Wrinkle-Free Hand Guide

Alongside your eyes and your neck, your hands can be the biggest age traitors. You've probably seen a lot of women with firm, relatively unlined faces-- and hands which are dry and wrinkled. The skin on hands (like that around eyes as well as on your neck) is quite thin; take a moment to feel how tightly stretched it can be. It also contains relatively few oil and sweat glands. Combine this with more facts: first, that your hands take a daily beating as you expose them to extreme temperatures (say, in cold air and hot water); second, that you use them a whole lot; and third, that you sometimes forget to look after them. Think about it: Every time you apply moisturizer, do you slather your hands using a lubricating lotion, too? And each time you apply a sun screen on your face, do you apply a sun screen on your hands, too?

Here's all that you should know about caring for--and de-aging--the hands.

Moisturizing

•  Many hand models have told me that their secret is vitamin E oil; they say it keeps their hands smooth and moist (plus it heals cuts and irritations overnight).

•  Once a week give the hands a facial (it's much easier-and less time-consuming than a manicure since you do not have to concern yourself with smudging polish). Here's how: Apply a moisturizing face mask to your fingers and to the top of the hands up to around your wrist; let it dry and wash it off with warm water. Follow by slathering on a rich, emollient hand moisturizer, especially on skin round the cuticles (if you don't currently have a high quality one, just use your facial moisturizer or, even better, your night cream or soak hands in extra virgin olive oil as warm as is tolerable for ten minutes. Blot off the extra with a tissue). Then place on pure cotton gloves (you can find reasonably priced ones at the dollar store). If you can sleep this way, awesome; if not, take them off in an hour. I guarantee you will see a change right away.

•  Good news for hands that have a tendency to dry up and split in winter (cold temperature is really a killer for hands: Insufficient water in the air outside and dry steam heat inside combine to break the natural moisture barrier that helps to protect hands from becoming dry). Hydrocortisone cream that's sold over-the-counter is really a super healer!

•  The same deficiency of moisture that dries out the hands in winter also affects your nails and cuticles, which, though they've nothing to do with wrinkles, can help with making hands look unattractive and much older than they are. Keep a cuticle cream alongside your bed and rub in a tiny amount when you turn out the light.

•  Whatever moisturizer you choose to use on the hands, ensure that it stays easily accessible or you might never utilize it. Keep a small tube of hand cream in your bathroom and close to the kitchen sink. In the office, leave a large bottle in the bathroom (also one in your desk drawer, too). Enlist your co-workers into taking turns replenishing the supply. Tip (learned through personal experience): Choose something inexpensive so people aren't inclined to take it home with them.

•   Also super healing: milk. Just soak hands inside a bowl of warm milk for ten minutes, rinse and moisturize.

Cleansing

• Get in the habit of using lukewarm in lieu of hot water to wash your hands-it's much less drying.

•  Recently I started employing a scented body cleanser to scrub my hands- they feel great afterward plus they smell like the rest of me, too.

•  During the cold weather months make sure you wash the hands with just a mild soap. In fact, if your hands are very chapped and cracked, it's a wise decision to utilize the same cleanser (moisturizer, too) you use in your face.

•  After washing your hands, don't dry them fully ... and apply a moisturizer (it'll lock in the water).