Heredity and Your Skin

Heredity plays a big part in what your skin is and what it will be. If you are black, your skin is stronger than that of your white friends. Black skin is thicker and tougher, has greater protection from the sun's dangerous rays, and wrinkles much less-and much later-than fair skin.

Black people, even when they're seventy or eighty years old, usually have fewer wrinkles than white people who are in their fifties. And, if a black person hasn't been in the sun a lot during his or her lifetime, you may never see a wrinkle.

If you are blue-eyed, blonde, and fair-skinned with Scandina­vian or Irish relatives, your skin will usually be thin and delicate. This type of skin can't take exposure to the sun, wind, cold, or other harsh weather. It also develops wrinkles sooner than darker skin does.