What skin tells you about a life — and why moisturising matters more than you think
By Wren · September 15, 2026
I was around seven. My grandfather was sitting at the kitchen table, the way he always sat, settled and unhurried, and he rubbed his hands together.
The sound stopped me completely.
It was dry and papery and somehow loud, like two pieces of fine sandpaper finding each other. I had never heard anything like it. I tried to replicate it with my own hands immediately, rubbing them together with great determination, and produced nothing. Smooth, hydrated, seven-year-old hands make no sound at all. I tried again. Still nothing. He did it again and I dissolved into laughter.
He had worked construction. Then a strawberry farmer in Gumdale, hands in soil and sun for decades. His hands looked completely normal to me. I couldn’t understand where the sound was coming from or how he was making it. Every time he did it, whether he noticed my fascination or not, it would set me off again.
I think about those hands a lot now that he’s gone.
What Hands Actually Tell You
Construction hands, then a farmer’s. Hands that had carried and made and grown things in Queensland sun for a working lifetime.
What I understand now that I didn’t at seven: those hands were telling a complete story about moisture, elasticity, and what decades of physical work and UV exposure does to skin.
The outer layer of skin, the stratum corneum, functions as a barrier. Its job is to hold water in and keep irritants out. When it’s well hydrated it’s flexible and relatively smooth. When it loses moisture through age, sun exposure, repeated wetting and drying, or the work of hands constantly in use, it becomes less able to retain water on its own. The cells that should lie flat start to lift at the edges. The surface roughens. Skin thickens in places that take repeated friction.
And when you rub two surfaces like that together, they make a sound. ¹
The Broader Picture
Hands age faster than faces. They’re exposed to more, sun, water, detergents, temperature changes, and they receive less attention. Most people who moisturise their face every day don’t extend the same treatment to their hands, or their elbows, or their neck and chest, which age in similar ways for similar reasons.
The body’s ability to produce natural moisturising factors, the compounds that keep skin hydrated from within, declines with age. Oestrogen plays a role in skin hydration and elasticity, which is why perimenopause often accelerates the dryness that was already quietly progressing. ² Noticing that the skin barrier is functioning less efficiently is just useful information.
What I Do Now
I have always moisturised. My hands still make that sound sometimes, especially in winter, especially after a day of a lot of handwashing. Genetics plays a role. So does Queensland sun, which doesn’t stop being Queensland sun just because you’re wearing sunscreen on your face.
The habits worth keeping: moisturise hands every time they’ve been washed and dried, not just once at night. SPF on hands during the day, in the same way you’d apply it to your face. Body moisturiser applied to still-damp skin after a shower, which helps lock in what’s already there rather than trying to replace what’s been lost.
None of this will produce the skin you had at seven. It makes a measurable difference to how the skin functions, how it feels, and how it holds up over time. ³
The Kitchen Table
My grandfather died two years ago. I didn’t think about his hands every day while he was alive. I think about them more now.
There’s something about the specific sensory memory of a person, the sound of them, the particular texture of a moment, that stays when other things fade. I can still hear it. That dry papery rasp at the kitchen table in Gumdale, and a seven-year-old completely unable to replicate it, laughing anyway.
My hands make the sound now sometimes. I find I don’t entirely mind. Do Bog Witches Need To Use Sunscreen? has more on the evidence-based case for daily SPF, if hands aren’t the only thing on the list.
¹ The stratum corneum, the outermost layer of skin, functions as a moisture barrier. When it becomes dehydrated through age, UV exposure, or repeated physical work, the surface roughens and loses its flexibility. DermNet has a clear overview of how the barrier functions and what compromises it.
² Oestrogen influences skin hydration, thickness, and elasticity. As levels decline during perimenopause, skin can become noticeably drier and less resilient. Healthline covers the relationship between oestrogen and skin changes clearly.
³ Regular moisturising has been shown to improve skin barrier function, reduce transepidermal water loss, and improve skin texture over time. American Academy of Dermatology has evidence-based guidance on moisturising practice.