Skincare Advice – Understanding Why Skincare Treatments are Vital

Skincare Advice – Understand Your Protective Wrapping

Skin is often considered the most accurate barometer of your general wellbeing and your age.  Whereas young skin is resilient enough to withstand wear and tear, more mature complexions are quick to register fluctuations in health, diet, exercise and sleep patterns.

Skin’s function goes far beyond the aesthetic wrapping.  Not only does it play a key role in facilitating internal body processes, skin protects you from external aggression – an important factor in its own aging process.

Good skincare advice would initially be to understand how your skin is made up and how it works to protect you.

Skin Structure

Your skin structure is make up of something like a three-layer sandwich. The outer horny layer, or stratum corneum, is composed of flat skeletons of cells made up of keratin protein. These overlap like scales and are glued together with lipids – the skin’s natural oils.

Although this layer is technically dead, its protective “armour plating” is vital to skin health. Its horny, water-resistant structure forms a barrier against moisture loss from within the skin, while repelling potentially hazardous external elements. A cocktail of friendly flora gives it anti-bacterial properties that help withstand infection. This outer layer is sealed by a membrane that lies between it and the living cells of the next layer down – the epidermis.

The epidermis has two functions. It supplies the stratum corneum with cells while attracting and preserving moisture to keep the skin soft and plump. From the bottom, or basal line, of the epidermis, cells bud off, divide and migrate toward the surface, progressively maturing, ageing and flattening until they become the dead scales of the stratum corneum.

In healthy skin, this cell-turnover process takes around 28 days. There are two growth spurts daily: one in the early morning and a milder phase in the early afternoon, when levels of the life—giving hormone cortisol are lowest and body repairs take place. New cells arriving at the surface of the outer layer push off old skeleton cells, so the stratum corneum is constantly renewing itself. Both the stratum corneum and the epidermis are referred to as the skin`s upper layers. This vital layer of the skin is relatively narrow, the deepest of the skin’s layers is the the next layer down, the dermis.

Beneath the Upper Skin Layers

Directly below the basal line of the epidermis is the dermis – the skin’s   lowest layer. Here, parallel bundles of collagen and elastin form the supportive structure at the skin’s foundation. These proteins are also responsible for   the skin’s firmness, plumpness and elasticity. Also running through the dermis

is a network of nerves and an extremely rich system of blood vessels or capillaries. These supply cells with essential nutrients and give the skin its rosy glow. The strength and proximity to the surface of these capillaries determines how prone the skin will be to “broken veins” as it ages.

Hair follicles are rooted in the dermis where they are served by nerves and blood vessels. Further up toward the basal line of the epidermis, sebaceous glands supply each hair with lubricant oil. This oil, or sebum, works its way up the hair follicle and spills out on to the skin’s surface.

Composed of more than 40 acids and alcohols, sebum creates a protective film known as the skin’s acid mantle, which assists in the horny layer’s barrier function against moisture loss and infection. To maintain its anti-bacterial, antiseptic status, the acid mantle must remain at between pH (acid balance) 4 and 6. Alkaline detergents and some cleansers disrupt this balance, leaving the skin vulnerable to dryness and possibly infection. Hyperactive sebum secretion poses problems of its own.

Sweat glands (which help regulate body temperature and fluid levels, and eliminate fluid waste) originate in the dermis and end in outlets, or ducts, on the skin’s surface. Sweat is one of the body’s major means of temperature control: as the temperature rises more sweat is excreted to the the skin, then as the sweat droplets evaporate this has a cooling effect at the skins surface.

The other components of sweat, such as minerals, waste products and hormones, vary around the body Sweat excreted from the underarm and groin areas are heavily laced with hormones, which give sweat (particularly after contact with the skin bacteria inhabiting these areas!) its own, distinctive, natural aroma.

The dermis is also involved in another means of temperature regulation. When the body overheats, the fine capillaries near the surface of the skin dilate, increasing the blood supply. This has the effect of cooling the blood near the external surfaces of the body.

When the external temperature becomes significantly cooler, the capillaries contract, drawing blood away from the cool surface of the skin and into the body’s warmer core. Hence that pale face when you are uncomfortably cold, and the red face when you have been working out in the gym – it just shows your body’s systems are working efficiently!

Beneath the dermis lies a layer of subcutaneous fat threaded through with veins and arteries. This insulating layer preserves warmth and provides the body with fuel in “lean” times. It is more generously distributed in women and can harbour cellulite.

Sense and Skin Sensitivity

The dermis is packed with microscopic sensors responsible for touch – which is a combination of light pressure, heavy pressure, heat, cold and pain. There are different kinds of sensor, each responsible for a different sensation, and located at different depths.

What Happens When Skin ages?

Like the rest of our body tissue, skin gradually loses its youthful appearance and efficiency with age. By the time you’ve reached your early to mid thirties, the outward signs are already becoming established.

• Changes in the dermis reflect on the surface. Production of collagen and elastin slows down, so the skin becomes thinner, losing its plumpness, firmness and elasticity. As the structure of the collagen bundles become uneven, the skin’s foundation begins to crumble. Surface signs are deeper lines, wrinkles and a sagging skin texture.

• A more sluggish circulation results in a paler complexion. Less efficiently nourished cells also become sluggish. Turnover can become as much as 50 per cent slower, meaning that dead cells hang around on the surface longer.

• A build up of redundant cells on the surface means an inefficient barrier function. In addition, hormonal fluctuations lead to a reduction in sebum production, so the skin’s surface becomes rougher, dryer and less able to prevent moisture loss from below.

• Chronic moisture loss means cells risk dehydration and skin loses its plumpness even further. Dry skin also risks sensitivity. Harsh environmental conditions heighten these risks and increase skin damage.

• Efficient skincare treatments can’t actively slow down this natural aging process but it can significantly help limit damage and improve skin appearance.

The best skincare advice : make sure you look after your skin with regular skincare treatments.