Hand health can speak to your overall health, so keep your clappers looking soft and supple with lotion and spa treatments.

Winter in Beijing is grueling not just on the soul but on the skin. For those new to the city, the combination of dry northern air and chilling winds may prove a worthy adversary, making your hands dry out until they resemble the texture of the discarded skin a snake sheds.

But there's no need to commemorate the upcoming Year of the Snake with your skin. Sore, flaky and cracked hands are not attractive and do not need to be accepted as winter's fate, if proper measures are taken. Your hands and neck are two signs of your age and health, so maintain a youthful glow even in the most polemical weather.

Nail care

One important indicator of health is the nails, composed of keratin. Weak nails are thin, yellowish and brittle, often with raggedy ridges and dry cuticles, the bottom skin lining the nail plate.

Shan Shan, a manicurist at the 3.3 mall location of Lily Nails salon in Sanlitun, Chaoyang district, attends to around a dozen dry and damaged nails each day at work during the winter season. The most unkempt part of the hand, she said, is the cuticle.

"During the winter, those with dry hands and nails should use cuticle oil specifically made for nails to lock in moisture," Shan Shan said.

Cuticle oil is sold at any nail salon, Watsons or Sasa. For a cheap solution, Shan Shan said a drop or two of olive oil also does the trick.

When getting a manicure, communicate with your manicurist to not trim off too much cuticle - this is the nail's natural barrier for protecting the surrounding skin and cutting away too much can damage the nail. Instead, ask for minimal cutting and opt for getting your cuticles pushed back.

Visiting the nail salon also does not simply mean walking out with colorful nails. Shan Shan recommends getting a package spa treatment for nails at least once this winter. Exfoliation sloughs away the dead skin, massage encourages blood circulation, lotion moisturizes and then an OPI polish or a clear coat of nail protector keeps the nails looking their best.

This process can be done at home using a homemade remedy or store-bought mixture of sea salts and sugar. Gentle exfoliation can help shed off dead skin cells, making it easy for a follow-up moisturizer to absorb into the hand. As for moisturizing hands, the manicurist recommends thick, non-scented creams. Try picking up petroleum jelly or thick creams.

Nails can reveal a lot about your health as well, from a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) perspective. Eyes may be the window into your soul for Westerners, but the hands reveal a lot about the state of your health, according to Zhang Jilan, a former TCM doctor in Beijing.

Having a white crescent at the base of your nails (the lunula) is an indicator of health. An extremely dry ridge on the sides of your nails indicates either poor health or that your hands need to be moisturized.

"Nails should appear smooth, and the color should not be too pale. White coloring could indicate poor blood circulation," Zhang said, adding that eating plenty of foods rich in vitamins B and C, calcium and protein is a way to promote nail care.

Getting steamy

Chen Ziyu, who moved from Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, to Beijing more than a year ago, found it hard to adapt to the dry air. She watched the texture of her hands change from supple to scraggly.

"It's even drier inside because of the heat. But instead of using a humidifier, I just place shallow bowls of water around the apartment, including one perched at all times on top of the radiator, to keep the air moist," she said.

For those who don't want to contend with the possibility of knocking over buckets of water everywhere, invest in humidifiers to moisten the air. Otherwise, results could surface on your skin. Hong Kong native Andrew Wu said he keeps three running at all times in his small apartment - the necessary number to make the humidity resemble his homeland.

Chen recommends those new to Beijing to change their personal hygiene. She began placing moisturizer next to her hand wash in the bathroom to remind herself to moisturize each time after washing her hands.

A simpler way to do this is to avoid washing your hands with harsh antibacterial soaps and choose a more moisturizing soap.

Though it is oh-so-tempting to jump into a steaming hot shower or to warm yourself up by running hot water upon arriving home from the bitter cold, scalding your already sensitive skin is one of the worst things you can do. Hot showers exacerbate the dryness and itchiness of your skin. Instead, try to take shorter showers in lukewarm water and immediately apply moisturizer upon stepping out of the shower. Or opt for fewer showers in the winter by showering every other day.

One last tip is obvious but essential for maintaining smooth hands: wear mittens or gloves when heading outdoors, and minimize your exposure.