All the while, virtually under our noses, we're fixed with a ragged odometer that announces our mileage: ''I always tell patients, `We can lift your face, fill your face, and then you're going to have a really young looking face and really old looking hands,'' says Miami Beach dermatologist Arthur Weissmann.

You'd think that if you want to rescue your hands from calamity, you could apply the same regimen for your face to your mitts. It's all skin, right? Wrong.

''With the face, it's affected much more than the hands would be from gravity, with wrinkles, sagging and jowls,'' says Kathleen Gilmore, a physician and corporate medical director for American Laser Centers, which has several offices in South Florida.

Intense pulsed light (IPL) is often cited as the most popular treatment for those angry red veins. These devices emit short flashes of light which heat and destroy the broken capillaries, and the body eventually absorbes them.

A new generation of IPL devices are combined with radio frequency to better ferret out the offending veins, says Weissmann, of South Beach Cosmetic and Dermatologic Surgery on Arthur Godfrey Road. It doesn't feel much worse than getting snapped with a rubber band. Weissmann's office uses an Elos device, manufactured in Israel. Up to three treatments are usually required, at about $250 each.

At American Laser Centers, the treatment is followed up two weeks later with microdermabrasion, a sort of gentle sandblasting. ''That helps with the texture and the superficial cell turnover,'' Gilmore says.

At American Laser Centers, a package of five IPL and microdermabrasion sessions for hands up to the wrist costs $1,500 to $2,000, depending on severity of damage. There are locations in Miami Beach, Aventura and Fort Lauderdale.

Gilmore also recommends creams containing hydroquinone, a topical bleach sold over-the-counter in a 2 percent formulation, and up to 5 percent with a prescription.

Less common are requests to put the extra poundage in the hands. But Weissmann says the procedure gives strong results, which last up to six months. His fee for the initial fat harvest, usually taken from the flank, starts at $2,500. Reinjections cost approximately $800.

Retinoids, natural or synthetic substances related to vitamin A (think Retin-A), are especially effective, Weissmann says. So is a good dose of topical vitamin C.

Alpha hydroxy acids, derived from fruit and milk acids, can break down the ''glue'' of the epidermis, helping dead skin cells to slough off and making room for new cells. In particular, products containing glycolic acid or salicylic acid often get good reviews.

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