Youthful Shakers — All Hands On Deck

Our hands are constantly on display greeting hellos, waving goodbyes, and conveying our expressions and sense of fashion. Hands are considered the second most important body part after face that people notice about us. In some cultures beauty of hands is considered almost as important as the face. Hands with long and slender fingers and small knuckles showcasing smooth textured skin showing no lines or wrinkles are considered an ideal of beauty. Chapped patchy skin with loss of tone and apparent veins are considered completely unacceptable. Sun spots or uneven pigmentation n the back of the hand or fingers are considered deal breakers too.

Looking At Aging Hands

Hands like any part of the body are affected by both intrinsic and extrinsic aging factors. Intrinsic factors lead to loss of collagen and elastin revealing thin skin with decreased in elasticity. Extrinsically sun and manual labor cause wear and tear and pigmentation irregularities. As a combined effect the soft tissues under the skin also gets damaged leading to lost of volume and the veins and tendons become more visible.

Make Sure You Put Your Faith In The Right Hands For Treatment

Hands can be difficult to treat; they can be trickier to treat than the face. Hands are very delicate, so a careful and gradual approach is needed. The dermis on the hands is thinner than the face and there are fewer adnexal structures and superficial dermal vessels making the healing reservoir more limited. During the course of healing process pigmentary changes occur more frequently because hands have less capacity to replace the epidermis. Hands can also swell and react with edema for months after being treated, so I urge all here to seek treatment only from highly experienced doctors and injectors.

Treatment Options

Popular treatments for rejuvenating the hands include: peels, resurfacing lasers, dermal fillers and fat grafting.

Volumization – To add volume and to camouflage visible veins and tendons dermal Fillers like: hyaluronic acid (Juvederm, Bolotero and Teosyal), calcium hydroxy apetite (Radiesse) and polycaprolactone (Ellanse) have all been used successfully with good safety records.

Autologous fat injections work amazingly too with very little down time and almost nil side effects.

Skin Texture Improvement

Low molecular weight non-cross linked hyaluronic acid based skin boosting meso-injections can be employed to improve hydration and elasticity in the skin.

PRP an acronym for platelet rich plasma has gained serious popularity in aesthetic circle as an excellent tool to boost hand rejuvenation practices.

Skin tightening and collagen remodeling can also be triggered with the judicious use of radiofrequency and ultrasound technologies.

Pigmentation problems in the skin surface of hands can be addressed by Lasers and intense pulse light devices alone or in conjunction with chemical or laser peels.

Seborrheic Keratosis or age spots can also be corrected by Cryotherapy where abnormal pigment producing cells are frozen to death and removed by skin healing processes.

Home care

All the above-mentioned treatments should be followed by a diligent use of sunscreen (SPF 30) and anti-pigmentary topical regimen.

Tretinoin and other Retinoid improve skin naturally and prevent further damage from intrinsic as well as extrinsic aging factors. Hydroquinone, kojic acid, arbutin and vitamin C are some of the commonly prescribed topical anti-pigmentary agents.

While washing hands gentle cleansers like Babe Oil Soap or Avene Gentle Milk Cleanser should be employed to prevent overt drying.

Skin hydrating moisturizers like AminoGenesis Cocoon Lotion or Avene Hand Cold Cream should be used multiple times during the day preferably after each hand wash.

Sun protection on hands is a given, but using protective gloves while driving, gardening, or outdoor sports buys you additional insurance against the environment. Skin protection with gloves while dish washing and detergent handling should be mandatory to prevent chemical damage and skin allergies.

I’d like to warn you here against aggressive manicures especially when it comes to cuticle trimming, another big ‘no no” is cleaning fingernails with sharp sticks. Both practices can lead to infections and nail problems.