So let us get started with an apology. If you are like me, your aesthetic schooling never educated you on cells. Mine did not either. Your on-going training has led you more into product knowledge and equipment tools-of-the-trade than pure, raw, deep-down at the root skin chemistry. Imagine applying topical products and using equipment that can electrify, scrape, burn, disintegrate and otherwise damage the cellular structure of the largest organ of the body – the skin. Therefore, I have to assume that the majority of aestheticians have no idea at all about what they are really doing to the skin. So let us change all that starting right now.

The Basics

Mitochondria, protoplasm, keratinocyte, mesodermal, ATP, basal, spinous, DNA, granular, melanocyte, langerhans, follicle, merkel, cytoplasma, mitosis, fibroblast, macrophage, adipocyte, friction ridge – are just a few of the very many cells that make up the skin. To properly list, define and expand on each and every cell that are the foundation of the human body would require every single page of a DERMASCOPE Magazine – and that is without any advertising. In other words, the “cell” is what gives our body, and therefore our skin – its life!

The life of the skin cell starts deep in the lower layers. A cell’s first infusion comes at the basal layer where it is subjected to langerhans cells (immune system), keratinocytes cells (the fiber/bulk of the skin), melanocytes cells (soon to become melanin) and so on. Each of these cells has a nucleus. Inside the nucleus are a cell’s DNA, RNA and ATP. The DNA will give the skin’s cells their character from their genetic predecessors. The RNA will give the skin’s cells their personality which is the accumulation of everything it learns from birth to death. The ATP is the cell’s “energy” provider. It is responsible for the electrical impulses that move each skin cell through its required duties and functions.