Today I want to talk about Langerhans cells. Langerhans cells are named after Paul Langerhans who was only 21 years old when he discovered them. When I was 21 years old - 101 years after Paul was, I was also a researcher. I was researching what clubs had the best drinks, what boys had the cutest hair and how my friends and I could best make it through school while being incredibly "tired".
Sadly, my research has not benefited that many people. Not even myself, really. Not like Paul. Paul made a difference.
So back to his Langerhans cells... What do they do and why do we care? Langerhans cells hangs out in your skin and if they sense any kind of danger, they send out their buddies, T cells and B cells, to warn our immune system that it needs to get its butt in gear!!! The immune system immediately accumulates a great force of inflammatory cells to fight off this danger.
Remember when I was that 21 year old party girl? Well, skincare wasn't a big priority back then. Because the cells on my skin renewed themselves every 25 days or so. Ever since I turned 30 my cells slowed down about 10% and will continue to do so every decade, if they even bother getting out of bed. So my natural beautiful skin needs some serious help. If you are 21 years old, please, please, listen to me. Start your skincare regiment right now! And use sunscreen. Not tomorrow, not next week, but right now. If you are older, let's at least dramatically slow the aging process and refresh the skin we have. Read on...
The skin has the biggest challenge of any organ of the body. It is exposed and responds to environmental challenges. We used to look at the skin as the barrier to the world and as a sensory organ. Recently we discovered that the skin is a highly active biological factory playing a much bigger part in our overall health. I would love to get into that, but let's focus on the more important matter... How do I get to look younger?
Exfoliation! It is a major component in keeping your skin looking fresh and youthful. The older you get, the more dead skin cells will accumulate on the surface resulting in dull, tired, flaking and dull skin (just wait till menopause... Then the unfairness doubles up).
By exfoliating daily, you can reduce bacteria buildup and breakouts, remove dead skin, decrease skin discoloration and pigmentation, fine lines, and wrinkles. In addition, exfoliating your skin helps your skin absorb your moisturizer way more efficiently.
When we created the ABC Cleanser, we had a hard time choosing between a manual exfoliant and a chemical exfoliant. So we chose both. We picked Jojoba Beads as the manual exfoliant as you can scrub your face with your hands and use the beads to remove the dead skin cells. These particular beads are efficient, yet gentle. However, chemical exfoliation is more effective. And I prefer big results for a minimal effort, so we combined the most effective "chemical" exfoliants to this cleanser, which is alpha-hydroxy acids (AHAs) and beta-hydroxy acids (BHA). BTW. it's more naturally derived than how it sounds.
By exfoliating your skin, you will trick your Langerhans Cells to think there is an attack!!! They will communicate with their buddies and soon your immune system will get into repair mode by producing new and healthy skin cells.And you will look ever so refreshed. So lets get these cells firing on all cylinders and start exfoliating today. Because tomorrow you will be one day older, but you can, for sure, look one day younger!
