Why your hands are giving away your REAL age - and what you can do to turn back the clock
HANDS are the usual giveaway to a person’s real age, no matter how youthful their face might look.
The common belief is that there is nothing that can be done for hands - that every time you look down, you have to accept the advancing years staring back up at you.
But, as Dr Tatiana Lapa - Clinical Lead & Director at The Studio Clinic on Harley Street - explains, this is not the case.
She revealed how to prevent and eventually treat ageing in hands to Express.co.uk.
Discussing what causes hands to age, she said: “There are a couple of factors; the number one is that hands are exposed to everything from dishwashing liquid, as well as every you touch, the cold weather and not wearing gloves.
“Hands are prone to skin damage, but we don’t have that many creams to treat them.
“For your face you would have a wardrobe of creams and you would do a retinol, a night cream, a serum etc.”
Explaining the ageing process, Dr Lapa said: “The process of ageing happens to the skin, bones and muscles - this is important to understand as this will affect how you treat your hands.
“There are two types of skin ageing; time ageing, which is the thinning of the skin and photo ageing from UV exposure, which causes deep lines and wrinkles.
“The ageing of the muscles causes dents between the skin, and the bones become thinner and more brittle.
“A good diet can go some way to prevent this, and if you have a history of bone issues in your family, see your GP for a bone scan to determine how your bones are and if you need to start thinking about it now.”
But if it is too late to prevent the ageing with suncream, a good diet and protecting hands from the elements, are there surgical treatments available?
Yes, Dr Lapa explained, there are plenty of options - at a price.
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She said: “To treat the skin lasers such as IPL will even up pigmentation and chemical peels will improve thickness.
“You can rebuild collagen with laser therapy or injectables.
“PRP therapy (commonly known as vampire therapy) will also deal with thickness and it doesn’t hurt! It is just like giving a blood sample - no worse.
“Dermal fillers will help with muscle wasting as it fills in the area between the bones of the hands, and it lasts from 12 months to four years.”
A package combination of these treatments at The Studio Clinic - including PRP, chemical peels and dermal filler - starts at £1,200.
The advice about ageing hands comes after a Channel 4 programme investigated every cause of ageing - and how it shows up on your face.