Hand Care and Anti-Aging - Why Your Hands Age Faster Than Your Face
Why Hands Age Before the Face
The saying that "your age shows in your hands" is a sound observation dermatologically. The skin on the back of the hand is thin even compared with the face, and it has almost no margin left for absorbing irritation from outside. What is decisive on top of that is that the back of the hand has almost no sebaceous glands. The face has roughly 400 to 900 sebaceous glands per square centimeter, while the back of the hand has only a very few. Since sebum works as a natural moisturizing barrier, hands with few sebaceous glands are constantly exposed to dryness and their barrier function weakens easily. Hands are also subjected to washing and wet work many times a day, and each time the intercellular lipids (ceramides) of the horny layer are washed away. It is a place that is thin, poorly guarded by sebum and washed over and over in a single day, so age surfaces there before it does on the face.
How Ultraviolet Light Creates Spots on the Hands
Spots on the back of the hand (solar lentigines) arise from years of accumulated ultraviolet exposure. UVB directly damages the DNA of keratinocytes in the epidermis, while UVA reaches the dermis and chronically stimulates the melanocytes. Melanocytes overproduce melanin as a defensive reaction, and when turnover slows with age (the cycle, put at about 28 days in your twenties, grows longer as the years pass), the excretion of melanin cannot keep up and the pigment settles in. Unlike the face, most people have no habit of applying sunscreen to the back of the hand day to day. Even those who carefully apply sunscreen to the face every morning do not often extend it to the backs of their hands. Sunscreen washing off with every handwash is another reason ultraviolet damage accumulates so readily. Understanding how to apply and choose sunscreen properly is the first step toward preventing spots on the hands.
How Prominent Veins Come About
The prominent veins on the back of the hand that start to stand out from the forties come from several factors overlapping. The first is the loss of subcutaneous fat with age. The subcutaneous fat on the back of the hand grows gradually thinner from the late thirties, and as that cushion is lost the veins beneath it rise to the surface. The second is the decline of collagen and elastin. Collagen in the dermis peaks at 25 and then decreases by about 1% a year, so the firmness and elasticity of the skin fall away. The third is the loss of elasticity in the vein walls themselves. With age the valve function of the veins weakens, blood pools more easily and the vessels dilate. Because estrogen acts to maintain the elasticity of vessel walls, women after menopause tend to see prominent veins progress rapidly.
Breaking the Vicious Circle of Rough Hands
Rough hands are not simply dryness: they are a chain of inflammation caused by the collapse of the skin barrier. Once the ceramides of the horny layer are gone, irritants from outside (detergent, alcohol disinfectant, cold air) get in easily and immune cells release inflammatory cytokines. Inflamed skin loses still more of its barrier function and becomes yet more susceptible to irritation, and that is the vicious circle. Breaking it starts with avoiding irritation above all else. Use rubber gloves for washing dishes, and wash your hands in lukewarm water below 40 degrees. Choose a mildly acidic soap (around pH 5.5) and apply hand cream within 3 minutes of washing. This "3 minute rule" matters because it seals the horny layer with oil before its water evaporates. The principles of repairing the barrier of dry skin apply to the care of the hands exactly as they are.
Hand Cream Ingredients and How to Choose
Hand creams fall broadly into three types. Moisturizing types hold water with hyaluronic acid or glycerin and suit the everyday prevention of dryness. Oil-based types form an oil film on the skin surface with petrolatum or shea butter and work well for people who do a lot of wet work or who have cracked skin. Vitamin types promote circulation with vitamin E (tocopherol) while vitamin C derivatives hold down melanin production, so they combine the prevention of spots with a better complexion. The point in choosing is to match the stage your own hands are at. A moisturizing type is enough for mild dryness, but where there are cracks or redness, choose an oil-based type, ideally one that contains ceramides. Urea creams soften the horny layer, but those at a concentration of 10% or more can sting on cracked areas, so keep their use to places with no breaks in the skin. How you apply it matters too: working it in carefully between the fingers, around the nails and along the creases of the joints changes the result considerably.
Sun Protection for the Hands
Preventing spots on the hands calls for the same level of ultraviolet protection as the face. For everyday use, a sunscreen that doubles as hand cream at SPF30 and PA++ or above is convenient. Because it washes off with every handwash, though, reapplying every 2 to 3 hours is the realistic goal. Where reapplying is difficult, UPF50+ UV-blocking gloves are effective. While driving, UVA coming through the window glass keeps striking your hands, so driving gloves are recommended. A report that measured 29 passenger cars in the United States in 2016 found that windshields blocked an average of 96% of UVA, while the driver's side window blocked an average of 71%, and in some models blocked as little as 44%. In other words the window on the driver's side is the weaker guard, and the variation between cars is wide. In a right-hand-drive car it is the right hand that sits by the window, and in a left-hand-drive car the left, so the back of the hand on the driver's side goes on receiving ultraviolet light. For spots that have already formed, creams with 2 to 4% hydroquinone or topical vitamin C derivatives are effective, though a consultation at a dermatology clinic is recommended. For everyday care items, choosing from popular hand creams is an easy place to start. UV-blocking gloves are effective against ultraviolet light as well.
Hand Care Priorities by Decade
The twenties are the time for prevention. Establishing the habit of moisturizing after washing your hands, and of applying sunscreen to your hands as well, has a large bearing on how your hands age later. Neglect ultraviolet protection at this stage and it surfaces as spots from the late thirties. The thirties are the time to strengthen moisturizing. Since the slowing of turnover begins here, switch to a hand cream containing ceramides and bring in a hand pack once or twice a week (a thick layer of cream, then cotton gloves overnight). The forties are when anti-aging care starts. Prominent veins begin to draw attention, so promote circulation with a vitamin E cream and stimulate collagen production with retinol products. From the fifties on, comprehensive care is needed. Because the fall in estrogen at menopause accelerates the thinning of the skin, build them all into your daily routine: moisturizing, ultraviolet protection and better circulation. Daily habits that slow the aging of the skin are knowledge that feeds straight into the care of the hands.
Hand Care Habits You Can Start Today
Countering the aging of the hands owes more to the accumulation of small daily habits than to any special treatment. First, keep hand cream in three places, the washbasin, the kitchen and your desk, so that the environment itself has you apply it every time you wash. Before bed, apply a generous amount and do a "night care" with cotton gloves 2 to 3 times a week. Do not pull hangnails around the nails off by force; moisturize with cuticle oil first, then deal with them. Hand massage helps as well: pressing the Hegu point between the thumb and index finger while kneading in a flowing motion toward the fingertips improves circulation and brightens the color of the hands. The aging of your hands is not something that stops where it is. Keep up the moisturizing and the ultraviolet protection, and the impression your hands give can be changed at any age.