In the forty minutes between leaving home and sitting down at work, what do the hands touch? The front door key, the handle of a bag, the ticket gate, a strap on the train, the rail of an escalator, the sanitiser pump at the entrance to the building, the buttons in the lift. Even the ones you can recall are more than one hand can count.
The commute is the time of day when the hands are most exposed to the open air and to the passage of other people, and it happens twice, morning and evening. If the backs of your hands feel rough when you arrive, the cause lies less on the desk than on the road that led to it.
This article follows the reasons the hands dry out in three kinds of commute, by train, by car and by bicycle, and sets out a routine in two parts, before leaving and on arrival, with a note on the season for gloves.
Straps, handrails and bag handles
On the train, the hands are always holding something. The palm wrapped around a strap, the fingers resting on a rail, the hand that shifts a heavy bag from one grip to another. Holding is friction on the palm side, but bracing against the motion of the carriage keeps the finger joints flexing and pulls at the skin on the back of the hand as well.
The handle of a bag is an easily overlooked source of friction. Leather or fabric rubs the base of the fingers in the same place day after day, and the heavier the bag, the greater the load. People who always carry on the same side sometimes notice that only that hand is rough.
Because the back of the hand has little sebum and thin skin, friction shows there directly as dryness and roughness. The friction of commuting cannot be avoided, but swapping a heavy bag from hand to hand, or wrapping the handle in cloth, spreads the load away from a single spot.
Sunlight on the steering wheel and the handlebars
If you drive to work, your hands take the sun through the windscreen every day. The backs of the hands on the wheel are closer to the light than the face, and they barely move. That is why sunlight while driving is said to deserve attention. On a bicycle, the backs of the hands on the grips are beyond the reach of any hat or parasol.
Many people apply sunscreen to the face every morning and never to the hands. Most spots on the backs of the hands are attributed to UV light, and they are among the most common signs of photoageing. The low sun of autumn and winter reaches a driver's hands from the side.
The guide is a broad-spectrum sunscreen of SPF 30 or higher, applied every morning before leaving the house, as far as the backs of the hands. Reapplying roughly every two hours is recommended when spending time outdoors. Sunscreen comes off the hands with every wash, so applying it once more before the journey home covers both legs of the day.
Sanitiser at the entrance, and cold mornings
The ticket gate, the entrance to the building, the reception desk. Sanitiser pumps are dotted along the route to work, and each time you pass one the hands dry a little more. Hand hygiene matters; but if nothing is replenished once the hands are dry, their moisture is gone before you reach your destination.
When there is no visible dirt, a sanitiser that contains moisturising ingredients is considered less of a burden than repeated washing. If alcohol irritates your skin, alcohol-free sanitisers are an option. In either case, pair the sanitiser with moisturising once the hands are dry.
Cold mornings count too. Cold hands are said to have slower circulation, and dullness and dryness advance more readily in them. For the ten-minute walk to the station, keep the hands in your pockets or wear gloves. That alone changes the colour of your hands when you arrive.
Two routines: before leaving and on arrival
The routine for commuting hands is easiest to remember in two halves. Before leaving: wash the hands at the basin, smooth in a hand serum, and apply sunscreen over it as far as the backs of the hands. A serum that leaves no stickiness lets you pick up keys and bag at once.
On arrival: before sitting down, wash the hands, pat them dry, and take one or two pearl-sized drops of serum onto the back of the hand. Everything the commute left on the skin is washed away and the moisture it took is replaced before the day begins. With a small 30 mL bottle in the desk drawer or the bag, the whole routine takes a minute.
The journey home is the same in reverse. The sunscreen reapplied before leaving the office is washed off on arriving home and the evening care follows. Repeat the same steps on both legs of the journey and the commute leaves little trace on the hands by the end of the day.
The season for gloves
Past the middle of October, there are more mornings when the air feels cold. Gloves do more than keep the hands warm: they put the backs of the hands out of reach of the friction of straps and rails and the sun on the wheel. For the commuting hand, a single pair does three jobs.
Put them on only once the hands are completely dry. Straight after applying serum they are likely to feel clammy, so leave a little time. Choose a soft material, and a pair that does not have to come off every time you use your phone, so that wearing them becomes a habit that lasts.
Commuting hands seem unobserved, yet they are the first hands of the day seen by the person beside you on the strap and by the person you hand a card to at reception. Moist Fragrance Hand & Body Soap, which moisturises with every wash, and Enlight Hand Serum, which sinks in without stickiness, are the two tools Soie keeps ready for that journey. Begin tomorrow morning, with one minute before you step out of the door.
