Your hands are one of the first areas to show signs of aging. One reason for this is that your hands are exposed to UV rays more than other parts of your body, and you may not apply sunscreen as often as needed. Sun damage leaves your hands wrinkly with crepey, thin skin. Your hands can make you look older than you are or feel.

A cosmetic physician can recommend treatments that give your hands a more youthful appearance. In some cases, microneedling might be appropriate. Here's how this cosmetic treatment works to fight the signs of aging on your hands.

How A Treatment Is Done

Microneedling involves piercing the skin on the back of your hands with tiny needles. This might be done with a roller or pen device. A numbing cream is applied first so you can tolerate the discomfort of the procedure. Then the needles are moved across your skin to create tiny puncture holes. The goal of the treatment is to cause minor skin damage that triggers the healing process that improves the appearance of your skin.

Why Microneedling Helps Your Skin

As your skin heals from the treatment, collagen and elastin build in your skin. This gives your skin a thicker and firmer appearance while reducing wrinkles. Microneedling can also even out skin tone and eliminate dark discoloration from sun damage.

Microneedling is sometimes combined with the use of serums that can penetrate your skin deeply once the punctures are made. Microneedling can also be done along with radiofrequency or PRP treatments to tighten skin and repair sun damage. Since your skin heals itself gradually after a treatment, it could take weeks to see the full results of the procedure.

What To Expect After The Treatment

Your skin will probably be red or pink after microneedling. You might notice several tiny puncture marks on the backs of your hands, but you shouldn't have too much discomfort. The redness goes away in a couple of days, so if you work outside of your home, you may want to schedule the treatment for a Friday so your hands will be healed and ready for work on Monday.

Once you've had microneedling done, you'll want to be serious about using sunscreen so you can slow down further aging of your skin. A single treatment might be all you need, but you could need multiple treatments to achieve the look you want, and then you might need a couple of treatments each year to maintain the youthful skin on your hands.