It was thought that it’s a woman’s exclusive role to take care of appearance. But now it is no exaggeration to say that it is the age of grooming men. Grooming men refer to the men who put a great amount of effort and investment into styles and fashion. In the past, the roles of men and women were clearly separated and confined to stereotypes, but as the boundaries collapsed, it means that men are investing themselves in shaping and taking care of themselves and their appearance ultimately.
Thus, it is important for men to know what is so special about men’s cosmetic products that differ from the conventional women’s. Then why is it that there is a separation between men’s and women’s skincare products? The answer is primarily that the skin of men and women is different.
The first difference between men and women is skin thickness. The skin consists of the outer skin and the dermis below it. More than 80% of this dermis is made up of the ‘collagen’. The thickness of the skin depends on how much collagen is contained in the dermis. Men and women basically begin to show differences in hormone secretion through adolescence. Male hormones have more impact on increasing skin thickness than female hormones. As a result, the average skin thickness of men is 1.5mm, and the skin thickness of women is 1.2mm.
Therefore, ‘Collagen’ has an impact on determining the thickness of the skin. What’s more surprising is that collagen also affects the amount of wrinkles. For women, the wrinkles increase rapidly after menopause, because the skin thickness is reduced by 10% due to the decrease in collagen amount. Men, in contrast, have relatively no change in hormone secretion over time that the development of wrinkles is comparatively slower than that of the women.
The second difference between male and female skin is the sebum secretion. The secretion of sebum is associated with sex hormones secreted from sebaceous glands after puberty. At puberty, the male hormone ‘testosterone’ is actively responding that it increases sebum secretion, while the female hormone ‘estrogen’ does the role in suppressing the secretion of sebum. Therefore, men are 4.3 times more sebum secretion than females, and men have larger skin pores than females.
In fact, it is not correct to acknowledge the common knowledge that male is more vulnerable to have pimples than women. Studies show that pimples does not occur more frequently for men, but the severity of pimples is more significant for men than women.
The third main difference is the moisture content of the skin.
Women’s skin, which has a lot of moisture in the stratum corneum, is a bit more moisturized than men. Women’s putting on a make-up prevents skin’s moisture from evaporating, while a lot of moisture is evaporated from the stratum corneum of the men’s skin. Men tend to shave daily and care less about skin exposure to sunlight or external stimuli that affects the condition of skin. As a result, the natural moisturizing membrane is damaged, and the skin becomes dry and dead. Thus, it is suggested that men need enough moisture to replenish the skin.
Understanding major difference between men’s and women’s skin mentioned above, men’s cosmetics do have more effect that functions to control the secretion of many sebum, and women’s cosmetics are more effective in preventing wrinkles. Understanding the difference would definitely save you when you have to buy a gift of cosmetics for your girlfriend or wife at the same time maintain your own skin health more effectively over other men.