The Skin Nerd: Why do my hands become crêpe-y with age?

If the skin on your hands is becoming more delicate, the key is to work to increase volume density

My hands have recently become like an old woman's! I look at them and don't recognise them. I've spent fortunes on my face, but never really worried too much about my hands. Since all the extra hand washing, I have been moisturising more, my skin isn't dry or flaky - it just looks crêpe-y and old, the veins are looking more prominent. Is it too late to do anything about it?

- Geraldine from Mallow

To begin, Geraldine, you are far from the only person who has not worried about their hands, however, our hands are essentially the only part of our body outside of our face and neck that are exposed to UV rays throughout the day. Now, you may be wondering why I have jumped straight to UV. UV rays account for 90% of the visible changes to the skin, according to the American Skin Cancer Foundation.

As we age, we begin to see the effects of UV damage while simultaneously losing fat from some areas, the hands being one that this fat loss is particularly visible on. Sadly, outside of having fat injected from other parts of the body, we cannot replace this fat.

Your goal with any skincare you use on your hands is to work to improve skin density and moisture retention.

The most important advice is to begin applying SPF on your hands daily and more than once a day, if you can, especially as we’re in times of increased hand washing! SPF protects us from UV and although it can’t undo the UV damage you’ve already experienced, it can prevent further damage. Keep an SPF beside the sink so once you’ve dried your hands, it’s easy to slather it all over the backs of them (after your very nourishing hand cream, of course).

Mix a vitamin A serum like Skingredients Skin Protein (€42, skingredients.com) in with your hand cream, as vitamin A can help to repair the skin and can help to stimulate collagen to improve skin density.

Moisturising more is a fantastic step – but it depends on the type of moisturisation occurring.

The Perricone MD Cold Plasma Plus+ Hand Therapy (€28.27, perriconemd.co.uk) includes shea butter for intense moisturisation and visible reduction of age spots and wrinkles, phospholipids work to replenish the skin’s barrier and an amino acid called glycine improves moisture retention to make skin appear younger. Deep hydration of this level and type will help to blur the appearance of crêpey skin on the daily.

Dehydration internally can also have an effect on how our skin looks across our body, so ensuring you drink approximately 2 litres of water per day and that you eat plenty of essential fatty acids to help to retain this moisture is key. Essential fatty acids are believed to assist in the skin’s barrier function, which works to keep that water from evaporating from the epidermis!

Internally, you can support your skin in stimulating the production and preventing the breakdown of collagen by providing it with what it needs to do that – a diet rich in vitamin C is very important for this as we don’t make vitamin C ourselves and yet it’s needed to synthesise collagen. You can supplement your diet with Advanced Nutrition Programme Skin Collagen Support (€50.00, theskinnerd.com) which contains vitamin C, zinc to help support normal skin and the highly potent antioxidant superoxide dismutase, which our levels of decline with age.

If it is something that is really bothering you, even after trying the above, you could consider hand fillers. Injectables are a means to a result in a holistic approach that includes results-driven skincare, as injectables themselves don’t work to improve the day-to-day health of the skin, so maybe it’s something worth considering if this is affecting your self-confidence.

The Nerdie Pick

This SPF hand cream is recommended by the American Skin Cancer Foundation due to its SPF 15 broad-spectrum sunscreen! Inside, there’s also encapsulated apple extract to even the skin tone plus green tea and white tea extract for antioxidant protection. For hydration, you have aloe leaf juice and glycerin in there, and the lemongrass awakens your senses and your skin. There are a few essential oils in here, so if you’re sensitive to them, it may not be for you.

It’s vegan and certified cruelty-free and the perfect size for popping in a big coat pocket or in your handbag.

Jane Iredale Lemongrass HandDrink (€22.39, janeiredale.co.uk)