As you apply your face cream in the morning, are you dismayed that all of that hard work to keep your skin looking fresh and vibrant is lost on your hands? In fact, there’s no more telltale sign of aging than the skin on your most visible parts — your hands, neck, and face.
If you’re feeling far younger than your hands would imply, there are ways to breathe new life into these high-profile appendages. At Aesthetic Surgery Center, we provide minimally invasive procedures to our clients here in San Francisco that revitalize the look of veiny, wrinkly hands, in just minutes.
In the following, we’ve gathered together some information about how you can put your hands forward with confidence.
Wave goodbye to fat — and not in a good way
You go to great pains to keep extra fat at bay, diligently going to the gym and watching what you eat, yet you watch with alarm as fat drains from your face and hands, and stays firmly put around your waistline.
The reason for this is that, as you age, your skin begins to lose elasticity and tone, and it can no longer hold the thin layer of fat in your face and hands in place. As this fat slowly disappears in your hands, it no longer hides your veins, which begin to reveal themselves like tunnels under your skin. The net effect of the loss of elasticity and fat is that your hands take on peaks and valleys where there was once smooth skin.
Adding insult to injury, your hands, just like your face, are more visible than most parts of your body. Because of this, they undergo a fair amount of exposure, especially to the sun, which creates sunspots.
Fill it in
One of the first stops in restoring a more youthful look to your hands is a dermal filler. Here at Aesthetic Surgery Center, we use a filler called Radiesse®, which contains calcium hydroxylapatite microspheres that are suspended in an aqueous gel carrier. These microspheres add instant volume to the areas we inject.
In fact, Radiesse goes beyond just adding volume to sunken areas; it also does double duty by signaling your body to produce more collagen. With increased collagen production, your newly-filled skin also has more tone and elasticity.
Most people are able to enjoy the results for a year, sometimes even two, before their bodies naturally absorb and process the filler. When you notice that has happened, you simply visit us again for a refill.
Clean it up
Now that we’ve taken some of the “topography” out of your hands, it’s time to tackle the hyperpigmentation and aging skin. To do this, we offer the same procedures for your hands that we do for your face. For example, a laser phototherapy treatment does wonders for breaking up sunspots and evening out the surface of your skin. We also offer several other treatments to tighten the skin on your hands, such as our SkinTyte™ system.
Short on time, long on results
One of the best things about a cosmetic filler is that you can be in and out of our office in just minutes. To tackle your hands, it usually takes us 15-20 minutes, and you’re free to go back to your normal routine directly afterward. You may feel some tenderness at the injection site, but this is usually short-lived, and overshadowed by new hands that confirm your youthfulness.
If you’d like to follow up with a laser treatment, we can sit down with you to review your options. The treatments are largely noninvasive and take very little time. The results aren’t immediate, as your skin needs to time to flush away old skin cells and regenerate new ones, but they’re worth the wait (usually 6-12 weeks).
If you want to wave goodbye to tired-looking hands, please give us a call here at Aesthetic Surgery Center. Or, you can use the scheduling tool on this website to book an appointment.