While Orientals saluted each other with a polite bow, Westerners shook their hands and displayed their palms to appear honest and demonstrate no weapons were being concealed, i.e, there was no hidden intentions, in ancient Rome however, they didn’t shake hands but rather grabbed each others forearms as it was common for them to carry daggers concealed around their wrists area.

Different Types Of Hand Shakes

One thing I’ve learned while doing business in Real Estate is you can tell a lot about someones character simply by how they shake your hand.Extroverts have firm confident grips while shy people and neurotics tend to do it soft and gently, there’s many types of handshakes you will come across every day, here are a few:

• Hand Hug: The handhug is popular with politicians, it’s when they choose to wrap your handshake with their left hand creating this warm cocoon protecting your hand.When done to the right person, they are perceived as being warm, friendly, trustworthy and honest, sometimes it is reciprocated creating this pile of 4 hands, but this type of handshake is only done with people who share close bonds, as similar to hugs, it’s seen as an invasion of intimacy when done by people who’ve just met.On that same note, you will also see some people use their left hand to grasp the other persons forearm, elbow, bicep and even shoulder while shaking hands, we stretch out our arms to shake hands to keep people out of our personal space and protect our body…the higher up the arm the other person is seen putting their left hand, the closer the bond those two people share (or at least the person doing the double hander handshake believes they do or wants to portray it, like in some politicians cases).
• Dominator: As I wrote in my Palms and Thumbs article, someone who displays their palm downwards shows a sign of authority or superiority, every now and again you’ll notice someone who likes to shake hands while their hand is on top and their palm is facing the ground.It’s useful to know about this handshake as it may come in handy in certain situations like letting your boss feel powerful by ‘submitting’ to his dominance or if your apologizing about something, letting them have their palm on top will make them feel in control of the situation.
• Cold and Clammy: Some of you might of experienced this one before…it’s one of those handshakes where the person has a cold sweaty hand, sometimes it is associated with weak characters or lack of energy used by passive or apathetic people.Though more commonly, it can be found in nervous people whos blood flows away from the cells below the palm (dermis) and is diverted to the arm and leg muscles as our ancestors needed the extra blood there to fight their enemies or run away in nervous/dangerous situations.Also take into consideration 1/20 people suffer from Hyperhydrosis a condition that creates severe sweating.
• Crusher: The overly aggressive personality types favorite because they think it displays confidence and power, this is the handshake that makes your knuckles grind each other when shaking, and leaves your hand in numbing pain afterwards that you dread the moment you have to shake their hand goodbye again.Depending on the pressure, it is also used with less strength by individuals with a desire to dominate occasionally out of weakness or fear they will be dominated by others if they don’t do it first.
• Queens Fingertips:This is quite common in male-female encounters, as women need more personal space than men, they will stretch out their hand (sometimes in an awkward position) from a distance allowing the other person to barely grasp the two or three fingers without a good grip of the hand.It is also used by individuals who feel superior to the other person, e.g: The Queen, therefore stretching out their hands with their palms downwards (sign of authority/superiority) and only allowing a hold of the fingers.
• Keep Back: Another type of handshake used by the aggressive types, the main purpose of this one is to keep you at a distant and away from their personal space as they might feel threatened, they will lean forward or balance on one foot to achieve needed distance.It can also be common to find this type of handshake in people who were raised in country/rural areas as the personal space for people in such areas is much larger than the personal space needed for individuals raised in the crowded cities.
• Yank and Pull: This one is considered a power play, it’s when a person decides to grab your arm and pull you in close towards them and inside their territory/personal space, there is three possible reasons for this; the person is insecure and needs you to be in their own territory in order to feel comfortable and safe, or they come from a culture/city that requires smaller space needs, and finally; they want to take control and get you off balance…literally, in any of these cases , they should be considered manipulative because they want things done a certain way.

A proper handshake should last from 3 to 6 seconds, be equally balanced meaning each persons hand is vertically side by side, thumbs must be locked around each others upper hand and fingers have a firm grip, always put the same amount of pressure you are receiving, mentally give a calculation from 1 to 10 of what strength they are using and adjust accordingly.