Age? Your Hands Give You Away

February 20, 2008

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For many years while watching some aging, but well-preserved celebrity on TV, my mother has always said, “Just look at their hands”. She would always point out that, though the plastic surgery and pancake makeup, stretched out and hid the facial wrinkles, you could tell their age by their hands. This turned out be correct. A study a few years ago asked people to assess the age of photos of hands of persons of different ages. The participants were could pretty accurately tell which decade of life the person was in.

So far there seems to have been only limited attention in the media to aging hands. Is rejuvenation of hands going to be next big wave in the war against showing our age? I think so. A recent report shows that laser ablation is effective in removal of those prominent, bulging hand veins on the back of aging hands. Must be quite a procedure, hand veins are often pretty big. Will sclerotherapy and laser removal of veins on legs, be joined by laser removal of hand veins? I looked at DERMAdoctormy favorite website for skin products that have some science basis. I expected there to be a whole raft of them. The only thing I could find for hands, that contained components suggested to delaying aging was Peter Thomas Roth Hands That Lie. I have to assume that there are a flood of products in development.

photo credit: hweiling