Help for hands, and men’s winter grooming kit

Give wrinkly winter hands the push

Hands up if you can relate? Pardon the pun, but seemingly overnight, the skin on my hands has taken on the appearance of flaky pastry. It isn’t uncommon to possess hands that look older than their years – they’re exposed to ageing UV light for 12 months of a year, after all. But I can rarely be bothered to apply hand cream after every wash as many leave a sticky, greasy film that I can’t abide.

Still reeling about my pastry skin, I made an appointment with Dr Maryam Zamani, a leading surgeon and aesthetics doctor, to discuss her hand rejuvenation treatment. She took one look at me from across the desk and pronounced, ‘You’ve got very dry skin, I can see it from here.’ Zamani wrote down options for me to take away and mull over, which I was grateful for – there’s nothing worse than a pushy practitioner. If I could stand the needle(s), she recommended a combination of filler to add volume, and moisturising Profhilo to plump, smooth and minimise crêpeyness. Should I use hand cream? ‘Whatever regime you use on your face, you should apply to your hands,’ she said. So yes, it is non-negotiable.

While I contemplate Zamani’s needle, I’ve been smothering my hands in vitamin C serum in the morning to brighten, and retinol at night to exfoliate (results pending). Surprisingly, I’ve been converted to hand lotion, and Sisley’s now resides in my bag. A thick-ish formulation that’s absorbed immediately, it cleverly leaves my hands feeling and looking much less parched, and it smells pleasant, too. Here are the best of the rest.

Restorative Hand Cream, £67, Sisley (sisley-paris.com) HANDBAG ESSENTIAL