Glary appearance of men's faces and an evaluation method

Abstract

It is generally thought that the ‘glary’ appearance impression developed on men's faces is closely related to the amount of skin surface lipids. Although the amount of sebum excretion decreases gradually with aging, the glary appearance is noticeable in middle‐aged men. In order to elucidate the factors other than skin surface lipids affecting the glary appearance of the forehead, a correlation study between the visual evaluation score of glary appearance and morphological measurements of skin surface was conducted. As a result of multiple regression analysis, the standardized partial regression coefficients were 0.490 for the amount of skin surface lipids, –0.370 for skin micro texture and –0.314 for value of skin color. The data indicated that the amount of skin surface lipids was most important, but skin micro texture and value of skin color were also irreplaceable factors to comprehend the glary appearance. A multiple regression equation of glary appearance degree was determined with optical parameters of surface reflection and body reflection by image analysis at the forehead. The results suggested that the surface reflection parameter was influenced by the skin micro texture and actual amount of skin surface lipids. Since Japanese men still hesitate to use skin care products daily for UV protection, the continual exposure of their skin to UV rays gives rise to the flattened micro texture and darkened tone of the skin. These topographical and/or optical changes of skin surface enhance the generation of glary appearance on men's faces. It was concluded that the improvement of the skin micro texture and the tone with skin care products after the removal of excess surface lipids with face wash products was effective for the reduction of the glary appearance.