Issue link: https://www.massageandbodyworkdigital.com/i/1512873
A B M P m e m b e r s ea r n F R E E C E h o u r s by rea d i n g t h i s i s s u e ! 71 Glabrous Skin Glabrous skin covers approximately 10 percent of the body. It's smooth and non-hairy and, therefore, can't rely on the movement of hair to sense the world around it. But the good news is that it doesn't have to; glabrous skin is densely packed with a much higher concentration of sensory nerve endings than hairy skin, which helps with proprioception and coordination. Located in the regions that we use for discriminative touch—including the fingertips, palms, soles of the feet, and lips—glabrous skin's higher concentration of nerve endings provides needed sensitivity for object recognition, texture discrimination, and sensory-motor feedback. As a result, your clients can perceive your work in these areas with incredible detail. Nuanced touch with varied pressures, speeds, and contact surface area, varying textures of lotions, oils, and butters, or the use of hot towels can all evoke fine-tuned sensations in these regions. This might explain why so many clients often say, "Why does that feel so good on my hands and feet?" SKIMMING THE SURFACE: EPIDERMIS Hairy or not, all skin is organized in two distinct parts: the more superficial epidermis and the deeper dermis. The outermost layer of skin is the epidermis. It's what you touch first on your clients and what you touch with first (remembering that your skin as the therapist is also part of this story). Over most of the body, the epidermis is barely as thick as a sheet of paper, yet it serves as an almost impenetrable barrier that protects us from invading microorganisms, dehydration, and damaging ultraviolet (UV ) light, as well as from the first impact from any bump, scratch, or cut. Made of layers of tightly packed cells, the epidermis is avascular and is filled with the tough protein, keratin. No matter how deep your focus, remember you are always touching highly perceptive skin. Skin and subcutis. After partially dissecting the skin from the subcutaneous tissues beneath, the skin is tractioned, giving us a view of the many collagenous retinacula cutis (skin ligaments) that connect the two tissue layers. Because of these firm connections, skin can translate our touch deeper as we push, pull, and stretch the skin with every massage stroke. To learn more about the skin ligament connections, see Massage & Bodywork, January/ February 2023, "Skin Ligaments," page 70. Image courtesy of AnatomySCAPES.com. 2 The protective epidermis may keep the dangers of the world out, but it lets in your massage touch and is where the initial perception of your massage begins. The epidermis is rich in different types of nerve endings: Merkel's cells that can sense the slightest distortion of pressure; thermoreceptors that sense changes in temperature; and nociceptors that can sense potentially damaging stimuli are all residents of the epidermis. Remarkably, this incredibly thin part of the skin's surface serves as the sensing, feeling bridge that connects your touch to your client's underlying tissues and is your first opportunity to promote relaxation and well-being.