
Facts About Your Skin
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The Statistics
To get you thinking about your future face, here are some little-known facts about skin and ageing:
- Skin is our largest body organ, making up 15% of body weight. Total skin surface adds up to between 1.5 and 2 square meters – that’s a lot of skin to take care of!
- Skin is thickest on the palms and soles at up to 4 mm thick and thinnest on the lips and around the eyes at just a fraction of a millimetre thick.
- On average, each square half inch of skin contains 10 hairs, 100 sweat glands, and 1 metre of tiny blood vessels.
- Every 24 hours, the skin sheds a layer of dead cells, constantly renewing around every 28 days. An average of 40 kg of skin is shed during a lifetime, and dead skin cells make up about 90% of household dust.
- Many people believe that only gravity creates wrinkles, but research shows that loss of facial volume and changes in bone structure are much bigger culprits.
- Women tend to experience facial bone loss at a younger age than men, which may explain why women are more likely to seek cosmetic enhancement at a younger age than men.
- A smoker in their 40s may have as many wrinkles as a non-smoker in their 60s.
- Exercise can combat wrinkles. The boost in blood circulation to the skin strengthens blood vessels and increases the renewal of cells.
- Stress is hard on the skin. Low-level tensing of facial muscles works to create an aged appearance.
- Sun damage is thought to be responsible for 80% of skin ageing. Without sun damage, we would probably not develop wrinkles until we were in our 80s.
- Skin cancer is the most common of cancers among both men and women, accounting for more than 30% of all cancers combined.