Can we talk about the weirdest thing I just read in a skincare textbook?

I was flipping through an old esthetics book from 2005 and it said the average person's face has about 20,000 pores. That number just seems wild to me, like, I picture a tiny city on someone's nose. Has anyone else come across a fact that made you stop and stare at a client's face for a second?

3 comments

3 Comments

wendy2053mo agoTop Commenter

Wait, what? That's actually insane, I can't even picture that many.

averym823mo ago

Back in culinary school, my chef swore humans only had like 5,000 pores total. I totally believed him until I saw that exact 20,000 number on a science blog last year. It completely blew my mind, now I catch myself zoning out just thinking about the logistics of all that oil production. My whole understanding of skin texture was wrong.

karenlane1mo ago

Honestly, that "logistics of all that oil production" part really got me. I remember having a similar crisis when I realized my face wasn't just oily for no reason but was literally producing enough sebum to like fuel a tiny lamp or something. Ngl, the best thing I ever did was stop trying to strip all that oil away with harsh cleansers. A gentle routine and maybe a niacinamide serum helped my skin just chill out and balance itself.