How often have you heard about aging signs showing on your face and not other body parts? Have you ever wondered, other than our face that can tell a person’s age, what are the other body parts that also play an important role in anti-aging journey?
While the face and neck are frequently seen as priority for rejuvenation, the hands do not escape the effects of time. It is often neglected and they have the consequence of betraying one’s age.
While the palmar side of the hand is functional, the back of your palm is visible and often reflects an individual’s age. The skin of the hands is particularly thin and fragile, containing few *sebaceous glands. Furthermore, the hands are subjected daily to varying external aggressions, such as the sun, cold, detergents and frequent alcohol rub or washing. Visible aging on the hands can discredit a face that still appears young.
(*sebaceous glands: glands that secrete sebum, natural protective film for the skin.)
What are the Causes of Skin Aging over the Hands?
Skin aging is the consequences of an intrinsic and extrinsic aging process. What is the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic aging?
Age-related chronological aging is an intrinsic aging determined by genetic inheritance and hormones that cannot be avoided.
Extrinsic aging is more like a ‘lifestyle’ related aging.
Everyday, our hands are exposed to different kinds of stressors which we might not be aware of but each of these daily routines that we are nurturing can be a factor causing our hands to age faster than it should be.
The sun, the ultraviolet rays, is responsible for the photoaging. Some have the habit of using artificial UV tanning. These can expose our skin to aggressive and excessive UV radiation that injures our skin and causes photoaging.
Extreme temperatures like cold and hot water can also injure our skin over the hand.
Mechanical aggressions like pressure and friction is another factor to hand aging. We could not escape from all these aggression or injuries from the external environment as we need to use our hands in so many daily routines.
Chemical aggressions like household detergents and especially alcohol rubs that is a norm due to Covid-19 pandemic is another factor.
All these prematurely age the hands, particularly as the skin of the hands is thin, fragile and frequently photo-exposed, giving the hands an unattractive appearance.
Prevention of Skin Aging
We often hear the phrase prevention is better than cure. True that if you have certain habits or practices to take care of your skin, then your skin will be protected from all the external stressors and age slower.
Sun Exposure Never expose to sun or UV radiation without proper sun protection. Always remember to apply sunscreen of least SPF 30 with broad spectrum coverage.
Hydration is Key Hydration is another keyword I often include in my articles because a lot of people are not aware that their skin is dry and it is making them age faster. Moisturize the hands regularly with products specifically rich in moisturizing and softening agents, particularly before bed, as sleep is the most productive time for cutaneous regeneration.
Protective Gears Wear protective gloves to avoid contact with water that is too hot, cleaning products that are too harsh to the skin and when washing dishes and performing other household chores.
Alcohol rubs Limit the use of alcohol rubs if your skin is sensitive towards it and always clean your hands with a pH neutral soap or cleansing oil to avoid dry skin.
Management of Hand Aging
An initial proper consultation with us at Dream Clinic will be needed before any therapeutic intervention in order to verify the patient meets the feasibility criteria for aesthetic treatment.
Doctors will treat every patient differently as each patient is a unique case that requires tailored treatment care.
Some of the important concerns of hand aging are as follows. We will be approaching these concerns in a successive manner.
Remove pigments on the hands
Restore volume to the back of the hand
Improve skin quality
Pigmentations of the hand The cause of pigmentations over the back of the hand is sun exposure. These pigments are usually brown spots caused by accumulation of melanin underneath the skin. These spots are smooth of varying sizes and painless that appeared due to severe sunburn or frequent sun exposure. Most commonly it appeared on the right or left hand of automobile drivers due to prolonged sun exposure that does not have any sunscreen protection. Some of the suggested treatments are Fotona Starwalker PQX laser to remove pigments via photo-acoustics. During the laser treatment, the patient is comfortable and expects minimal to no downtime. They can resume their daily routine immediately after the procedure. Some of the important post care advice are frequent application of skin moisturizer, sunscreen protection daily and make sure to top up every 2 to 4 hours plus avoid direct sun exposure.
Volume loss of the hand Aging often comes in various signs for the hand. We usually observe a loss of skin laxity and small muscles over the hand, causing guttering over the back of the hands with obvious bony prominence of the hand. Dermal fillers with hyaluronic acid injection is one of the treatment options. Hyaluronic acid has hydrating capacity with significant volumising can be used to restore the volume loss and improved hand skin texture to rejuvenate the hands effectively and safely.
Skin Quality One of the most obvious signs of skin aging is the laxity and skin texture of the back of the hand. We will start to lose collagen and elastin as we age and this will show on our hand with the crippling and wrinkled appearance. One of the many sought after treatments for improvement of skin quality are like Profhilo and Radiesse injection. Profhilo is the first revolutionary bio-remodeling “injectable skincare” that addresses skin laxity and signs of aging through bio-stimulation of collagen, elastin and fat stem cells that were lost through skin aging. Radiesse is another FDA approved skin biostimulator injection that showed significant results on hands and aging skin. The content inside Radiesse injection, hydroxylapatite particles will stimulate collagen synthesis until their complete dissolution. This injection has an advantage on longevity as it has lasting effects between eighteen months and two years. Each specific concern of hand aging has its own treatment regime and protocol. Every patient’s skin is unique and that is why it is important to have a proper consultation with doctors before commencing on any treatment procedures.
Medical aesthetic hand rejuvenation treatment is now an integral part of anti-aging practice. We have seen so many patients that have undergone treatment and have satisfactory results. So if you have the same concern and would love to know more on hand rejuvenation. Drop us a call and make your appointment with us. Our doctors will assess your skin and treat all your unique skin conditions in a personalized treatment regime.
