A newly developed apparatus permits the differentiated transparency measurement of stripped horny layer material. An adhesive tape strip, covered with a stripped horny layer mass, is fixed on a glass plate and led past a homogenous light source and a photo cell at a constant speed, whereby each respective light-current deviation is collected as a parameter for each respective strip model. It is then synchronously registered via a continuous-line-recorder. The systematic evaluation of original curves results in a reproducible individual horny layer model obtained by a methodically stripped adhesive tape series, successively taken under constant conditions from the same skin area. Three characteristic types of curves were observed.