I have dealt with all species of hamsters in commercial trade in California. Which means I have Syrians and Campbells, Winter Whites and Robos. Most of my hamsters have come to me from hard times, or they have been bought by me specifically because they were on sale and I chose those that were most aggressive.
Syrians are everyone's preferred hamsters (at least for new hamster owners) so far as temperament goes. A lot of people say that Syrians are the easiest to tame and the friendliest from the get go. I have realized this is not always true. The only hamster I have ever owned that has shown taming capabilities but also shows no desire to further relationships with humans at all is a Syrian. I can pick him up and touch him without getting bit at all. But he generally hates human contact, and is the most likely to jump out of your hands than any of my other 6.
I have a Robo hamster who is worse than my Syrian in the fact he shows no ability to be tamed and generally wants no human contact. But my other Syrian seeks out human affection, and I've never actually needed to tame him, he was immediately affectionate and open to holding. I have all types of Winter Whites and Campbells, and hybrids between the two, some who came to me openly friendly and desperate for attention, some who are hard to tame but get there, and then there are the ones who most people would likely give up on. One of my favorite hamsters I have ever had was one of the most aggressive in the beginning, it took 6 months until I could safely hold him without him obsessively chewing on my hand in the process and mauling me. I am not one of those people who says "oh, just throw on some glove and get him used to it that way." Honestly, I believe if you need gloves to handle your hamster you are moving too fast for your hamster and it is biting you for a reason. The only reason I would ever use gloves or a towel for handling a hamster is for medication dosing or for emergency purposes.
At the last 2-3 months of Icarus's life he was extremely affectionate. He wanted to be held all the time, wanted to be talked to and taken out daily. It was worth the waiting most of the time he was with us, just to have him enjoy our company so much when he was taken out.
Taming with any hamster should start with at LEAST 2 weeks of no handling other than necessary feeding and watering or if you have a hamster who needs meds etc. I prefer to go 3-4 weeks for most of my less severe cases. Trust me the extra time does help.
After the settling in phase, you want to start accustoming your hamster to you presence. Spend time around him/her. Maybe read a book out loud when near his/her cage. Scent some toilet paper by rubbing it on your hands and then place it near his/her house, then it will be his/her choice to use it. Which eventually all hamsters do. I do this until the hamster shows less fearful and skittish behaviors, it shouldn't run full out and hide once you are in the room and messing around. A little bit of a startle is ok, but otherwise your hamster should be used to your presence before starting the next phase.
This phase is when contact starts, by now you should have learned you hamster's favorite foods. You can start with a seed or nut that is regularly available in the seed mix and then start mixing it up from there. Almost all my hamsters love pumpkin seeds and will readily take them from my fingers as treats. I do have a few who are more protein oriented, or veggie/fruit oriented. Now what you do is you offer it to your ham, I will wait sometimes for 10 minutes just holding it in my fingers and having my hand in the middle of the cage.
If the hamster shows stress or bites you, remove your hand and take a step back. This should not be happening. Try going to one of the earlier steps of taming. If it sniffs you but walks away just leave the treat and walk away from the cage (it was a success, small but a success). Do not reward a hamster for negative reactions, nothing like boxing or biting should be rewarded. Anything showing outright stress means you should not give a treat and should instead just leave. At this point in your relationship you trying to stick out an interaction will just make it worse. If your hamster immediately takes the treat offered, mark the word with his/her name or something similar. Trust me, hamsters are just as easy to train about being good and knowing their names as a dog. All my individual hamsters know their names. If your hamster accepts the treat, have a few extra on hand. Do not push for holding yet. You should be able to treat feed safely without any problems for 2 weeks at least before attempting to hold at all.
For different personalities there will be different ways to approach picking up. Some of my hamsters are so social with me I don't have to wait for them to wake up fully before picking them up (I don't recommend trying this with a new hamster), these hamsters also don't really care if I scoop them or just reach in and pick them up. Some of my hamsters have to absolutely be two hand-scooped. And then I have some I have to lure out onto my hand with a treat. Remember they are ALL different individually and all require a huge amount of accomodation for each individual.
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