In order to care properly for your skin, hair, and nails, it's important that you understand something about their structure and purpose. Knowing how, why, and when to care for them and identifying the best formulas for their needs will help them remain healthy and beautiful regardless of the climate you live in or your chronological age.
Think of your skin as a beautiful, satin robe that you wear night and day. It presents your external beauty and health to the world and at the same time protects your inner being. The skin, or integumentary system, is an actual living system that also comprises the hair and nails, various glands, and several specialized receptors. As a complex structure, it performs nine essential jobs for the body. The skin:
• Protects us from physical, chemical, biological, thermal, and electrical damage.
• Helps the body maintain a steady temperature.
• Acts as a moisture regulator, preventing excessive entry and evaporation of water.
• Prevents excessive loss of minerals.
• Converts ultraviolet rays into vitamin D3, part of the vitamin D complex that helps us maintain strong bones by enhancing absorption of calcium and other minerals.
• Serves as a highly sensitive sensory organ, responding to heat, cold, pain, pleasure, and pressure.
• Metabolizes and stores fat.
• Secretes sebum, an oily lubricating substance.
• Assists in processes of excretion of salts, urea, water, and toxins via sweating.
As a general rule, your skin is designed to keep out more things than it lets in, though openings in the surface from burns, abrasions, cuts, pimples, ulcers, boils, or acne can allow infectious bacteria to enter. Its follicular openings and pores also allow some topically applied substances to be absorbed.
Helpful to us, our skin constantly transmits and receives information. If something is amiss, it displays signs of interior or exterior distress. If all is well, it displays radiance.
The cutis, or skin, is our largest body organ; it consists of tissues structurally joined together to perform specific activities. The thickness of this organ varies: The skin on the eyelids and scrotum are the thinnest — thinner even than the paper these words are printed on — and the skin on the soles of your feet and your palms is the thickest. The skin of an average-sized adult weighs approximately five to eight pounds and, if stretched out flat, would cover an area approximately 17 to 20 square feet.
Of the three layers of skin — epidermal, dermal, and subcutaneous — the epidermal layer, or epidermis (also known as the cuticle or scarf skin) is the outermost, thinnest layer. Though it contains no blood vessels, it does have many small nerve endings and shows the world your wrinkles, break-outs, dry flakes, laugh lines, sunburns, blisters, age spots, and freckles — in other words, the results of genetics and lifestyle habits, good and bad.
The epidermis consists of a soft form of keratin proteins (hair, fingernails, and toenails are made of hard keratin) which are resistant to water and many chemicals and provide a shield of protection from the outside world. The melanocytes, or cells that produce your skin's particular pigment, are also found in the epidermis.
The dermal layer, or dermis (also known as the corium or true skin) lies just below the epidermis and is a tough elastic layer of connective tissue. Its abundant blood supply puts roses in your cheeks and gives you a look of vitality. This strong, yet flexible, layer holds together your internal organs, bones, fluids, and so forth.
Want to know your skin's biological age? In her book Natural Hand Care (Storey Publishing, 1998), Norma Pasekoff Weinberg offers this experiment to test the elasticity or stretchability of your skin.
Pinch the skin on the back of your hand, and then release it after a few seconds. If you're under 30 years of age, the skin will quickly return to its original contour. If you are between 30 and 50, you can begin to see the skin stand up for a second or two before recovering. At age 50 and beyond, the skin may stand up for a number of seconds, a sign that its support network has been altered or that the body as a whole is undergoing changes that are visible at the skin's surface.
The two major components of the dermis are collagen and elastin — fibers that impart the skin's strength and resilience. According to some studies, wrinkles begin in the dermis due to a change in elastin causing its structure to lose its snap. The result is that skin becomes slack, like an old rubber band. Some skin professionals believe that wrinkles are due to a degeneration of collagen, the protein providing the skin's strength and form. Maybe someday science will discover the true physiological process that leads to wrinkling, but for now, we know only that without sufficient moisture, the collagen and elastin matrix loses its ability to keep skin toned and supple.
As we age, skin naturally thins, its elastin weakens, and collagen production slows. Abuse of skin care products or neglect of basic care; poor nutrition; lack of hydration; insufficient exercise; and excessive exposure to sun, salt, wind, pollution, and dry air can also take their toll. Emotional stressors such as anger, depression, deep sadness, relationship issues, and the death of loved ones add to the chemical changes that occur within your body and appear on your skin.
The complex structures of the skin contained within one square inch:
• 65 hairs
• 9,500,000 cells
• 95 to 100 sebaceous (oil) glands
• 19 yards (17 meters) of blood vessels
• 650 sweat glands
• 78 yards (70 meters) of nerves
• 78 sensory apparatuses for heat
• 19,500 sensory cells at the ends of nerve fibers
• 1,300 nerve endings to record pain
• 160 to 165 pressure apparatuses for the perception of tactile stimuli
• 13 sensory apparatuses for cold
Adapted from Joel Gerson, Milady's Standard Textbook for Professional Estheticians, eighth edition.
The third layer of skin, the subcutaneous layer, or subcutis, is the fatty or adipose layer that lies beneath the dermis and connects to the underlying muscle tissue. A little fat is a good thing as far as your skin is concerned. It keeps your face from looking drawn and hollow and gives your body beautiful contours and smoothness. Fat provides a strong foundation for your skin and acts as a shock absorber and insulator protecting your internal organs. Circulation is maintained here by a network of arteries and lymphatics. This adipose layer provides your entire body with a storage house of vital, long-term energy reserves to draw upon as necessary. As you age (or crash diet), the subcutis becomes thinner, leaving behind sagging, unsupported skin.
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