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What does our skin actually do and why is knowing that important??

summer sun skin care

This reminds me (again) of the great song from The Sound of Music….

Let’s start at the very beginning…. A very good place to start…..

So – what actually is your skin other than the largest organ of every human body and why is it important that you know more about it??

I’m going to explain this like I would if I was talking to my 10 year old.

  • It will hopefully make it heaps easier to understand and sink in.
  • I can then use most of this copy for a Glow article on the same topic – ha! I’m all for best use of my time these days.

You might have been surprised to discover that your skin, is, in fact your bodies largest organ.

It’s considered an organ because by definition, an organ is a group of at least two different tissues that work together to accomplish similar functions and the skin contains both epithelial and conjunctive tissue.

 

Let’s talk about why we believe it’s the most important organ of all…summer sun skin care

It covers and protects EVERYTHING that’s inside your body.

Without skin, your muscles, bones, and organs would be hanging out all over the place.

Kinda important.

It also:

  • helps keep our bodies at just the right temperature
  • Stops nasty things from outside your body getting in &
  • allows us to have the sense of touch

Your skin is made up of 3 different layers that all have a distinctive role to play.

The epidermis is the top. It’s the outer layer of the skin that you can see and touch. This is the layer that ends up dry, aged, dehydrated etc if we don’t look after ourselves properly.

The dermis is the middle of the three layers and is where most of the action happens.  Nerve endings, blood vessels, sweat glands, the hair shaft and more are all found in this layer. This is also where collagen and elastin are produced. More on them later.

The third layer is called the subcutaneous layer and it is made up mainly of fatty tissue which acts kinda like a cushion and an extra protective layer for everything underneath your skin.

All new skin cells are formed first layer of the Epidermis called the Stratum germinatum

In this layer they are all plump, soft and hydrated.  Its also the only time from that point onwards that they are still connected to the dermis and all the goodness from the capillaries.

When the new cell is fully formed and ready to leave ‘home’ they begin the journey upwards to the surface of your skin which takes between two weeks and a month.  As new cells journey up – the older cells up top on the surface lift off and float away. (and its also why we exfoliate our skin once a week to help that process along a little)

So in actual fact the skin you can see is already ‘dead’ and ready to move on (or off more accurately!) but when we are talking skin ‘dead’ really means tough and strong which is what we want the surface cells to be so they can continue to protect us as well as they do.

It has been  measured that we lose approximately 30,000-40,000 skin cells PER MINUTE so in the time it has taken you to read this you have probably lost about 50,000 dead skin cells.

HOW FUCKING INCREDIBLE IS YOUR BODY!

(Mum’s – Ill delete that line from the Glow copy promise!)

So why is this information important?

Because the health (which = the look) of your skin is determined by the health of your cell for that entire journey.

Just like us humans, a skin cell has different needs in the different stages of its short and important life span and when we know how to take care of our skin cells in each of those phases – that’s how we end up with skin we love!

Easy right?!

We asked our good friend Gemma who has been in the skin industry as both a therapist and a make up artist helping 100’s of clients take care of their skin for over 20 years to answer some questions for us on the best ways to nourish and nurture your skin cells at every phase of its life.

Firstly Gem – thanks for being here with us – we know how ridiculously busy you are in your clinic so it’s much appreciated!

Can you tell us your go to’s for looking after a skin cell firstly as its being created in the first layer of the epidermis?

Hydration/water… our skin is an organ, our largest infact. And just like the cells in all our organs they are made up of water. Only a small % of your water intake is received by your skin cells, and if they don’t receive water they will dehydrate and therefore not function correctly if at all.

And as it moves up to the surface level – how can we give it everything it needs here??

Once your cells are hydrated enough to function at capacity we need to keep them as healthy as possible by quenching our skin’s thirst from a topical level. So applying a really good hydrator such as hyaluronic acid and a tonic mist followed by an occlusive type moisturiser to lock that hydration in so it doesn’t evaporate and escape.

How much of a role does what we eat play in the health of our skin cells?

I’m a big believer that a lot of what we eat plays a massive part on our skins health. Trying to eliminate inflammatory products in our diet as much as possible such as gluten, dairy and sugars (where’s the fun in that I know!) But seriously if you’re causing inflammation in your gut, not only will you be uncomfortable but your skin will pay for it. Sometimes in the form of periorbital/perioral dermatitis, rosacea, and acne just to name a few. This is because our body isn’t going through the proper forms of waste elimination so it finds the next biggest escape route- yep back to that big organ- skin!


And lastly – if you could go back 10 years and give yourself one suggestions on what to change to improve the health of your skin – what would you choose?

Hmm that’s a good one- ok, you don’t have to always be of the mindset that you need to “remove” the surface of the skin to be able to rebuild it. But you do have to strength it and get to the cause of the problem before you can fix the surface. Gone are the days of peel peel peel till it’s all gone before trying to fix it!

Mel will be chatting with Gemma LIVE later this week on Instagram so keep an eye out for more details about that.

The available information on skin health is a very overwhelming space with lots of different opinions and so-called facts and it can be really fucking hard to work out what’s right for you.

So many products also claim that using their product will solve ALL of your skin complaints.

BUT… (and as the part owner of this skin care business it takes a lot of courage say this)

Because there are so many factors that affect the health and look of your skin sometimes finding the ‘answer’ is really hard.

My personal skin story is one where right now, I still don’t really have the answer as to why my skin is redder and seemingly more unhappy than it ‘could’ be.

Our skin is a mirror of what’s happening inside – this is true – but even when you are doing EVERYTHING you can to ensure that your skin is happy and healthy – the answer is sometimes really difficult to find and can take a long time and a lot of perseverance.

Ill share my story another time because I do believe it’s imperative that I do that but today is about you and your story.

That’s why we have introduced FREE 15-minute chats with us so we can come up with a plan that unique to you, your lifestyle, your not negotiables and your skin.

If that is something you think might help you find clarity and peace then please click here to book a time.

We are also going to launch a FB membership group in November this year where our own A Team including Gemma above will all be available to answer questions and join conversations about anything and everything skin.

And our Skin is basically a by-product of everything else in our life so these conversations will be about pretty much anything and everything.

One rule – what happens in the Bubbles chat stays in the Bubbles chat.  That’s the energy we are building and creating for that space now and its almost ready.

Till then tune in next week when we chat ‘Breathwork’ and the extraordinary difference some intentional inhales and exhales can make to the way you feel.

See you then. xx

(ref https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/skin.html)

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