The health of your skin, its color, texture, and strength will depend on your sex.

The next time you're at the shopping mall or in a crowd, take a look at white couples in their fifties or sixties. If the man and woman are about the same age, you'll probably notice that the woman looks about ten years older than the man. Her facial skin will appear drier and less elastic, and she'll have more wrinkles. Why? Several reasons:

• Because of the male hormone (androgen), a man's dermis (the lower layer of the skin) is thicker than a woman's. As a result of this extra thickness, he is better protected from the weather, such as cold and wind, and less likely to have aging damage from the sun.

• Women's thinner skin also may be damaged more by outside influences such as cosmetics, facial exercises, and massages.

• Men's collagen fibers (the fibers in the dermis, the lower layer of the skin, that give the skin its strength and elastic­ity) are more tightly packed together. That's why men don't have droopy skin around the throat or little vertical lines on the upper lip, both problems for older women.

• In addition, the same hormones that make men's skin thicker make it oilier than women's, giving it a more elastic and flexible look and feel.