Few things are repeated as often, and considered as little, as washing the hands. On waking, before meals, on coming home, between tasks in the kitchen. More than ten times a day is not unusual, and each time the skin meets water and a cleanser.
Frequent washing strips sebum and easily breaks the moisture barrier that covers the water in the stratum corneum. One reason the hands become rough sooner than the face is simply that they are washed so much more often. Yet not washing is not an option. That is why the way we wash deserves a second look.
This article divides hand washing into five stages, notes what is happening to the skin at each one, and describes a method that keeps the hands clean without leaving them dry.
Water temperature: lukewarm
The first thing to reconsider is the temperature of the water. Hot water strips sebum and breaks down the moisture barrier. On a cold winter morning the appeal of hot water is understandable, but for the skin of the hands, lukewarm is gentlest.
The same applies to washing dishes. For long stretches of wet work, gloves are recommended, and keeping the water from getting too hot is one of the basic ways of protecting the hands. Lowering the temperature of your hand washing by a notch changes how much sebum the day takes from you.
Lukewarm means comfortable to the inside of the wrist: neither the steaming water that reddens the skin nor the cold tap that makes the fingers stiffen. In winter it may take a few seconds longer for the tap to find that point, and those seconds are well spent.
Soap: enclose the hands in foam
Soap is not something to rub into the skin; it is something to enclose the hands in. Take a suitable amount, work it into a light foam, and spread it softly over the back of the hand, between the fingers and around the nails. A soft foam lifts away dirt without any need to scrub.
The soap you choose also matters. One that is gentle on the skin, without excessive cleansing power, is recommended. Each wash removes some of the sebum film, which is why hands often feel tight and dry afterwards: cleansing and moisture are hard to hold together. A soap formulated to leave moisture behind with every wash helps bridge that gap, especially for people who wash often.
Rinse more carefully than you think
Soap left on the skin is itself a cause of roughness. Rinse thoroughly under running water, not only the palms but the backs of the hands, between the fingers, the wrists and around the nails. The more hurried we are, the shorter the rinse tends to become.
Rinse at the same lukewarm temperature you washed with. Finishing with hot water, or shocking the hands with cold, puts strain on the skin. A gentle temperature, gently rinsed. How you end a hand wash matters as much as how you begin it.
Dry by pressing, not rubbing
Rubbing wet hands with a towel creates friction. The skin on the back of the hand is thin, and friction leads to dryness and disturbed texture. Press the towel or paper towel gently against the skin and let it absorb the water, leaving no droplets behind.
Leaving no droplets is not a small point. Water left on the surface takes moisture from the stratum corneum as it evaporates and ends up drying the skin further. Hands that stay wet for long periods are also associated with brittle nails. Dry, and unrubbed: that is the state to aim for when you put the towel down.
- Wet the hands with lukewarm water.
- Work the soap into a foam and wash by enclosing the hands in it.
- Rinse thoroughly, including between the fingers, around the nails and the wrists.
- Press a towel against the skin and dry without leaving droplets.
- Once dry, moisturise straight away.
Once washed, moisturise
The minutes after washing are when the skin loses water most readily. Moisturising as soon as the hands are dry replaces what the wash took away and carries the skin calmly through the hours until the next wash. Washing and moisturising, joined into a single movement, form the basic habit of hand beauty.
It helps to think of the two as a single verb. Not wash and then, if you remember, moisturise, but wash-and-moisturise, one action with two halves. Keeping the moisturiser within reach of the basin, rather than in a drawer or a bag, is what turns the intention into a habit that survives a busy day.
For hands that are washed many times a day, the right moisturiser is one that lets you return to work at once. A hand serum sinks in without leaving a film, so it can sit by the basin or on the desk and be used after every wash.
Soie's hand soap
Soie (pronounced swah; French for silk) designed Moist Fragrance Hand & Body Soap to moisturise with every wash. It contains moisturising ingredients such as glycerin, aloe vera leaf juice, hydrolysed collagen and allantoin, eases the tightness that often follows washing, and cleans both hands and body with a soft foam. The bottle holds 300 mL, and a delicate fragrance by the brand's dedicated perfumer turns an everyday wash into a quiet moment.
Follow it with Enlight Hand Serum, smoothed from the back of the hand to the fingertips, and the habit of wash, then moisturise is complete. You can read more about the hand soap, and common questions about washing are answered in the hand beauty Q&A.
You cannot wash your hands less often, but you can wash them differently from today. Lukewarm water, foam, a thorough rinse, patting dry, and moisture. An act repeated ten times a day stops being the thing that roughens the hands and becomes the thing that composes them. Hand beauty begins at the basin.
