Should You Be Using LED Masks On Your Hands? Our Investigation 

LED therapy does wonders for the skin: With just a few minutes a day, it can give your natural collagen and elastin production a boost, help thicken the dermal layer, ease inflammation, smooth the appearance of fine lines, fade dark spots, and improve overall tone.

The hands are where many of the first visible signs of aging appear. Even before the facial skin, the skin on the hands starts to indicate a lack of moisture, collagen loss, sensitivity, fine lines, thinning dermis, and dark spots. It makes sense when you think about it: Hands deal with a lot—from increased exposure to the environment, UV damage, stripping hand washes and sanitizers, to just day-to-day physical wear. 

What's more, most folks don't take care of their hands with the same dedication they might their faces. In fact, people usually don't start adopting a hand care routine until they've already started to see the telltale signs of damage. And once these start to show up, folks actually start to get serious about hand care. That's where the growing interest in LED therapy for the hands comes in. 

These tools—like Omnilux's Contour Glove and CurrentBody's Skin LED Hand Perfector—are built just for the area. The CurrentBody, for example, looks almost like a cave with two openings that you can slip your hands in. While tucked away inside, the skin is exposed to 70 medical-grade LED light bulbs emitting clinically proven red (at 633 nm) and near-infrared (at 830 nm) wavelengths to boost collagen. The brand suggests 10 minutes of use daily. 

LED light therapy—also known as red light therapy, blue light therapy, infrared therapy, low-level light therapy (LLLT), photobiomodulation, and cold laser therapy—involves exposing the skin to specific wavelengths of light with LED light bulbs to encourage changes in the skin and body. For example, the most common are red and near-infrared light, which utilizes wavelengths of around 660 nm and 890 nm respectively.

It's built on the science of photobiomodulation, which shows that skin cells are activated or react to specific wavelengths of light. The exact mechanisms of photobiomodulation are not completely understood, but the effects have been clinically studied1.

And I feel the exact same about LED tools for hands! I'd rather you build out a hand care routine focusing on the basics first: using a hydrating hand cream and non-stripping hand washes. Then, for the beauty consumer who is ready to level up, LED therapy is a great technology to turn to. If you already have an LED tool at home (like a mask or wand), you can already start by simply using the lights over the area. Consider it off-label use.