Re: What is the purpose of pheomelanin in skin?

blackhead wrote:

Does Pheomelanin have some sort of influence in the production of
Vitamin D, for example?

Girls have more pheomelanin than boys. Pheomelanin makes you pink.

Girls use red pigments (e.g. in cheeks and lips) for sexual signalling
purposes - so pheomelanin is probably associated with sexual selection.
This idea is consistent with its presence in red hair.

Pheomelanin also plays some of the same roles as eumelanin - e.g. see:

``Eumelanin and pheomelanin concentrations in human epidermis before
and after UVB irradiation''

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1600-0749.2005.00233.x?journalCode=pcr
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