Ways to Look After Hands & Nails
Our hands are one of the most important parts of our body. We use them to touch, lift, feel, communicate, and work, so it is essential that we keep them in tip-top condition.
Hands are also one of the first body parts to show their age as the skin is thin and lacks oil-secreting sebaceous glands. If you think your hands are in need of some TLC, here are some great tips on how to look after your hands and nails.
Keep Them Well Moisturized
The delicate thin skin on the hands needs intensive moisturization as it is prone to extreme dryness. Your greatest weapon in the fight to keep your hands in great condition is a quality hand cream. Look for a cream that contains urea, shea butter, glycerin, alpha hydroxy acids, essential oils, and hyaluronic acid to plump out the skin.
Slather cream on every night or whenever you feel the need to banish dryness or cracked skin. Wear soft cotton gloves to bed after applying the cream to ensure it is absorbed thoroughly.
Pay Attention to Your Fingernails
Your fingernails are important too – they give strength to our fingertips, prevent infections from entering the body, hone our fine motor skills, and help us feel different sensations.
Protect your nails by moisturizing them with an oil such as almond oil or cream specially formulated for fingernails and cuticles. Regularly trim your fingernails and clean them with soap, water, and a nail brush as dirt and bacteria can gather underneath them.
Applying a nail strengthening treatment is advantageous, but if you don’t have any to hand, you can paint them with a layer of pretty colored nail polish. If your favorite nail polish has seen better days, revive it with some nail polish thinner by Orly. Try not to bite your nails or pick at the cuticles as this may cause infections as well as making your hands look unattractive.
A healthy balanced diet does wonders for your body, including your skin and fingernails. If you have very brittle fingernails, ask your doctor about biotin supplements.
Protect Them
Hands take a beating every day. Washing them with soaps, using household cleaning products, applying hand sanitizer, exposing them to extreme weather, and manual labor all take their toll on the condition of our hands and nails. It is important to do your best to protect them by wearing rubber gloves when using chemicals and detergents and warm gloves during the cold winter months.
People often forget to apply sunscreen to their hands which is a huge mistake as the UV rays from the sun can do untold damage to the skin on our hands. Sun-damaged skin can develop brown sun spots, uneven pigmentation, and wrinkles. Apply sunscreen with a high SPF factor to your hands every day, even if you don’t think it’s that sunny outside, and use a hand cream rich in fatty acids that will create a barrier on the skin and prevent moisture loss.
