Residents of London are more likely to be perceived as older than they actually are, according to a study exploring the impact of excessive hand washing and sanitisation.

Having dry hands ages you by an average of 9 years, according to the study by water specialists Harvey Water Softeners, which invited 1,000 respondents to estimate the age of people based solely on photos of their hands. Half of the hands in the study were categorised as ‘dry’ by their owners and the other half as ‘healthy’.

On average, those hands in the ‘dry’ category were estimated to be 9 years older than their actual age. Meanwhile, the ‘healthy’ hands were judged to be a year younger than their actual age.

In London, water is hard which means it has higher levels of calcium and magnesium – something scientifically proven to be connected with dry skin.

For the hands categorised as dry, the study also found:

Only 5% of respondents guessed the correct age
69% guessed higher than their actual age
26% guessed lower than their actual age
The biggest difference when looking at dry hands was 52 years, with a 28 year old estimated to be 80 years old by two of our respondents.

When looking at healthy hands, the study found:

56% of respondents guessed lower than their actual age
15% guessed the correct age
30% guessed higher than their actual age
The biggest difference when looking at healthy hands was 27 years, with two respondents estimating a 33 year old to be just 6 years old based on their hands alone.

Lesley Reynolds is one of the UK’s leading beauty and aesthetics experts and the co-founder of the award-winning Harley Street Skin. She said:

“With the passage of time, hands lose fat, due to the natural ageing process and UV exposure. Also, due to ageing, there is actual thinning of the dermis (the deeper skin layer that contains hyaluronic acid, collagen and elastin), this results in a reduction of the skin’s ability and capacity to hold moisture, therefore the skin looks dryer and coarser and more wrinkly and thin due to the lack of elastin.

“Dryness is a natural feature of ageing, therefore, dryness seen in younger skin is instinctively perceived as older looking skin.”

According to Google data, searches for ‘dry hands’ increased 123% between March 2020 and April 2020, from 12,100 searches in March to 27,100 in April. There were 10,000 searches for ‘dry hands’ in July 2020.