PRIMATES &
HUMAN EVOLUTION
Fold crossing theory
A single fold is a theoretical concept. On your body, any fold will inevitably meet another fold.
A fold crossing is the place where two cutaneous folds meet.
You can find thousands of them all over your body.
Fold crossings start out as simple skin deformations, but they keep on growing and deepening all your life.
Fold crossings have several consequences, but the two main ones are:
• Pain; most of the pain you feel comes from fold crossings,
• Skin defects and disorders; visible aesthetic deteriorations.
FOLD CROSSINGS ON THE FOREHEAD
Fold crossing evolution
Fold crossing creation
First, let’s separate the two folds of the crossing and call them; Fold A and Fold B.
Very early in your life, Fold A and Fold B started meeting when you would do a particular movement.
At first, they probably did not meet at the exact same place every time.
With time, the path of each fold has etched itself into your skin, under the action of the skin's wound healing process.
The location of their crossing point has become fixed.
When the center is locked in place, it restrains the movement of the skin around it.
Once a crossing point is fixed in one location on your body, it becomes an anchor.
Any tension in the neighboring skin is relayed to the fold crossing.
Once a fold crossing is locked in place, it receives the pull from your actions and positions.
Analogy with roads
A single road is quite rare on this planet.
A road will eventually connect with another one at some point, creating a road crossing.
© Shutter Fotos
Crossings; where things happen.
We all know how much more action there is at the crossings than elsewhere on the roads.
Fold crossing and heat
Once the two folds become permanently engraved in the skin, their walls crash into each other at their intersection every time you do the same movement.
At the crossing point, the skin is badly and continuously deformed.
All this action generates heat.
The heat occurs mostly in the center of the fold crossing.
The heat is a signal for your skin that it is being mistreated and that it may not be able to resist, if the damaging action doesn't stop.
Wound healing locks the center
Fresh epidermis cells, triggered by the skin's wound healing process, will come to the rescue of the poor crossing in order to prevent breakage or puncture.
One by one, coats of protective epidermis cells cover the crossing's center.
The fold crossing solidifies.
The newly added cells solidify the skin of this mistreated region, but lock the crossing into place even more.
Most fold crossings are unobservable
Over 95% of your fold crossing cannot be seen, along with the folds that generate them.
Since the folds and crossings are made of epidermis, and that they get filled with epidermis cells to protect the skin; they cannot be observed easily.
It's epidermis over epidermis.
However, you can see a few of them in some places, such as the palm of your hands and feet and your face.
Normally, only problematic fold crossings will catch your attention.
FOLD CROSSINGS IN THE PALM OF THE HAND
The fold crossing chimney
The center of the fold crossing forms a cavern
The four corners of the fold crossing almost completely encase its center.
But, there remains a void.
With time, this structure solidifies, developing into a tunnel made of skin.
A cavern in the skin.
The top of the fold crossing may get covered with coats of epidermis cells; there still remains a cavity.
Crossings growing inward
Since folds A and B are already grooves, not mounds, the fold crossing is a hole.
Cross section of a fold crossing deepening into the skin.
As they evolve and fixate, fold crossings grow deeper and deeper below the surface of your skin.
There are dozens of fold crossings on this chin. If this one is visible, it's because it's larger than the others.
Fold crossing chimneys pin down the skin
The tension on the chimney, in the center of the fold crossing, keeps on increasing with time.
The bottom of the crossing becomes riveted to whatever is beneath it.
Fold crossings bind the skin and create a crater. This button on a cushion does a similar job.
The tension and grip from your thousands of fold crossings, on whatever lies beneath them, augments continuously.
The consequence is that your skin becomes tightly fastened to your body.
It's as if your skin was shrinking on you.
Huge fold crossing.
Outgrowths, skin conditions and disorders
The top opening of a fold crossing tunnel normally stays open.
When this is the case, the larger ones may be noticed as holes and cavities.
However, the wound healing process often forms a cap that closes the top of the crossing.
When this happens, the outgrowth can keep on developing and become esthetically displeasing.
But the real problem comes from the entrapped bodily wastes that remain locked-up inside the tunnel.
© Caitlin Regan
Closed fold crossings create all kinds of skin problems and defects.
For more information on skin outgrowths
Fold crossing patterns
The folds of a crossing often cross each other perpendicularly.
Since your most fundamental folds are vertical and horizontal, their intersections are straight.
But, your actions, positions and expressions distort the folds and creates all kinds of new local folds that are often diagonal.
So, the shape of the fold crossings you'll find on your body is of your own making and you'll discover all kinds of configurations.
•Two-way crossings
•Merging crossing
The grid of folds
Your whole body is covered with a grid of folds
The grid of folds.
Your skin’s natural horizontal and vertical folding tendency ends up creating a grid of folds and crossings all over your body.
The folds form a grid
inside the skin.
Please note that the folds are not equally spaced like in the illustration.
In reality, the grid is variably spaced, adding more folds (sometimes diagonal) between existing ones as needed.
The grid; skin tensions and pain
A fold crossing is always under tension.
It's like being in the center of a four-way tug-a-war.
In many cases, the tension becomes so great that pain arises.
© Robert Clemens
-Where are all the tensions relayed?
-In the center.
When you're inactive, the tension on your fold crossings may be equal on all four sides.
Stable fold crossing
Equal tensions on a fold crossing.
But, when you move, your actions pull on the skin and consequently on the folds and their crossings.
The nearest fold crossings are destabilized by the tug coming from one direction.
In some situations, pain may appear.
The tension on one crossing is relayed to all the crossings in its vicinity, but mostly on the adjoining crossings on the same fold.
Destabilized fold crossings
The tension is relayed to the following crossings along the fold.
Any movement you make pulls on the neighboring crossings.
The grid is problematic
The grid of fold crossings has several disadvantages;
•It greatly reduces the skin's flexibility and elasticity.
•On the face, expressiveness and beauty are diminished.
•It interconnects problem areas.
•Doing one movement now affects regions further and further away.
•...
The grid is tightening
Because the size of your body has increased since your youth, the grid has tightened.
It is deepening into your flesh.
With time, the folds and crossings multiply, enlarge and squeeze your skin still more.
This reduces your capacity to move, and makes anything you do more painful as you get older.
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Fold theory
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