Are super foods good for your skin? Episode 137

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

You're listening to The Beauty Brains, where real scientists answer your beauty questions. And now, here's Perry and Randy.

Randy Schuller (0:19)

Greetings, and welcome to the show, Graham. I'm cosmetic chemist Randy Schuller, and I'm here at The Microphone with my chemical co-conspirator, Harry Romanowski.

Perry Romanowski (0:28)

Hey, Brandy, wasn't that a great new intro?

SPEAKER_1 (0:32)

I think...

Perry Romanowski (0:32)

I mean, finally, somebody knows alphabetical order.

Randy Schuller (0:36)

So, you're referring to the fact that for the first time ever, you were introduced before me.

Well, that comes from Georgina. Thank you, by the way, Georgina, for recording an introduction. Hopefully, our names are the only thing that gets mixed up on today's show. And speaking of today's show, today we're going to share a couple of beauty science news stories. Then we're going to answer your questions about slathering your skin with superfoods, mixing hair dressing and hair gel, and the secret of semi-permanent eyebrow makeup. That's almost too much for one program.

Perry Romanowski (1:19)

Wow, I can't wait to hear it.

Randy Schuller (1:21)

I think we still have time to sprinkle in some chit chat if you have anything you'd like to talk about.

Perry Romanowski (1:27)

Well, I just got back from a skin science conference in Los Angeles.

Randy Schuller (1:31)

So another episode of Where in the World is Terry Romanowski.

Perry Romanowski (1:36)

Really? I think this segment needs its own...

Randy Schuller (1:38)

I've thought about that.

Perry Romanowski (1:40)

You know, I mean, who knew being a cosmetic chemist would really involve so much travel? Of course, you were a cosmetic chemist too, and you travel from like one room to your living room.

Randy Schuller (1:50)

And back, yeah.

Perry Romanowski (1:51)

All right.

Well, fortunately, I do enjoy traveling. Although I have to say, I was a bit surprised to see people watering their lawns in California. I mean, considering they're... Right, they're under drought restrictions, but apparently people need their green lawns. So, no matter. So anyway, I was there for a skin science conference, so I thought it would be interesting to share some basic skin facts that I heard in the course.

All right. So, if you live to be 80 years old, approximately how much dead skin cells do you think you've shed in weight?

Randy Schuller (2:28)

In weight. So, how many... Oh, that's really interesting because we do shed a lot. I'm going to say 25 pounds.

Perry Romanowski (2:38)

Good guess. According to this course, 100 pounds of dead skin cells.

You shed over the course of 80 years.

Randy Schuller (2:45)

These are the kind of tidbits that make you popular in cocktail parties.

Perry Romanowski (2:49)

Here's another quizzy one for you.

See if you can guess where the highest density of hair follicles are on your body. So, your choices are the head, your cheek, your chest, the side of your nose, your back, or your forearm.

Randy Schuller (3:06)

I'll say the groin.

Perry Romanowski (3:09)

That wasn't one of the options. So, surprisingly, the answer was the side of the nose.

Randy Schuller (3:17)

Inside the nose?

Perry Romanowski (3:19)

No, no, just on the side.

So, it turns out the side of the nose has 1220 follicles per square centimeter, and you can compare that to the head, which has 250 follicles per square centimeter. Now, fortunately, the hair follicles on the side of your nose typically aren't active. So, they're not actively growing hair.

Randy Schuller (3:39)

But if they were, who, boy?

Perry Romanowski (3:41)

I imagine that, huh? Here's another thing I found that was interesting. White beard hair grows faster than the pigmented beard hair.

Like, twice as fast.

Randy Schuller (3:53)

Is there any mechanism for that? That's intriguing.

Perry Romanowski (3:56)

That's what I know. I was shocked by that, because I'm like, it doesn't make any sense to me, but there must be something about the extra time putting in the melanocytes.

Randy Schuller (4:07)

Yeah, it slows it down.

Perry Romanowski (4:08)

Or the melanin, yeah. Go figure. And speaking of melanocytes, I got one more here.

It's not the number of melanocytes you have. Melanocytes are the skin cells that produce the color. It's not the number of those cells that determine your skin color. It's how much melanin they produce.

Randy Schuller (4:27)

Okay, so they can be active or hyperactive or unactive.

Perry Romanowski (4:33)

So dark skinned people have the same number of melanocytes as lighter skinned people. It's just that the melanocytes that they have are more active and produce more melanocytes.

Randy Schuller (4:44)

Does size matter?

Perry Romanowski (4:46)

Not when it comes to melanocytes.