3 Ways Your Hands Show Age, and What You Can Do about It

Posted on: February 28th, 2019 by sbatbold

You accomplish so much with your hands. It’s easy to forget just how fragile the skin is — especially on the backs. We constantly subject our hands to damaging solar rays, drying cleansers and chemicals, and the ongoing stresses of use. Your hands, as well as your neck, tend to show the passage of time more than anywhere else.

Yet now more than ever — due in no small part to social media — we’re conscious of how hands look. An amazing manicurist can help distract from the condition of your skin, but sometimes nail artistry just isn’t enough.

New bride? Display your rings with pride

If you’re a bride, the pressure to display beautiful hands is all the more intense. Friends, family and coworkers all want to have a look at that ring. You not only have to take photos, but they’re expected to show up on Instagram, Facebook and other social media. With increasing numbers of people marrying or re-marrying later in life, all this exposure can trigger anxiety. Some women even resort to recruiting a friend to model their ring in photos!

Advances in rejuvenation technology mean there’s now no need to settle for hidey hands. In fact, cosmetic hand treatments have become a normal part of wedding prep. Some brides go with fast and pretty fixes. Others start well before their wedding day, go for more dramatic improvement, and then continue with follow-ups indefinitely for long-term maintenance of beautiful hands.

Show off your rings with pride. Make your appointment with an expert at California Skin Institute for the latest, most effective treatments to address the three main types of visible hand aging:

#1 – Volume Loss

The skin on your hands “thins” over time, losing fat, elastin and collagen. It becomes looser and more readily shows the bones, tendons and veins underneath. Your hands may start to look sunken, wrinkled and ropey. Not the best staging for that ring photo!

Dermal fillers

The quickest, easiest way to restore volume is with dermal fillers. Hands down. Injected into the skin on the back of the hands, they replenish thickness. They also make the skin tighter, so better able to hold in veins rather than allowing them to bulge.

Restylane Lyft (Perlane) and Juvederm Voluma XC are two of the fillers best suited to hand rejuvenation. They add volume, hydration and elasticity using a thick formulation of hyaluronic acid, a substance naturally found in the skin. Radiesse similarly improves hand skin using calcium-based microspheres to stimulate natural collagen production. Results are fast with all fillers, and they last up to 18 months or more. Bruising and swelling are unusual, but you should be prepared to use concealer or a tinted sunscreen with coverage for a week or two.

#2 – Bulging Veins

Looser, thinner skin isn’t the only reason veins on the backs of your hands become more conspicuous. Over time, vein valves weaken, causing blood to travel less efficiently from your extremities back to your heart. Blood can pool in your hand veins, permanently enlarging them so they bulge. Some can become too prominent to address with fillers or fat transfer. While usually perfectly normal, protruding veins aren’t something you have to like, or accept.

Sclerotherapy

Sclerotherapy removes spider and other medium-sized veins (>3mm). It entails injecting a saline solution into the specific problem veins, causing them to turn white, close and then gradually absorb back into your body.

Vascular Lasers

Lasers are a great option for removing raised tangles of smaller veins, on up to medium-sized veins (1-3mm). The technology works by targeting problem blood vessels under the skin, using appropriate light wavelengths to heat them up. The treated veins coagulate and are cut off, then are broken down and absorbed. You may see mild swelling or redness for a few days after the procedure.

Three of the best lasers for removing unsightly veins from the backs of hands are the Excel V Laser System, Vbeam and VersaPulse. Work with an expert to identify the one that will work best for you.

#3 – Sun Damage

Much of the conspicuous aging on the backs of your hands is caused by unprotected sun exposure. Together, the sun’s UVA and UVB rays damage skin, leaving you with wrinkles, dry scaly texture, broken capillaries, and discolorations like freckles or sun spots (“liver spots,” “age spots,” etc.). Many of the procedures that rejuvenate facial skin also work beautifully for sun damage on the hands.

Esthetician treatments

Exfoliating treatments, administered in a well-timed series, can work wonders to improve uneven color and texture. The new era of Microdermabrasion has arrived with the cutting-edge DermaSweep technology, which removes damaged superficial layers of cells by employing crystals with tiny, pain-free steel brushes. Chemical peels also exfoliate, but use glycolic acid (an alpha hydroxy acid, or AHA) or trichloracetic acid (TCA) and can be more intense. You can boost results of either type of treatment with a nourishing serum applied immediately afterwards.

Intense Pulsed Light (IPL)

If your main concerns are dark spots or broken capillaries, consider a course of intense pulsed light (IPL) treatments. IPL treats your skin with various, scattered wavelengths of light. The light penetrates the outer layer of skin, without harming it, reaching the dermis. There, it heats and destroys unwanted pigment cells, leaving your skin brighter, less red and more even. Your skin may be subtly red, swollen and sensitive for a few hours after each treatment.

Lasers

A wide variety of lasers are effective on sun damage. They vary in strength, and each harnesses one light wavelength to target specific concerns. At the gentler end of the range is Clear + Brilliant. A fractional laser, it removes only a portion of the top layer of skin, leaving your hands smoother looking after only brief, minor peeling and redness. If you want to remove brown spots, your medical provider may apply your treatment using the Permea handpiece.

At the most powerful end of the range are CO2 lasers. Because these devices can go deeper and vaporize more of your damaged skin cells, patients often see desired results with just one treatment. The Lumenis Acupulse and the Lutronic eCO2, for instance, can deliver focused, dramatic improvement of wrinkling, rough skin texture, scarring, conspicuous blood vessels and hyperpigmentation. After some healing time, your skin should look noticeably smoother, softer, and with a tone that is more even and creamy.

After any of these treatments to correct sun damage, your skin will be more fragile and vulnerable than ever. Apply that SPF 30+ sunscreen religiously, and consider wearing UPF-rated, protective gloves when you drive!

Schedule a consultation with an expert at California Skin Institute to determine the best approach for your hands, goals and schedule. Once you see what hand-rejuvenation treatments can do, you may want to lay an ongoing plan for maintaining the youthful results. Then never fear attention to your hands, ever again!

Results may vary and are not guaranteed.