When to pour oil on troubled dry skin

The importance of the barrier function of skin is illustrated by the patient who has third degree burns and dies of dehydration. As well as preventing dessication, the skin also prevents invasion by micro-organisms, and guards against mechanical and chemical insults and ultraviolet radiation. Readers will know that skin is composed of an inner dermis, which provides structural support, and an outer epidermis, which is composed of several layers of developing cells. Keratinocytes are produced from basal cells in the stratum basale and have a life cycle of four weeks. As these migrate towards the outermost layer of the epidermis, the stratum corneum, they undergo maturation and differentiation into corneocytes — anucleated, flattened, hexagonal cells that are filled with waterretaining keratin and surrounded by a thick proteinaceous envelope.