Abstract
Under conditions without sweating, the transient responses of skin (stratum corneum) moisture content to the stepwise change in the absolute humidity around the skin were measured at the forearm by the electrostatic capacity method and by in vivo confocal Raman spectroscopy. As the results of the measurement by the electrostatic capacity method, it was shown that the skin moisture content showed vivid response to the stepwise change in ambient absolute humidity, and that the response almost converges within 5-10 min in case of the exposure to high (80 %rh) and low (10 %rh) humidity for 30 min. In addition, as the results of the measurement by in vivo confocal Raman spectroscopy, the distribution of moisture content in the stratum corneum responding to the stepwise changes of ambient absolute humidity was obtained, and it was shown that the moisture content in the region deeper than 30μm was almost constant, and that the moisture content in the region shallower than 10-16μm changed due to the exposure to high (90 %rh) and low (10 %rh) humidity for 30 min.
