Some cosmetologists recommend not overdoing it with skin exfoliation, warning that skin cells will die (sic!) and it will be bad. This sounds scary, doesn’t it? Let’s figure out what’s wrong with this.
In 1961, Leonard Hayflick, a professor of anatomy at the University of California, discovered that there is a limit to how many times a fully differentiated human cell can divide, approximately 50 times. After this, the cell dies. This happens because during cell division, a small piece at the ends of the chromosomes – the telomere – is lost. At some point, the telomeres become so short that the cells can no longer reproduce.
Does this mean that by exfoliating the skin repeatedly, we exhaust this limit? No, it does not. The Hayflick limit applies only to fully differentiated cells. The skin cells we are talking about are not fully differentiated. They can continue to reproduce without any limitations. As soon as old corneocytes die and leave the stratum corneum (whether this happens naturally, with the help of acids, or through mechanical exfoliation), they are replaced by new ones.
Is exfoliation safe? Yes, it is safe.
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