The amount of melanin in ones body defines the protection that the skin will have from the sun. Those with dark skin have more melanin in their body than the ones with light skin. African American skin care tends to be overlooked for that reason. Dark skin people think that they should not worry from our powerful sun. This is a common mistake. Black skin care is important at all ages and can be most challenging. Although African American skin is protected more than other skin types, there are basic protection steps that have to be addressed.
Let's take a little side trip and talk about melanin. It's a skin pigment that gives color to your skin. If you see a light-skinned person with freckles, what you are seeing is a person with little spots of melanin. A freckle is caused by small concentration of melanin. When you get tanned by the sun, what is actually happening is that the sun triggers melanocytes which are cells in your skin to create more melanin. The melanin moves to the outer layer of skin and creates a darker skin color.
Melanin aids black skin care since there is more of it in dark skin. Another benefit of having a large amount of melanin manifests in appearing younger than your age. Melanin aids in skin protection in the aging process. Although it seems that having more melanin has great advantages, there are some draw backs to it. Higher melanin count promises higher amount of water loss for the skin. When the skin loses water it losses elasticity and nourishment. Studies have showed that even in a young age, African American skin is less elastic and nourished than in any other ethnic groups of the same age. African American skin care must be observed in all ages for keeping the skin healthy.
While skin comes in dry, normal, and oily regardless of the color or level of melanin, there are basic fundamental differences in the skin's ability to protect itself. The added melanin creates a barrier to the skin that protects it but at the same time, it also makes it harder to have a skin care treatment penetrate deep into the skin. This means that you might need heavier oil as the base of the skin care treatment so that it can treat the skin and yet not be too oily. In other words, your skin does not need more oil quite as much as it needs oil that can work into the layers of your skin. In short, smaller molecules.
Fortunately, there is emerging technology that addresses just this problem of producing exact ingredients with small molecules for greater penetration of the skin. The bad news is that only the top end product lines have yet to utilize this technology, which means higher prices.
Black skin care is different from other skin care. African American skin care is different from one person to the other, according to skin type. Dark skin has its pluses and minuses and like any other skin type, it needs the aid and pampering treatment of skin care. Find out what kind of skin care treatment is right for your skin and make sure that it is designed for deep penetration.
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Copyright 2007 Ron King. This article may be reprinted if the resource box is left intact and the links live.
