Your skin is covered with pores. These are small holes that contain the roots of hair or hair (follicles).
They allow perspiration to escape from your skin to cool your body. And they also let out sebum, an oily substance that protects the skin. It forms a thin layer that both helps regulate body temperature and makes it harder for bacteria to try to get onto your skin.
Sebum is made by your sebaceous glands, which you find all over your body except under the soles of your feet and on the palms of your hands. If your fingers are leaving traces of oil, then it is not the fault of your sebum but more likely because you have rubbed in an area where your skin was oily, for example your face or your back, or that you had them. put in the butter
Pore size
The size of the pores varies greatly from person to person. To be frank, people generally prefer small pores (it's cuter than large pores!). When your pores are small, your skin appears firmer, tighter, less hanging.
In children, the pores are small and that gives them that peachy skin that we all envy them, and that we ourselves had not so long ago!
But the size of the pores is also determined by your heredity. There are people who tend to have larger pores, which leads to several problems:
- they naturally have more oily skin;
- when they get older and sunbathe, the loss of collagen in the skin causes the pores to enlarge;
- lastly, their pores tend to become blocked with dead cells and other debris, making them appear even larger.
Hormones also play an important role: they activate the production of sebum and this is why teenagers have oily skin. Women, whose hormone production varies during cycles, may experience oily skin around the time of ovulation and during pregnancy.
When oil gets stuck in the pores
When you produce too much oil (sebum) and your pores are clogged, dead skin can cause bacteria to proliferate in that warm bath and cause a mini infection. Your skin is red, it's acne.
When the oil still cannot come out, the acne grows bigger, spreads. The dreaded red button appears on your skin, possibly even a white head, filled with a yellowish liquid which is therefore a mixture of sebum, dead skin cells, and bacteria.
Clean sweat and dirty sweat
The other fluid produced by our body, sweat, comes out of two different types of glands.
The eccrine glands , which are the most numerous and are found everywhere on the body. The sweat then comes out through the pores, it is very liquid and does not stick. It consists of 99% water and a little salt (sodium chloride, potassium, magnesium). Eccrine glands are particularly numerous in the palms of the hands and the soles of the feet. Hence our ability to have sweaty hands and wet our socks. This sweat in itself does not smell bad, and, if we are clean, dries without leaving a trace. It is "clean" sweat.
But there's another kind of sweat, sticky and loaded with fats, proteins, and pheromones.
Pheromones are chemical messengers which, in animals, are used to send messages, especially sexual messages, to other individuals. In humans, the action of pheromones is more mysterious, but certainly real too.
This sticky sweat is produced by the apocrine glands , which are located under the armpits, groin, around the nipples and anus. This sweat comes out of the hair follicles (the roots of the hairs).
Apocrine glands do not develop until puberty and IT IS THEY, THE BIG CULPRITS FOR THE SMELL OF SWEAT that makes our lovely toddlers, who still smelled so good even after an entire afternoon of playing in the sun, to start to smell like wild animals in the early morning if they don't get into the habit of washing and putting on deodorant.
How to tighten large pores
To cleanse the pores and rid them of their oil and their waste and dead cells, the first measure is to sweat regularly, doing intense physical activity, and supplementing if you can with a sauna.
However, you must get out of the habit of showers that are too hot and too long, which dilate the pores of the skin and cause redness. Cold showers and cold baths are great for contracting capillaries (small blood vessels in the skin) and tightening the skin.
On the face, you can even dispense an ice cube to retract your pores even more. Wrap it in a cotton towel and apply it to the large pores with light pressure for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, no more to avoid irritating the skin.
Lotions and masks
You can also apply on your skin, with a cotton ball, floral water of witch hazel (or "witch hazel"). It is a plant that comes from the Amazon and has astringent virtues, that is to say, it produces tension in the mucous membranes. On the skin, it tightens large pores.
Hazelnut oil and aloe vera lotions are also helpful.
For the more motivated, you can of course also wear masks.
- Ultra-famous, the cucumber mask can be replaced by a simple cucumber juice. Mix the cucumber juice with a little salt then apply on the face and let sit for a few minutes. Better yet, crush half a peeled cucumber, add a few drops of lemon juice and a teaspoon of rose water. Apply the mixture to your face and let it sit for 15-20 minutes, then rinse off with cold water.
- You can also apply tomato juice to your face. Let sit for 20 minutes then rinse off with lukewarm water. Perform this treatment 3 times a week to have healthy skin without large pores. It is also beneficial in regulating the production of sebum.
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