Part 1
What are skin cells?
Skin cells are the basic building blocks of the skin, which is a large, complex organ forms a protective barrier between our insides and the external environment.
How many skin cells are in the human body?
Scientists estimate that the human body is made up of around 10 trillion cells in total. Your skin makes up about 16% of your body weight.
Where do skin cells come from?
At the bottom of the epidermis, new skin cells are forming. When the cells are ready, they start moving toward the top of your epidermis. This trip takes about 2 weeks to a month. As newer cells continue to move up, older cells near the top die and rise to the surface of your skin.
What is skin cell turnover?
Is the process of producing new skin cells to replace existing skin cells. It’s a vital aspect of keeping your skin smooth and healthy. The process of cell turnover happens naturally and all over our body including our face, scalp, body, legs, the bottom of our feet etc. Our skin turnover every 28-40 days on average, meaning that every 28-40 days, a new skin cell is born.
Babies and young children have a faster cell turnover rate as they are in the stage of rapid growth. Their skin cell turnover rate is twice as fast as adults hence they constantly have new skin resurfacing. This explains why young children have smooth, soft, luminous skin. As we age, our cell turnover rate slows down. The older skin – dead skin sits on the uppermost layer longer. That’s why adults’ skin doesn’t look quite as “bright” as young children.
To be continued