Human skin is an unusual organ. Although you cherish it every day, you do not know much about it anyway. Find out some interesting things about your skin, and maybe you’ll start taking a better care of it.

Skin in numbers

Do you know that skin is the largest human organ? It has almost 2 m², its weight is about 3 kg. The skin has different thickness in various areas of the body: 1 mm on the eyelids, 3 mm and more on the bottom of the hands and feet. Interestingly, men’s skin is thicker than women’s skin. And what about skin adnexa? It grows about 5 million hairs. The only hairless are the inner parts of the hands and soles of the feet. Do you know what’s in the skin? There are approximately 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels, 60,000 melanocytes and over a thousand nerve endings per square centimetre.

Different colours

Have you ever wondered what affects the colour of your skin? Well, these are melanocytes. Their number in the epidermis of different nations is the same, however, they differ in how intensely they produce melanin. They work the hardest when it comes to white skin, which is associated with exposure to the sun. As a result of its action, the body produces vitamin D and produces a tan that is … a defensive reaction to the sun.

When the skin gets wrinkles 

Unfortunately, we are all exposed to wrinkles. They appear because the level of collagen – the protein constituting the main component of the connective tissue – decreases in the skin. If its amount is very low, the skin becomes dry, thin and covered with wrinkles. Mimics also contribute to the formation of fine lines. There are crow’s feet, marionette lines, smoker’s lines and hamster bags, on the forehead between the eyebrows we can see the so-called lion’s wrinkle.

Skin and touch

All over the skin’s surface, there are receptors of the sense of touch that receive the sensations of heat, cold, touch, pressure burning, itching, and pinching. Most of them are on the lips, the fingertips, the soles of the feet, and the least on the skin of the back and elbows. Interestingly, people also have nerve fibres specialized only in receiving stroking. They feel a very gentle touch, skimming and rubbing. When someone caresses you, hormones that are responsible for feeling pleasure and relieving pain and a sense of attachment and closeness are released. The level of stress hormone and the number of heartbeats per minute also decreases during stroking.