Your Dead Skin Cells May Be Slowing Your Computer Down

Allure
Updated
Your computer may be running slow due to an influx of dead skin cells, according to Best Buy's Geek Squad. We asked a dermatologist for more insight and how to avoid excess shedding.

Is there anything more frustrating than when your laptop starts making that weird, whirring sound like it's about to launch into space, and then it slows to crawl, barely able to open programs, and do other simple computer functions? OK, yes, there are things more frustrating than that, but it's definitely up there. Well, it turns out a slow computer isn't just frustrating — it's actually kind of gross.

WFTS, a local news station in Tampa, Florida, recently spoke to a Best Buy Geek Squad guy to find out the reasons a computer's speed might be compromised. And in addition to temporary Internet files and unused apps, he revealed a cause that may make your skin crawl — (eventual) pun intended.

"A lot of dust, food, and other junk builds up in your computer and especially your fans inside your computer," Adam Silkey told WFTS. "Those are what keeps your computer cool and keeps it speedy." And that "dust" and "other junk" Silkey mentioned? It's your dead skin. Black Mirror writers, take note. "That's right, dust, which is mainly dead human skin, is one of the top offenders for slowing down your computer," WFTS reports. And you thought exfoliation was your friend.

"Our skin naturally sheds slowly over time," says Joshua Zeichner, director of cosmetic and clinical research at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. "My guess is that it would take significant shedding for enough cells to be sucked into a laptop fan to cause clogging." And that's especially true, Silkey says, if you're not regularly using cans of compressed air to clean out your the remnants of your epidermis. (Shudder.)

If you'd like to slow the sloughing and prevent skin buildup in your laptop, Zeichner recommends regularly lathering up with a petrolatum-based moisturizer. (We like Aquaphor Healing Ointment.) He adds that wearing long pants when using your laptop to "avoid direct contact with the skin" doesn't hurt either. BRB, buying one of those full-body morphsuits.

More ways tech and beauty collide:

What to do with the skin that's still on your body:

See the video.