Skin Structure
Skin is the shield and foundation of your physical
beauty. How can a building be strong if the foundation is weak. If you
wish to preserve your health and beauty, you must ensure regular upkeep
of beauty.
Children have a very soft skin. There is a physical change due to
hormones when you enter your youth and you start having problems like
Blackheads, acne and pimples. With the aging process, wrinkles, blemishes
appear on your body. The knowledge of the texture and functions of skin
is necessary to have these problems eradicated.
The skin has three layers, but we are concerned primarily with the basic two: the epidermis and the dermis.
The epidermis is outermost and is made up of dead cells (they protect the live cells underneath), pores
and pigmentation (color) cells. As those outer cells die, the skin manufactures new ones to take their place,
usually every month (less often as you get older). The dermis, the lower and tougher layer,
is made up of blood vessels, nerves, collagen, hair follicles and sweat glands.
Texture : The skin mainly has two layers i.e. epidermis and dermis. The upper layer is called epidermis and the lower one dermis. You have skin disease like Blackheads, acne etc. on epidermis but their cause is from dermis. Since it is the lower layer so its bad effects cause skin disease.
Epidermis keeps changing. It has four parts. The inner layer (the lowest one) which is joined with the dermis where its cells grow when upper cells are dead and discarded. The lower ones replace them. This is an ongoing process. All the dead cells slowly come on the outer side and automatically fall off they can be discarded by physical cleanliness too. So cleaning of the body is very necessary. The skin looks dirty and lifeless due to dead cells. Such a kind of skin is susceptible to disease immediately. Keep your skin clean with sea salt, besan (gramflour), and unripe papaya once in a month. Dead cells are also removed by rubbing complexion brush and a puff. Never use a complexion brush if you have pimples on your face. This will scratch the pimples and also further spoil your face.
The epidermis arises from a layer of basal cells, which sit on
the basement membrane that separates the epidermis from the
dermis—also known as the dermo-epidermal junction. The basal
cells grow larger and then divide into two. One half then starts
to move in the direction of the surface, becoming known as a
keratinocyte. The other half stays at the base to complete a number
of further cycles. Normal progression of the keratinocyte to the
surface takes around 28 days. During this journey it undergoes
many complicated physical and chemical changes collectively
known as keratinisation. Any disorder of this process is referred to
as a dyskeratosis, most of which are acquired as a result of some form of external injury or internal disorder, but the more severe forms
are due to genetic variations.
Interspersed between the basal cells are melanocytes, or pigmentproducing
cells. These cells produce and package melanin, the
pigment which is responsible for skin color. The production of
melanin is stimulated by ultraviolet light, hormones, inflammation
and injury. The melanin is packaged in melanosomes (small
‘packages’ in the light-skinned races, larger packages in the dark-skinned
races) which are passed along very fine tubes (dendrites)
into the keratinocytes, resulting in variations in
skin color from time to time as a transient tan. It is carried to the
surface by the progressing keratinocytes and eventually cast off.
Excessive pigment production is followed by some of the pigment
‘falling through’ the basement membrane to be deposited in the
upper dermis, and then being very slowly removed over a number
of years by macrophages, or scavenger cells.
Also scattered throughout the epidermis are antigen presenting
cells which function like an early warning system in detecting
the presence of noxious substances, bacteria, viruses, parasites and allergens, alerting the
defense (immune) system to initiate a suitable counterattack.
Skin is very hard in the old age. The reason is that the dead skin is not discarded of its own. It gets accumulated as an upper layer. When dead skin is not discarded there is no formation of new cells. So, the skin becomes hard. Oil glands, (sebaceous glands) are not operative too at that stage so they don't retain moisture and the skin becomes dry and will have wrinkles.
The dermis has two kinds of glands (1) glands which produce perspiration and (2) glands which produce oils.
The glands producing perspiration keep the temperature of your body normal and oil glands produce oil which conics out from the pores and spreads on the body. When this process does not take place on some parts of body, they took dull.
Germs are produced if there is a blockage in the pores and you have diseases like Blackheads, acne.