The amount of melanin in ones body defines the protection that the skin will have from the sun. Those with dark skin have more melanin in their body than the ones with light skin. African American skin care tends to be overlooked for that reason. Dark skin people think that they never need to worry from our powerful sun. This is a common mistake. Black skin care is important at all ages and can be very challenging. Although African American skin is protected more than other skin types, there are basic protection steps that need to be addressed.

Let's take a little side trip and talk about melanin. It's a skin pigment that gives color to your skin. If you see a light-skinned person with freckles, what you are seeing is someone with little spots of melanin. A freckle is caused by small concentration of melanin. When you become tanned by the sun, what is in fact happening is that the sun triggers melanocytes which are cells in your skin to create more melanin. The melanin moves to the outer layer of skin and creates a darker skin color.

Having more melanin in ones body is a benefit, but definitely not a reason to neglect African American skin care. Sure, it blocks the powerful sun rays better than sun block. It also aids in slowing down the marking of time on the skin and that is why people with dark skin look younger than those with light skin. Nevertheless, melanin is the biggest factor affecting water loss in the skin. The darker the skin, the more water it loses and thus the skin becomes less elastic. Different studies of babies determined that the water loss starts in an early age, making black skin care vital even at youth.

While skin comes in dry, normal, and oily no matter of the color or level of melanin, there are elementary fundamental differences in the skin's ability to protect itself. The extra melanin creates a barrier to the skin that protects it but at the same time, it also makes it very difficult to have a skin care treatment penetrate deep into the skin. This means that you might need heavier oil as the base of the skin care treatment so that it can treat the skin and yet not be too oily. In other words, your skin does not need more oil quite as much as it needs oil that can work into the layers of your skin. In short, smaller molecules.

Fortunately, there is emerging technology that addresses just this problem of creating exact ingredients with small molecules for greater penetration of the skin. The bad news is that only the high end product lines have yet to incorporate this technology, which means higher prices.

Black skin care is different from other skin care. African American skin care is different from one person to the other, according to skin type. Dark skin has its pluses and minuses and like any other skin type, it needs the aid and pampering treatment of skin care. Find out what kind of skin care treatment is right for your skin and make sure that it is designed for deep penetration.