Keep an eye on that red ring. If it starts spreading or gets hot to the touch after a couple days, get it looked at.

Mine came from grabbing a resistor I'd just desoldered, not the iron itself. That thing stays hot way longer than you'd guess. The thing that actually saved me was a tube of burn gel I'd shoved in the drawer years earlier and forgotten about. Slapped some on, pain dropped from annoying to nothing in a couple minutes, and the spot never blistered at all. Now there's always one in the bench drawer next to the flux, same spot every time. Funny how the first aid stuff only earns its shelf space after the first mistake.

The thing that finally fixed my reflex grabs was realizing my grip changes depending on the joint. For long leads I choke way up on the handle, and apparently my brain files that as 'the safe zone extends further back than it acutally does,' which is how I once caught a knuckle on the collar between the handle and the barrel. Now I make a point of gripping the same spot every single time, to the point where I can find it without looking. One small thing on the dressing, since you're working with flux: tuck the edges of that pad down properly, beacuse rosen residue creeping under the edge of a loose bandage is what turned my last minor burn into an irritated mess I had to redo twice.