Hands are always in evidence and however well-groomed or beautiful a woman may be, the illusion is shattered if her hands are uncared for. Rough, chapped, wrinkled hands are not always the result of either age or hard work; they could be lined and rough at twenty and soft and unlined at eighty. Their condition depends on the care you take of them. Detergents, soap & water constantly dry the skin, so try, try, try to wear rubber gloves when doing housework or washing up. Ideally, you should cover your hands with cream, then put on cotton gloves, and then rubber gloves. In that way, you are not only protecting your hands but giving them treatment at the same time. I am afraid that I am one of those people who finds it impossible to do anything with my gloves on-I am always buying them but never actually get round to using them. Instead, I have to try and repair the damage and I am constantly rubbing cream into my hands. Keep a pot of cream next to the basin and apply some after you wash. Massaging the cream in helps stimulate the circulation, thus feeding the skin.
A very simple barrier cream can be made by mixing 1 cup rosewater, half a cup of glycerine, and 2 tablespoons lemon juice (use commercial pure juice as this lasts longer than fresh lemon juice, which tends to grow a mould). Lemons are a great asset to your hands, softening, cleaning, and bleaching them. (Never throw a squeezed half lemon away, but use it instead to rub and clean your hands and elbows).
If, however, you have got your hands into bad condition through too much gardening or housework, coat them with really rich cream and then wear cotton gloves. The heat will help the hands absorb the cream (lanolin, is beautifully rich and ideal for this treatment). For centuries, women have worn these gloves to bed to restore work-strained hands and whiten the skin: Queen Elizabeth, court ladies would sleep with their hands coated in cream, wearing perfumed bed gloves-the pomades being especially scented with musk, civet, and ambergris to perfume and whiten the hands; while in France, the woman would use a while lead ointment containing melon, mustard seeds, bitter almonds which were considered most effective for whitening but highly poisonous! But – and do please, take note – the moisture of some of these pomades could just cause some rheumatic discomfort.
Excellent preparation for your sleeping gloves: Hands that are inclined to chap should be rubbed over frequently with a paste of one spoonful of honey and two fine oatmeal. Beat these up with the yolks of two eggs and add sufficient unsalted lard to make a paste; thoroughly mix all together.
Protective hand paste: One recipe for a protective hand cream was given to me by an Austrian woman who has lovely soft hands and she swears by this cream. She puts it on before working and then rinses it off when she has finished.
Mix into a paste (it makes too much for one day’s use so put the rest in a screw-topped jar, for it will harden if the air gets to it) and use it whenever possible. Surprisingly this paste is not at all greasy, and I also use it on my knees, elbows, and feet, all of which can always do with extra attention.
Recipe:
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 teaspoons Kaolin
- 1 teaspoon almond or safflower oil
Hand Mask
Mix to a paste and apply this to your hands for about ten minutes. It leaves them beautifully soft. It can of course be used with your ‘bed gloves’.
- 1 ½ tablespoons oatmeal
- 1 tablespoon warm water
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon glycerine
Simple hand cream
Heat the glycerine and gradually add the cornflour to make a thick paste. Slowly mix in the orange-flower water and stir until it thickens. This hand cream is very inexpensive and just as good as any commercial product. Pour into labelled jars- and use.
In France, during the sixteenth century, women cleansed their hands with Orange-flower water, made in Italian convents, believing that it possessed special protective virtues against contagious diseases.
Recipe:
- 2 tablespoons glycerine
- 2 tablespoons cornflour
- 1 cup orange-flower water (or rosewater)
Hand massage and exercises
These both help the circulation and you will be surprised to find how they alleviate tension and stiffness.
Always massage towards the wrist using the thumb and index finger. Start with the little finger making small rotary movements on each joint, rotate, and pull the whole finger. When you have done this to each finger, massage from the knuckles to the wrist in the same way: using the thumb, you press and rotate in between the knuckles gradually working down to the wrist.
- Stretch your fingers out as tautly as possible, relax, and then throw them out again. Repeat this several times and you will feel all your muscles working.
- Shake your hands until they are completely relaxed and limp.
- Circle your hands from the wrist, making the circle as deep as possible and doing four circles to the right and then four to the left. Repeat several times.
Olinda Nicholas is a content writer under Headliner by Newswav, a programme where content creators get to tell their unique stories through articles and at the same time monetize their content within the Newswav app.
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