It’s often said that hands are the true indicator of age, but I’ve never believed that. I have plenty of body parts that are quite evidently 53 years old, my knees and elbows included.
But as I edge further into my fifties, I am noticing a distressing decline in the quality of the skin on my hands.
Age spots have appeared, the skin is sagging and there is a crepey texture that no amount of hand cream can combat.
They have bothered me for months – I especially notice how the skin looks like parchment when I’m driving.
Then I was invited to experience the brand new Hands Back Time treatment at the Clinic Dr Paris near London’s Harley Street. I accepted with enthusiasm tinged with scepticism.
The treatment has no needles, no lasers and no downtime. In my 30-odd years of reviewing beauty treatments, I’ve found that the more uncomfortable something feels, the more effective it is likely to be. So I wasn’t optimistic.
Aesthetic doctor Dr Paris Acharya confirms my suspicions about midlife hands.
‘From the late forties and fifties onwards, skin quality changes,’ she explains. ‘You’ll see some diminishing of skin quality as collagen scaffolding becomes less stable, elasticity declines and years of sun exposure take their toll.’ She agrees that crepey skin is by far the most common complaint in midlife women.
Alice Smellie shows off gloves containing a blend of hyaluronic acid and nourishing Vitamin C
LED light therapy stimulates cellular activity and supports the skin’s repair processes during the treatment
‘We invest so much time and effort into our faces and necks, but we frequently neglect the rest of the body, and especially hands,’ she adds.
Menopause plays a role, with declining oestrogen contributing to lower collagen levels. HRT, which I am not currently on, has been proven to help maintain skin quality, but Dr Paris says that this can’t entirely hold back the years.
Despite the raging ongoing debate around collagen supplements, she says many of her patients find them a game-changer, and I absolutely concur. (I take Ingenious Collagen+).
But it’s not quite enough to turn back the clock, and so Dr Paris created the hand treatment in response to the concerns of her well-heeled but wrinkly-handed patients. I feel mildly hand-shamed before we even begin. Do I moisturise my hands, I was asked? Sometimes.
Do I put SPF on my hands? Yes, in the morning. But only since last year.
Do I put Vitamin C on my hands? What? This last question had never occurred to me.
Having established that it’s frankly a miracle I have any skin left on my hands after years of near-criminal neglect, the treatment begins with gentle exfoliation using a light scrub to remove dead cells and make the skin more receptive to active ingredients. It felt very slightly abrasive on my skin.
I am then popped into a pair of CACI Rejuvenating Hand Mask gloves. CACI stands for Computer Aided Cosmetology Instrument. The gloves look like loose, cream surgical gloves and contain a blend of hyaluronic acid and Vitamin C.
These are evidently going to nourish my skin, but they have that slightly icky, cold feeling that you get when you put on a pair of rubber gloves and discover there’s water inside.
The tips of these gloves are removed, and then a second pair of gloves threaded with conductive silver fibres running throughout, is pulled on top.
My gloved hands are dipped in a liquid electrolyte solution that will help conduct the current from CACI’s portable hand rejuvenation device. This makes me a little nervous. Having damp hands that are deliberately exposed to electricity seems counterintuitive. Disappointingly (I like drama) when the CACI device is turned on, I feel only a slight fizzing sensation.
The aim of this low level microcurrent is to boost circulation and therefore allow better absorption of the moisturising and rejuvenating ingredients, while stimulating the body’s own repair processes. This takes about 20 minutes.
The gloves and mask are then removed and a very fine mist consisting of PDRN – a clinically proven regenerative peptide serum – is sprayed on to the skin. It is then pushed into the hands via a hand-piece attached to CACI’s Rejuva Med system which has four metal probes on the end and uses a different microcurrent setting. It is soothing and rather satisfying as the hand-piece is moved around my hands.
At the same time, LED light therapy, also emitted by the hand-piece, stimulates cellular activity and supports the skin’s repair processes. It’s a sort of needle-free mesotherapy, explains Dr Paris. The skin barrier is temporarily disrupted, allowing the PDRN to penetrate more effectively, without injections or downtime. The light feels soft and warm.
The treatment began with gentle exfoliation, having established that it’s frankly a miracle I have any skin left on my hands after years of near-criminal neglect, writes Alice Smellie
Alice Smellie’s hands before (left) and after (right) the 30-minute treatment using serum and LED light therapy
The results? Phenomenal. Immediately afterwards, my hands look ten years younger. They are soft and luminous looking, the fine lines look reduced and the crepiness is smoothed. I am overjoyed, and spend my journey home admiring my hands rather than recoiling from them.
However, I see this very much as a starting point. One treatment isn’t going to reverse decades of neglect and have lasting results. Dr Paris recommends a course of six and, ideally, regular maintenance treatments once a month.
But the treatment has galvanised me, and changed how I think about my hands. I had assumed they would continue their slow descent into crone-dom, but now realise there’s a different path. A huge relief.
It’s hard to say how long the results last, as I spend ensuing weeks faithfully using Vitamin C serum followed by SPF50 in the morning and then the same moisturiser in the evening as I reserve for my face (Vital Assist).
Even after this long, hot summer, they have continued to look more rejuvenated, fresher, younger, and I am committed to giving them far more care in the future. Nobody comments, but I know they’re improved. I’m absolutely going to maintain this simple but incredibly effective routine. I just wish I’d taken myself in hand years ago.
- Thirty minutes, £150 for standalone treatment or £75 as an add-on to facials (and six for the price of five), drparis.co.uk
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