We’re continuing our exploration of body systems this month with the integumentary system! Never heard of it? That’s OK. It’s not a word we use very often. This system encompasses the largest organ in your body and is the domain of your skin, hair, nails, and sweat glands. Read on to get a deeper picture of this surface-level system.
Skin
Your skin is an amazing organ. Not only is it the largest one in your body, weighing in around six pounds and covering every gorgeous inch of you, but it acts as a map of our experiences.
A scar here tells the story of your first tumble off the swing set. A mole there is where your mom always kissed you goodnight. Freckles come and go to remind you of your time spent enjoying the sun. Your skin tone changes with the seasons and tells the stories of your ancestors. It accepts tattoos and piercings that bring your appearance closer to the personality inside.
Your skin senses, responds to the touch of a hand, the chill of a breeze, the heat of the sun. It pours out sweat to keep you cool. It protects you from everything outside you. It’s a truly magical thing, the part of us we’re most familiar with, and yet it’s often an afterthought.
Your skin is comprised of multiple layers, the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis. The epidermis is the part we can see, and through it pokes our hair shafts. Deep in the dermis, the hair shafts take root alongside sebaceous glands that produce oil. Sweat glands with ducts rising out to the epidermis sit low in the dermis. Nerves extend upward to sense contact and temperature. Pili muscles connect with your hair follicles, causing them to raise when you are cold, scared, or aroused and creating goosebumps across your flesh. It’s a truly complex and marvelous world right at the surface, and that’s without even getting into the bacteria and ecosystem of tiny living things that keep us healthy.
Hair & Nails
Your hair serves to keep your body warm, which explains why it’s thickest on our heads, which can lose a lot of heat during winter months. It’s made up of mostly keratin and grows from the roots within your dermis. Getting to know the growth cycles of your hair can be really helpful in learning how to best take care of it and to identify if and why you may be experiencing hair loss. (This time of year, excessive shedding is pretty common for a lot of people.)
Nails serve a few functions. This includes protecting our digits, which do a lot of touching, poking, prodding and finagling. Additionally, they serve as extensions of our fingers and can be employed in self-defense or whenever something sharp is required. These functions are less essential for us as a tool-building species, so we don’t see the same thick claws that many of our relatives grow. In fact, for many of us, they largely act as a decorative accessory.
Nails are composed of the nail bed from which they grow, the thick cuticle skin around the nails, and the nail plate itself. The tiny white circle at the base of your nail even has a name, the lunula. Like your hair, nails are mostly made of keratin.
Skincare
Taking care of your skin supports the health of your whole body. In addition to the obvious aesthetic benefits of maintaining a youthful glow, healthy skin creates an effective barrier against the elements while flushing toxins and waste from your body through your sweat glands. Skin damage can come from external factors like the sun, injury, and pollution. It can also develop from a wide variety of internal causes like nutritional imbalances, illness, autoimmune function, and more.
SPF
The cardinal rule of skincare is to protect yourself from the sun. Sunlight is essential to our being. We need it to produce Vitamin D, which supports our immune and skeletal system. Additionally, it’s essential for our mental health. For many of us, it even plays a role in our beauty routine by adding a little color to our epidermis. (Pigmentation comes from cells called melanocytes in our skin.)
But along with all the benefits it shines upon us, the sun also sends harmful UV rays that damage the skin, aging it and increasing our risk of skin cancer. This is true for people across all races and skin tones.
To protect yourself from the sun while still reaping the full benefits of our planet’s life force, make sure you wear sunscreen outside. We recommend using daily lotions and moisturizers that protect your whole body from the sun, not just your face. Reapply often when you’re spending extended time outdoors, and take regular breaks in the shade. This will also help protect you from dangerous temperatures.
Remember, not all SPF is created equal. Many sunscreens use harsh chemicals that are harmful to sea life and the environment. Look for mineral based products which create a physical barrier between your skin and the sun’s rays. Not only will the reef thank you, but your body will appreciate the non-toxic options.
Balancing Act
Every body is unique, and so is every integumentary system. In fact, you may even have different needs on different parts! (Combination skin anyone?) There are a wide variety of products designed to meet your particular needs, but they aren’t all created equal. Just as we discussed with SPF, it’s our recommendation that you find natural and organic products to suit your needs.
Scan ingredients
While we don’t subscribe to the idea that you should be suspicious of anything you can’t pronounce (because science is rad and scientific names are valid–like Asteraceae, the flower family containing chamomile), we do think you should be able to identify what’s in your skincare and why it’s there. Look for products that are phthalate, sulfate, and paraben free. Watch out for “fragrance.” It covers a lot of ground, and we can’t say exactly what it means in any given formula. That doesn’t mean your stuff can’t smell amazing. Plant extracts and essential oils often pull double duty by providing healing benefits and a great scent.
Look for ingredients that serve the specific needs of your skin. For instance, clays and charcoal can help to cleanse skin by absorbing the yucky stuff. Lavender and chamomile can help to soothe and cleanse your skin. The rose flower can even help eliminate redness. Research herbs that meet your needs and find skin care products that use them, or create your own blends.
Know your goal
Keep in mind that some imbalances are made worse by the very things you may hope to fix them. For instance, overwashing oily skin sends signals to produce more sebum, so oil-based washes can actually help tell those glands to calm down. Conversely, when we over moisturize dry skin, it sends a signal to reduce oil production, making us increasingly reliant on external sources of moisture. Your skin needs protective barriers to keep moisture in rather than washed away.
Natural plant oils are often the best choice for mimicking the oil produced by our integumentary system. Look for cold-pressed jojoba, olive, avocado, or coconut oil. Remember to seek out options that have been sustainably harvested.
At the end of this post, we’re going to review some of 1881’s signature blends, highlighting the benefits of each ingredient for your skin. You can use apps like the Environmental Working Group’s and the Yuka App to see what’s inside a product you use on your skin or in your home.
Exfoliating
Exfoliation helps us to shed old skin cells and rough patches that have formed as protective barriers. Calluses often form on parts of our skin that see a lot of action, like our hands, the soles of our feet, and our elbows. These protective patches can serve a purpose. If you’ve ever learned to play guitar, you know it becomes much easier once the sensitive skin of your fingertips has toughened up a bit. And if you’re like the gals of 1881 who love nothing more than being barefoot in a garden, you may not want your feet to feel too delicate.
Nevertheless, it feels wonderful to pamper your skin and shed what no longer serves you. Our favorite exfoliator is salt of course! You can also use body scrubs made from sugar or specialized cleansers that feature exfoliating ingredients. Watch out for “microbeads” which are often made of petroleum byproducts and introduce harmful microplastics to your skin and our water supply.
For exfoliating tools, pumice stones work well against calluses, while a standard loofah is a wonderful, gentle option for everyday use. We love the Ayurvedic practice of dry brushing, which you can perform before showering in the morning. Brush from the bottom of your feet upward in long strokes, drawing blood up to the surface of your skin. As you get toward more sensitive areas of the skin, use smaller strokes working toward your heart. This technique is invigorating and will help to wake you up.
Nutrition
What we eat profoundly impacts our skin. In fact, inflammation and irritation at the surface level is often a strong indicator that there is more imbalance occurring in systems underneath. Foods rich in antioxidants help to combat free radicals which age us. Drinking plenty of water is essential both to keep skin hydrated and to help flush toxins out of your skin through your sweat glands.
On top of those toxins, however, your sweat flushes out minerals like magnesium and salt. These are essential for hydration and electrical functioning inside the body. This means water alone won’t be enough. Make sure your diet includes these essentials to prevent dehydration. If you aren’t sure you’re getting enough through your food sources, try an electrolyte replacement drink or powder like LMNT, which you can find in our Apothecary.
If your skin seems irritated, first rule out any obvious external reasons like testing out any new topical products you’ve been using. Then, you may need to turn to your diet. There are a whole host of foods that can cause minor irritation and inflammation throughout the body, even if we don’t have a full-blown allergy or intolerance. Common culprits are alcohol, dairy, gluten, meat, soy, spicy foods, caffeine and certain vegetables like tomatoes from the nightshade family. That’s a daunting list, and we don’t think you should suck all the fun out of your food. Just keep an eye on your skin after eating and see if you notice flare-ups following a pattern. You can also try an elimination diet in which you slowly reintroduce foods to see if they bother you.
Our Herbs
We try to practice what we preach at 1881, which means the products we use and sell are meant to be good for your skin. For instance, we love our new Eco-fin treatments which soothe and rejuvenate hands and feet without using the petroleum found in paraffin. Below, we’re going to highlight some of the ingredients we use in our Tranquility Massage Oil and 1881 Salty Scrub to talk about how they help your skin.
Salty Scrub:
- Himalayan and Dead Sea Salt: Salt is antibacterial, antioxidant, and antiinflammatory. While it serves as a gentle exfoliant, it also delivers these properties straight to your skin. In fact, skin issues are one of the many benefits are clients see from visits to the salt room!
- Chamomile: This herb is well known for calming the mind, but it also helps to calm the skin. It’s also antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory.
- Calendula: This oil is especially beneficial to those who suffer from breakouts or feel frustrated by skin problems. It has an astringent (or drying) quality while providing additional antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties. Lastly, it contains lots of healthy vitamins and minerals to feed you from the outside in!
- Manuka Honey:
Tranquility Massage Oil
- Tulsi: Tulsi is one of our favorite herbs for just about everything. It’s packed with antioxidants, which help to prevent aging in the skin while clearing out toxins. It’s used in skin treatments for everything from acne to burns to scars to dandruff.
- Lavender: Just like chamomile, lavender takes its soothing and calming reputation along with it when it’s used on the skin. It not only helps us to relax aromatherapeutically, but it can also help to relieve irritated, dry, and itchy skin.
- Rose: A perfect partner to lavender, rose adds its relaxing and dreamy scent to any blend it’s in. This floral favorite helps to reduce heat and soothe your skin while providing silky moisture.
- Argan Oil: Argan oil is an excellent moisturizer and another antioxidant-rich tool in the battle against aging skin. It is a healing oil, and we love combining it with the healing touch of massage.
Leave a Reply