How to Become a Hand Model
In Her Shoes: The Career and Life of a Hand Model
by Emily Co
What Do You Do For Upkeep?
"I use a ton of different types of moisturizers for my hands. One of my favorites is extra-virgin olive oil. It's like the cheap alternative for lotion, and it's really a wonderful conditioning agent. That and vitamin E. Just putting pure vitamin E on the skin is fabulous. I've found out that a lot of lotions have water and alcohol in them so that's very drying to the skin, so I use a lot of natural products whenever possible.
I carry a little squeezy bottle of olive oil around with me all the time and just constantly add a little bit more. I really like shea butter and I really like cocoa butter, so I just always have little tubes of that everywhere. I keep them in my car; I keep some at my desk; I keep a few in my room; next to the bathroom sink; it's just always all around.
At night, I'll usually do olive oil and cocoa butter, then Vaseline. Vaseline will seal in the moisture from the other products, and it just really conditions your hands well overnight. I don't wear gloves at night but I found that if I use really thick fuzzy socks, that works great."
Do You Have Any Special Tips?
"I just helped my friend save her hands. She's an artist who just ruined her hands using very rough materials so she called me to find out how to fix her hands. And I told her to get a bunch of bag balm, which is the stuff that they use for cow's hooves up in Vermont. The people in Vermont used to use it ages ago to protect the cow's hooves from splitting, but it's a really great thing for your skin in the Winter time if you have really dry skin. That will save your hands if they are in really bad shape. If you put that on and throw some socks over your hands before you go to bed, your hands will wake up looking amazing."
