5 Tips on how to care for your Hands

When people ask me how to care for their hands the first thing I says is “NEVER put your hands anywhere where you wouldn’t put your face”. Our hands are such a vital part of our life and are often very neglected. Especially now as we are all washing our hands more frequently and using hand sanitiser which can dry out our hands and make our nails brittle. We can often get excess dryness which can cause eczema and dermatitis when in fact if we protect our hands more, a lot of these skin issues can be avoided and repaired.

How do we protect our hands?

By wearing gloves when gardening, cleaning and washing the dishes, general cleaning as the chemicals in cleaning products can be very harsh. Avoid ingredients such as SLS, parabens, artificial colours and fragrances.

Our nails, skin and hair are all made from keratin. The skin has layers of compressed keratin like bricks and mortar where the nails are long sheaths of keratin. The nails get dry and brittle like our hair and skin if we don’t use moisturiser and conditioner. The nails need to be hydrated and nourishment to be strong and healthy. If you would never wash your hair without using conditioner then when you was your hands use a moisturiser.

I’m going to give you a step by step on how to care for your hands. I would suggest using a hands cream multiple times a day and use a nail oil morning and night. Give yourself a healing manicure once week and twice a week of your hands and nails are in poor condition. You will see a difference in weeks if you follow these steps.

The products you will need are as follow;

• Polish Remover

• Cotton Balls

• Nail File

• Cuticle Stick

• Small bowl

• Non soap soak - Restorative Clay Soak

• Nail Oil - Nourishing Nail Oil

• Hand Cream - AHA Hand Cream

• Scrub - Body Spa Polish

• Mask - Replenishing Mask

Step 1

• Remove all your nail polish

• Apply the nail oil all over your cuticle and nails

• Apply a small amount of hand cream over the nails and cuticles and massage for a 1-2 minutes

• Add some clay soak to some warm water and soak your hands and nails for 2-3 minutes. This will soften the skin and prepare it for the next step.

Step 2

• Use a polish or scrub and massage the hands to exfoliate them and then wash off the scrub with a water and a washer

• Gently push back your cuticles with an orange stick

Step 3

• Soak nails for two minutes as this is the optimal time to soften your nails so you can file them without any damage

• File nails in once direction. Do not file the nail back and forth as this can cause the nails to peel and become weak

Step 4

• Use a liberal amount of hand cream and massage into your hands, cuticles and nails

• The more you massage the hand cream in the more it will penetrate to heal the skin and nails

Step 5

• Apply a face mask to your hands and leave on for 10 minutes

• Wash the mask off

• Apply some more hand cream but avoid the nails

• Use a face washer with some hand wash to remove the excess oil on the nails and to further push back the cuticles

• Apply a couple of coats of nail hardener

Complete these steps and look after your hands and you will be rewarded with soft, supple hands and strong healthy nails.