OROGOLD and other skin care companies are understandably fixated on the best ways to treat skin. Money constantly goes into finding the best way to encourage skin health and repair damage. The end results are products that help you look and feel your best. To do this requires that we have a clear understanding of how skin works and what areas need the most attention. Not everyone has a firm grasp on how their skin works and all it does for them though. With this in mind, OROGOLD wishes to provide a short series to give you a clear idea on just that. This will be a three-part series discussing the epidermis, the dermis, and the hypodermis. For this first part, the epidermis will be the part discussed.
Thin and Beautiful
Even though your skin is one of the largest and heaviest organs of your body, the epidermis is a comparatively small part of it all. It is actually the thinnest part of your skin and a fair bit of it actually isn’t “alive” in the way you’re probably used to thinking about it. The outermost layer is the stratum corneum. This section is just dead skin that acts as an extra layer of protection that covers the newer skin. When you’re using an exfoliating product, this is the layer you’re scrubbing away to expose more of the true epidermis where you find still living and healthier looking skin. Most products will typically only thing this layer as that’s what works best. Don’t forget that the dead skin does still have a place in helping to protect the rest of your skin and your health.
More than Meets the Eye
Though there are three layers to the skin, the epidermis helps determine a great deal about your personal appearance. The stratum corneum can decrease the luster of your skin if not dealt with occasionally and accumulate fine lines. You’d probably already guessed that part, but what you might not have known is that melanin also primarily resides in the epidermis. Melanin concentrations are responsible for your skin color and whether your tan or burn. Human skin gets darker with higher melanin concentrations, but there are a few quirks to this aspect of the epidermis. The one most people are familiar with is freckles. Melanin doesn’t always spread out effectively and this leads to freckles in fair-skinned people. Other skin tones do get freckles, but the comparative lack of melanin in lighter-skinned people generally means the freckles are much easier to notice on them. Try not to dislike any freckles you may have. Melanin is your body’s natural defense against damage from UV rays.
Unseen Defenses
Obviously, the stratum corneum and the true epidermis each provide a seal that protect the rest of your skin and thereby the rest of your body from disease, temperature, and other external pressures. What you likely don’t know is that the seal alone isn’t enough. Your epidermis contains specialized cells throughout it known as Langerhans cells. These cells are capable of drawing in materials to become marker cells that highlight potentially infectious material for your immune system. By doing this, they act as beacons that insulate and draw your body’s defenses towards the problem before it becomes a problem. These Langerhans cells are, in many ways, the most active defensive part of your body by virtue of the size of skin as an organ. They can’t function without the rest of your defensive systems though.
The epidermis is just one part of your skin, but it shares its importance with the other layers. You may have noticed that pores were skipped over where discussing the epidermis. They are located there, but the most important parts of how pores relate to your skin are located in the dermis. As a result, OROGOLD will discuss pores and sweat in the next installment of this series. There you’ll not only find out about sebaceous glands, but how you can actually feel things. Remember to exfoliate, but don’t be too thorough as you do need your epidermis.
