Have you been neglecting your hands?
We took a small survey(actually we asked 10 women) how they care for their hands, most of them responded with a version of “uh, I wash them with soap , use hand lotion when they feel dry and I get a weekly manicure.” One said she is diligent about sunscreen on her hands and wears gloves for tennis, and another is diligent since having laser therapy to get rid of those pesky brown spots.
How can we be so cavalier about our wonderful hands? Hands that nurture and create? Hands that heal and protect? Our hands probably get a better workout than the rest of our bodies, but do we ever treat them to a massage? Probably not, so it might be time to be a bit more mindful about the many lifetimes of abuse we have inflicted on our poor hands and mend our ways.
Cleanliness is closer to “goddessness” and we just love a nice moisture filled bar of soap and a new nail brush. If an antibacterial regimen is your thing, then please do so with care as they are so drying.. Our lovely friends at EO make a organic lavender gel version which has vitamin E, glycerin and kills germs without all those drying chemicals.
Scrubbing our hands with a Clinique exfoliator preps the skin for more nutrients just as it does for our faces. You don’t need to be too enthusiastic but do try to exfoliate once a week, before bedtime,followed by a thick layer of Clarins Restorative Care, locked into place with a pair of white cotton gloves. Your hands will feel like new after all this virtuous love.
Add a cuticle oil or cream from nail guru Deborah Lippman while sitting through your next Netflix binge, keep it up and before long you might just toss those mean little cuticle nippers. Does anyone recall why we ever started cutting our cuticles in the first place? Creme Abricot is a Dior classic that smells wonderful and lasts forever. We love these tubes of goodness that rehydrate our hands from simple shea butter to the extravagant healing marine goodness of LaMer and a good feeling Supergoop lotion with a 40 SPF gives us an even better feeling.
If you have patience, you can add lightening or brightening Verso Retinol hand treatment to your practice but even if your hands feel soft and you are still upset by the look of your hands you can take a more drastic approach.
Thermage is a safe, non-invasive procedure that utilizes radiofrequency technology, is able to tighten and thicken the crepe-like skin that develops on hands over time. It costs a pretty penny and we are told it hurts like a b____ but it does work, eventually.
Intense Pulsed Light /IPL facial technology can be used on your hands, too! The treatments target red and brown pigmentation, lightening age spots, freckles and redness. It is said to promote collagen growth, diminish scars and enhance the overall complexion. You’ll have to have several treatments but should see improvement after just a few.
If the skin between your tendons and veins on the backs of your hands look like valleys and the wrinkles like deep furrows, you have the option of filling them with Radiesse or Restylane Lift. The treatments add volume to your hands , hopefully bringing them on a relative par with your lovely face. The cost is variable depending on how much filler you need but probably plan on it costing somewhere near $2000 and lasting for about a year.
All of our recommendations are curated by Susan & the In The Groove editorial team. In some, but not all cases, we receive a small commission for leading you to what, how and where to buy all this wonderful stuff.