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Wow, what a dynamite study!
A good guy who used to come here said there was evidence for a constant sebum excretion rate. I don't remember the studies myself. This guy even performed a study on himself to test the theory! I can say of myself, my skin just keeps getting more oily as time goes by. So it seems to me to be a constant sebum rate.
But what if the feedback mechanism to stop sebum production doesn't work in my skin because my sebum is not viscous enough?
Another study I saw said that acne skin has less saturated and more unsaturated fat than normal skin. Unsaturated fat is less viscous than saturated.
I hope more research is done in this area!
I just noticed the date on this study: 1974! Oh well, I guess more research in this area is not likely.
"Until 1947, researchers stated that the sebum accumulated on the skin surface was the chief force regulating the glands excretory activity. Surface loss would accelerate sebum production, and skin surface saturation would lead the gland to shut down. However, Kligman and Shelley performed experiments that dismissed this concept, termed by them as the positive feedback theory. Instead, they proposed that the sebaceous gland functions continuously, without regard to what is on the surface. They demonstrated that the remarkable ability of sebum to spread over the skin surface could lead to the false impression that the sebaceous glands were in sleep mode. After preventing sebum from flowing away or being wiped off during the lipids collection, they obtained an average of 3.13 mg of sebum per 10 cm2 on the volunteers forehead, compared to the amount of 1.4 mg per 10 cm2 when such precaution was not taken. Hence, the reason why the values of sebum collected from the skin are relatively constant is related to the fact that after a few hours, the skin surface of the studied site (e.g. the forehead) becomes saturated, and the excess spreads over to surrounding areas of the face.
Based on these data and contrary to what many think, overwashing the skin does not cause sebum overproduction, but just leads preformed sebum to flow up through a capillarity mechanism."