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I’ve developed a complex. Recently, I’ve decided that my 24-year-old hands aren’t fit for purpose. They’ve been neglected. They’re too wrinkly. I’m convinced they’re prematurely aged.
I came to this (admittedly extreme) conclusion after watching countless videos of self-anointed beauty gurus and hand models performing elaborate multi-step care routines designed to turn back the clock on their mitts. It’s a very serious undertaking. Their hands are soaked, scrubbed, shaved, creamed, oiled and preened to the point they’re indistinguishable from a glazed Krispy Kreme doughnut. They become veinless, gleaming and dainty.
Never before have our hands gotten so much attention. While it’s long been standard protocol to use a dollop of Nivea on your paws in the colder months – or treat yourself to the expensive soap in the loos at a fancy restaurant – the idea that our hands are the first telltale sign of a person’s age has never had more currency. Think of any anti-ageing facial treatment that exists, and it’s likely available in a new hand-driven formula. Already, companies sell red-light therapy gloves aimed at reducing the appearance of fine lines, UV-repellent mittens worn to prevent sun exposure, and hydrating hand masques (think a standard facial sheet mask but in glove form). It’s become the latest craze in self-loathing.
When I speak to Emma Korantema, a hand model who’s been featured in luxury campaigns for Burberry, Cartier and ELLE magazine, she tells me that her personal hand care routine is surprisingly basic: she uses just an extra-hydrating hand cream and cuticle oil. In fact, she’s taken aback by people who do anything different – especially shaving their hands.
“The hand cream I use at the moment is for people who have eczema, because prevention is better than cure,” she says, adding that she often focuses on replenishing the moisture in her hands after using antibacterial soaps or sanitiser. “But ultimately I use water-based products to rehydrate the skin. Those are really the principles I live by.” Nothing fancy, then. So why all the extra fuss?
The hand anti-ageing trend hasn’t come from nowhere. Beauty standards have long told women that our hands, like our bodies, become undesirable as we get older. For decades, Madonna’s hands were scrutinised for looking too “old”. Even when the pop icon was barely in her forties, her hands were subject to ridicule, with tabloids declaring they were too “veiny” and “wrinkly”. More recently, Kim Kardashian – who has become the harbinger of modern beauty standards – expressed disappointment with her own hands, saying in an interview with Allure that she hates them, and finds them “wrinkly and gross”.
There’s also an aspirational quality to the quest for “perfect” hands. If your palms look as if they’ve never been put through the ringer, they signify luxury, or give the appearance of having never worked a day in your life. This has become so desired that some people are even turning to “hand Botox” to achieve anti-ageing results.
Dr Aamer Khan, co-founder of the Harley Street Skin Clinic, tells me he’s witnessed a growing demand for hand Botox at his clinic. He believes it’s become popular in tandem with the ubiquity of facial injectables – customers now wanting their hands and faces to be line-free and matching. Others decide to have the treatment for preventative purposes, to catch any premature wrinkles. “Your hands are susceptible to early signs of ageing from sun exposure, loss of collagen and because we use our hands so much,” he says, adding that the treatment’s non-invasive and fast-acting nature is increasingly appealing to clients, since it requires little recovery compared to more invasive procedures.
Seeing people opt for hand Botox, however, is something that worries Victoria Kleinsman, a self-esteem expert and body love coach who works with women between the ages of 13 and 60. She regularly witnesses fleeting beauty trends – which are often rooted in ideas about youth and thinness – affecting how people perceive themselves, and thinks a search for validation is at its root. “From my perspective, the obsession with keeping our hands or any part of our body looking young taps into deeper societal fears of ageing and our self-worth being tied to appearance,” she says. While Kleinsman understands why people might opt for cosmetic treatments on their hands, she worries that tweak-ments – meaning a non-surgical procedure to enhance one’s appearance – reinforce the idea that we aren’t good enough. The way that treatments like filler and Botox have become so normalised and accessible in recent years doesn’t help either.
“I help women step away from these limiting beauty standards and focus on embracing their bodies, ageing included, as part of their full, authentic selves,” she says. “I ask them the magic question ‘why’ maybe four times. Because when we understand the roots of the reasoning, we can learn a lot about ourselves.”
Would Korantema ever go to such extreme lengths to make her hands look younger? She doesn’t think so. The age of her hands crossed her mind, once, when she watched an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians in which Botox was discussed among the sisters – but she isn’t concerned about how the ageing process will affect her work.
“Having met older hand models with amazing and young-looking hands, I’m definitely not worried,” she says. Whether you decide to stick to a basic Boots hand cream or opt for something more drastic, the choice is yours. It’s all in your hands now.”
