Pores - Our Love-Hate Relationship With Them
Posted by Dr. Hannah Sivak and Susan Katz on Sep 30th 2019
What Are Pores and Why Do We Have Them?
Pore is the common name given to the pilosebaceous unit, a part of the skin but distinct from the pores involved in sweating. The pilosebaceous unit consists of hair, hair follicle, muscle, and sebaceous glands. Sebaceous glands are connected to the hair follicle and deposit sebum on the hair, which brings the sebum to the skin surface along the hair shaft. Sebum can help our skin with some anti-aging effect because the sebum waterproofs the skin, preventing moisture loss over time. This benefit aside, sebum is mostly a leftover product of evolution, and how much we have and make is more up to genetics than it is to what we do to our skin.
Pores get larger and more visible during adolescence, when sex hormones increase sebum secretion. Both men and women produce androgens and estrogens. As androgen production increases, sebum secretion also increases and pores get larger. Most of us are likely to get comedones and acne, regardless of our gender.
Pores and Acne
The downside of sebum can be acne, which is a major reason the traditional ideas you may have been taught about your pores is so unfavorable. Pores can get clogged with dead cells, keratin and sebum, resulting in an environment and favorable to the growth of acne bacterium. This is a real problem and one that adequate skin care can prevent and correct. A comedo may be open to the air (“blackhead”) or closed by skin (“whitehead”).
Pores and Stem Cells
Now that we’ve gone through some of the traditional downsides of your relationship with pores, is there anything positive we can say about them? Absolutely.
But What Should I “Do About” My Pores?
First, try doing nothing.
If you don’t have comedones, blackheads or acne lesions, your pores are NOT clogged and you should leave them alone. If you look at your face using a magnifying mirror, the pores may look “full.” This may be an optical illusion, or maybe there is some leftover makeup or whatever. Just throw away the magnifying mirror and learn to enjoy your body as it is. Many people scar and get hyperpigmentation when they squeeze their skin, depending on how their skin reacts to stress.
If nothing else, the least you can expect from pore squeezing is increased sebum secretion and pore enlargement.
How to “Minimize” Pores
If your skin is very oily, and you would describe your skin as “younger”, decreasing sebum secretion will decrease pore size.
Try our T-Zone Serum and see whether it works for you. If you love masks like we do, try our Pore Refreshing Peel Off Mask to help clear clogged pores while nourishing your skin.
Collagen Serum, used in conjunction with our Vitamin A Cream (or our Vitamin A Serum, or our Clarifying Cream, which also contains vitamin A) will help with acne scars, including the red marks and hyperpigmentation. This incredible duo will also help diminish the size of pores by decreasing sebum secretion and by promoting synthesis of structural skin components that will build up at the edge of the pore.
As long as you continue using the Vitamin A Cream, you will not get much additional benefit from strong exfoliators because vitamin A and the Collagen Serum facilitate skin renewal and normalize the shedding of external layers. Note: our Vitamin A Cream will exfoliate slowly; you will not see the exfoliation but it will happen, keeping pores unclogged, healthy, and free of infection.
If you live in a polluted city, our Gentle Cream Cleanser or Daily Cleanser Gel will clean skin, pores included.
Good make-up can help maintain the illusion of “no-pores.” Some inert ingredients help reflect light in such a way that pores are hidden. There is no reason why this type of make-up should cause any problems, but some people may be allergic to ingredients in make-up. This creates a vicious circle where people use more and more make-up to cover up the skin roughness caused by the make-up. Remember to cleanse thoroughly, as obstructed pores promote the growth of anaerobic bacteria that cause acne.
Avoid products containing alcohol that will dissolve and take away valuable lipids in your skin. Also, long-term, alcohol will dry the skin and sebum secretion may increase in response.