One key area can easily make or break your age-defying efforts -- your hands. While proper facial skin care has an undeniable effect on your apparent age, the thinner tissues and all-too-obvious nature of the hands make them a top-priority area for anyone seeking to turn back the clock. Fortunately, some of the most effective solutions to "weathered" or aged-looking hands are also the simplest.
Smoothing Wrinkles
The first step to correcting hand wrinkles is the same whether your tissues are thin and papery or thick, creased, and rough-looking: moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. Simply keeping a bottle of moisturizer at every sink in your home can help you make sure to hydrate your skin and cuticles multiple times daily, and a moisturizer that is alcohol- and aroma-free and contains Vitamin E will help ensure maximum effect.
The second step is to ensure proper nutrition. No matter what your age, appropriate vitamin intake is key not only to maintain firm, soft skin, but also to promote better nail health -- a detail that can subtly but strongly influence how "old" your hands appear.
The third step to youthful-looking hands is gentle, weekly exfoliation. Facial exfoliators and at-home microdermabrasion kits can be appropriate for hands' thinner, more delicate tissues, but for best results steer clear of larger-grain exfoliators designed for the rest of the body.
For intensive correction: A host of new technologies in laser and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) therapy allow for intensive wrinkle correction while at the same time stimulating your skin to produce more firming collagen. For truly thorough exfoliation, opt for a medical day spa's professional microdermabrasion treatments or chemical peels 1-2 times per year. These gently destroy dead and damaged skin to leave your skin baby-soft, healthier, and much younger-looking.
Erasing Age Spots
"Age" or "liver" spots can appear even on young hands because most of the time they are not a result of age at all -- simply of sun exposure. The first step to correcting that mottled, unhealthy look is to apply sunscreen to your hands faithfully. This will help you avoid worsening the damage, and as an added benefit, many sunscreens can often supplement your moisturizers' effects and leave your skin plumper and fresher-looking.
For intensive correction: In most cases, age spots will require a higher-impact treatment than what you can achieve on your own, so ask at your medical day spa about options like retinol creams and AHA (Alpha Hydroxy Acid) chemical peels to restore pigmented areas more thoroughly. Newer laser and IPL treatments such as Fraxel® and Thermage® can also offer fast, effective correction without the surface-level damage of ablative treatments, and because they typically smooth wrinkles at the same time, the result can be not only more attractive, but also faster and healthier.
Smoothing Wrinkles
The first step to correcting hand wrinkles is the same whether your tissues are thin and papery or thick, creased, and rough-looking: moisturize, moisturize, moisturize. Simply keeping a bottle of moisturizer at every sink in your home can help you make sure to hydrate your skin and cuticles multiple times daily, and a moisturizer that is alcohol- and aroma-free and contains Vitamin E will help ensure maximum effect.
The second step is to ensure proper nutrition. No matter what your age, appropriate vitamin intake is key not only to maintain firm, soft skin, but also to promote better nail health -- a detail that can subtly but strongly influence how "old" your hands appear.
The third step to youthful-looking hands is gentle, weekly exfoliation. Facial exfoliators and at-home microdermabrasion kits can be appropriate for hands' thinner, more delicate tissues, but for best results steer clear of larger-grain exfoliators designed for the rest of the body.
For intensive correction: A host of new technologies in laser and Intense Pulsed Light (IPL) therapy allow for intensive wrinkle correction while at the same time stimulating your skin to produce more firming collagen. For truly thorough exfoliation, opt for a medical day spa's professional microdermabrasion treatments or chemical peels 1-2 times per year. These gently destroy dead and damaged skin to leave your skin baby-soft, healthier, and much younger-looking.
Erasing Age Spots
"Age" or "liver" spots can appear even on young hands because most of the time they are not a result of age at all -- simply of sun exposure. The first step to correcting that mottled, unhealthy look is to apply sunscreen to your hands faithfully. This will help you avoid worsening the damage, and as an added benefit, many sunscreens can often supplement your moisturizers' effects and leave your skin plumper and fresher-looking.
For intensive correction: In most cases, age spots will require a higher-impact treatment than what you can achieve on your own, so ask at your medical day spa about options like retinol creams and AHA (Alpha Hydroxy Acid) chemical peels to restore pigmented areas more thoroughly. Newer laser and IPL treatments such as Fraxel® and Thermage® can also offer fast, effective correction without the surface-level damage of ablative treatments, and because they typically smooth wrinkles at the same time, the result can be not only more attractive, but also faster and healthier.
