Forever Young : Age Spots and Bony Fingers No Longer Have to Tip Your Hand

WHETHER HAND MODEL Giulia Weston-Grimm is holding a loaf of packaged bread to advertise a twist-tie machine or fanning out her fingers to promote a new line of nail polish, she always does the same thing to make her hands look their best for the camera. Before she poses, she raises her arms over her head for a few seconds. “It’s a funny little trick that most photographers know,” she confides. “The height causes the blood in your veins to empty so that (when you lower your arms) your hands look smooth.”

But at age 30, Weston-Grimm doesn’t rely on tricks alone. She keeps her hands looking youthful through a daily regimen of equal parts gentle cleansing, religious moisturizing and careful sun protection. Weston-Grimm washes her hands with mild soap and lukewarm water and then slathers aloe moisturizers on her skin and cuticles. She wears cotton-lined rubber gloves for household chores and applies a sunscreen with an SPF of at least 15, particularly when driving. When the sun is especially harsh, she dons cotton gloves and ignores the teasing of friends.

Weston-Grimm’s routine may sound fanatical, but it shows good common sense. The skin on the back of the hand thins with age, and exposure to the sun decreases its elasticity. Without proper protection, sun damage can begin during early childhood, resulting in bony, wrinkled hands later. Sometimes the sun causes pigmentary changes such as lentigines (also known as age or liver spots), bumps and scaly areas. Medical and cosmetic treatments, however, can make hands appear younger. Dermatologist Anita Highton, director of the Dermatology Outpatient Clinic at UCLA, removes age spots by freezing them with liquid nitrogen (from $120). “A lot of people, mostly women, come in and have several of them treated at the same time,” she says. The lentigines “turn darker for a few days, peel off, and they’re gone. It’s not considered a major expense.”

Over-the-counter treatments are worth a try but don’t work on everyone, Highton says. Creams such as Porcelana and Esoterica contain a 2% concentration of hydroquinone, a pharmaceutical bleaching agent, and may lighten age spots if used properly. Hands and forearms should be covered with sun block between treatments, however, or the spots may return, she says.

Depending on how severely damaged his patients’ hands are, board-certified plastic surgeon W. Grant Stevens of Marina del Rey prescribes creams--some containing Retin-A, to thicken the skin--light peels or cryotherapy. Stevens does not recommend the use of lasers to zap age spots from hands because, he says, he gets the same results with creams or cryotherapy. “Using lasers on hands is ‘Star Wars’ surgery. It sounds really attractive but costs more money for the patient and usually requires an anesthetic,” he says.

Women with unusually bony hands sometimes find that simple cosmetic procedures aren’t effective and opt for a different solution altogether. Stevens injects the patient’s own fat, taken from the abdomen or buttocks, between the bones of scrawny hands to plump them up. “I have women patients in their 30s and 40s whose hands look like they’re 50 or 60 years old,” he says. “And you stare at them and realize it’s because they’re thin. You don’t see bony hands in fat people as much because fat distends the hand.”

The best advice is to take care of your hands before they need medical attention, says beauty authority Aida Grey, who, at 79, has smooth, supple hands. “After all,” she says, “hands should be pleasant to the touch because they’re part of the lovemaking process.” Grey uses a facial-quality pore cleanser and moisturizing cream nightly and avoids perfumed soaps and hot water, which can dry the skin. Every week, she undergoes a hand and nail treatment that is offered at her salon ($25) to improve circulation.

Grey says similar results can be obtained from a weekly, do-it-yourself ritual: Apply a lubricating cream and massage in a granular pore cleanser. Then coat the hands up to the wrists in warm liquid paraffin. Dip them a few times until the wax resembles a glove, about a quarter-inch thick. Wrap the hands in a plastic bag, then a towel, and cool before removing the wax.

“Hands must be soft, lovely and graceful,” Grey says. “With proper care, they will never betray your true age.”