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Introduction to Skin& Aging

A common thing I hear from my clients when they come in is “one day I woke up and I look old” or “this line only just appeared”. It may seem like the line appeared in your sleep while you are running through your chaotic life. Whether that be surviving motherhood, trying to beat that deadline for work or getting caught up in the day-to-day. But it’s caused by a cascade of small changes that start to happen in our mid-twenties (Yes, twenties?!). These changes eventually cause our skin to begin to sag and gain a few extra lines than we previously had.

So, what is happening?

Skin anatomy

As you probably already know, our skin is one of the largest organs in our body. So, of course, we must take great care of it. Our skin has many functions, such as providing our organs with a protective barrier from chemicals, physical and mechanical harm. Another role of skin is to control and regulate our body temperature. Our body is very adaptive and excellent at adjusting to accommodate external fluctuations. Blood vessels can be dilated (expand) to cool us down or constricted (tighten up) to heat us. The skin also allows us to absorb essential vitamins, such as facilitating the synthesis of vitamin D from the sun and absorbing our skincare to boost hydration. And lastly, it is also an effective method of waste disposal for the body in the form of sweat. Sweating is an effective way to cool the body down by releasing liquid from our sweat glands. When the wind blows upon our skin, it assists with temperature regulation by cooling us down. Sweat can also contain nitrogenous waste and salt (unwanted molecules), so they don’t build up in our bodies.

As you age, you will notice that your skin becomes thinner and develops a more wrinkled appearance. Our skin is comprised of many different layers of different types of skin cells. We often talk about the top layer, which is the stratum corneum, as this is the outermost layer of the skin and makes up what we see. This is comprised of fifteen to thirty layers of skin cells, stacked on top of each other, interwoven and compressed. So, when we are talking about chemical peeling (taking off a layer or two of skin cells), don’t worry, as it’s really such a small amount of what we have. The stratum corneum has many functions, such as waterproofing the skin, ensuring that water cannot get in or out of the body (unless via specialised sweat glands). Maintaining the health of our stratum corneum is vital to having a healthy skin barrier and protecting our internals from trauma such as abrasions and wounds. We will discuss what an impaired skin barrier is and the impact it has on you in a later chapter.

Deeper down in the skin, we have the dermis. This is comprised of firm but flexible connective tissue, a healthy blood supply and accessory structures. Clinic treatments (such as dermal therapies) can activate processes in the dermis by stimulating fibroblasts within this layer. Fibroblasts play a key role in wound healing, providing structural support and elasticity. The dermis contains collagen and elastin fibres that provide structure to the skin. These are often buzzwords that we hear and see on products that draw us in to buy them. But why are they important? Collagen is a protein present in most connective tissues and is produced by fibroblasts. Fibroblasts also make elastic fibres and provide resi