Our skin is the largest organ of our body. It acts as a protective barrier against harmful external factors, bacteria, chemicals, heat, or cold. But do we care for it as much as we should? Most of us don’t. A good skincare practice is needed for our skin to continue protecting us. 

So how do we do that? Skincare might sound like a piece of cake, but it isn’t. Just like you need to understand a person’s feelings and emotions fully to care for them and make them feel better, you also need to understand the inherent parts and structure of your skin to take care of it and nurture it.

Understanding the structure and different parts of your skin doesn’t have to be rocket science, even though some science goes into understanding it. And we are here to simplify it for you anyway because we care for your skin, and you should too. Read on to know more!

Understanding Your Skin’s Structure

Our skin is made up of three layers of tissues. The epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis are the top, middle, and bottom layers of our skin, respectively. All these layers fulfil a purpose in our body to protect us. We will look into each layer in-depth and get to know our wonderful skin better!

The top layer of your skin, the epidermis, is the one that you can touch, see, and feel. The epidermis protects your body as it comes in direct contact with the external factors. It prevents any bacteria or germs from entering your body and causing infection. 

Did you know you have a new skin every 30 days! Think of how many changes you can make in your skincare routine and even get the results in just 30 days. And the credit for this goes to the epidermis, which is responsible for making new skin cells. Our body sheds as many as 40,000 old cells every day and replaces them with new ones. And in a month, your skin is as good as new! 

Melanin makes your skin look darker and this is found in Epidermis. Your skin tans quickly if you have too much melanin in your body.

90% of what you call skin is made up of the dermis, which is the second layer of your skin. This middle layer consists of proteins like collagen and elastin. Collagen makes your skin cells stronger and more resilient. Elastin keeps your skin flexible, and shapes stretched skin. The roots of your body hair are attached to the dermis.

The nerves that control your hot or cold sensations are located in the dermis. Not just that, dermis produces sweat, which helps in regulating your body temperature. Most importantly, the blood vessels in the dermis  provide certain essential nutrients to the epidermis. 

The last and the most important layer of your skin is the hypodermis can also be called the fatty layer. It protects your muscles and bones and prevents them from getting injured during an accident. Fat regulates your body temperature from feeling too hot or too cold. The fat in your body comes to your rescue, so don’t forget to thank it every now and then.

Hypodermis connect your muscles and bones to epidermis and dermis. The nerves and blood vessels branch out in the hypodermis  to connect with the rest of the body. Hypodermis ensures that the blood flows in the entire body, which is crucial for a healthy and fully functioning body.

How to Care For Your Skin

As you age, you start to lose the two proteins, collagen, and elastin, in your epidermis. This loss of proteins in your body will cause your skin to develop wrinkles and eventually sag. Although ageing is inevitable and a natural process, and even if you cannot do much to stop it from happening, you can take some of these steps in caring for your skin to maintain healthy skin:

• Avoid tanning your skin as much as possible. It causes your skin to damage, age, and even develop skin cancer in the worst case.
• Indoors or outdoors, it does not matter; apply sunscreen daily as that will prevent you from harmful UV rays.
• Use healthy ways to manage stress. If not, it can further worsen your skin conditions.
• Quit smoking or using tobacco; it can significantly damage your skin and make you age faster.
• Use gentle cleansers to wash your face twice a day, in the morning and night.
• Showering regularly might seem like a task for most of us but doing it helps maintain skin health.
• Many of us suffer from dry skin, so applying a moisturising lotion is ideal for preventing that.

Our skin cares for our entire body. We should also give it all the care we can because our skin deserves the best.