Guess what? Not only are men and women different in the brain, but they are different in skin too!
How different? That’s what you’re going to find out today 🙂
Male Skin vs Female Skin
Male skin is actually the same as female skin until puberty. There’s really no difference in children. After puberty, male and female skin start to diverge due to sex hormones.
The skin differences are both structural and chemical. Can you guess what some of them are? Let’s look at the major ones.
Skin Thickness
Here’s a short quiz.
Question 1: Who has thicker skin – men or women? Answer: MEN!
Question 2: Who has more collagen – men or women? Answer: MEN!
Question3 : Who ages slower – men or women? Answer: MEN!
Are you surprised by those answers?
Men Age Slower Than Women
So why is that? Men age slower than women because they have thicker skin (about 20% thicker) and more collagen.
Actually, the rate of collagen loss is the same for men and women. But women start off with thinner skin, so their collagen loss is proportionally larger and more pronounced.
The skin’s elasticity is the same for men and women.
Facial Hair & Sebum
Men also age slower because they have more facial hair. More hair follicles means less crepe-y wrinkling on the cheeks.
Sex hormones also affect the amount of oil production.
TESTOSTERONE
ESTROGEN
Male hormones (like testosterone) are responsible for causing coarse hair growth of the beard. It also increases the size of the sebaceous gland (the gland that produces sebum). This means that men produce more oil.
Oil lubricates and moisturizes skin, which is why men are typically less prone to dry skin (and can skip moisturizer).
Women produce less oil because of estrogen. Estrogen makes the sebaceous gland smaller, which means there is less oil production.
Estrogen also causes thinner sebum (it’s less fatty).
With age, women also have fewer lipids in the skin, which may be due to declining estrogen levels.
Sweat
Want to guess who sweats more? 😉 Again, MEN!
What does more sweating mean for men? More bacteria, which leads to more odor. This is why you see many antibacterial cleansers in men’s skin care.
Water Loss
Men lose water faster than women. This is water loss due to the natural evaporation of water from skin (Transepidermal Water Loss), not sweating.
Greater water loss makes re-hydration important for men.
Other Fun Facts
- Women have lighter skin than men
- Women have cooler skin than men
- Women have more fat than men, which leads to a tendency for cellulite (cellulite is rare in men)
- Women are more likely to experience stinging and irritant contact dermatitis
- Women heal better than men after a skin injury
