The Skin

Each year upto 4 kg of your skin wears away and flakes off your body's surface. The skin that falls from your body collects as dust, which you can find around the house. You do not lose this amount of weight, because your skin is constantly renewing itself. This renewal takes place in the skins' outer layer, the epidermis. Cells in the lower part of the epidermis are always multiplying. Their "offspring" pass upward, gradually becoming filled with a tough fibrous substance called kertain. By the time they reach the surface, the cells are hard, flat, and dead-ready to be worn away. This continual cell sacrifice in the epidermis protects the lower layer, the dermis vessels, nerves and sensors.