Acne develops in the pilosebaceous unit of the vellus hair and not of the terminal hair type. In order to investigate any significant differences in the differentiation and keratinization pattern of both hair follicle types, the aim of the present study was to compare the immunophenotype of the sebaceous gland of the facial vellus hair follicle to the terminal hair follicle of the scalp. Healthy skin biopsies were processed for immunohistochemistry and examined for the presence and distribution of a wide panel of epithelial cytokeratins and trichohyaline using monoclonal antibodies. In addition, the lectin binding capacity was investigated using lectins with different sugar specifities.Our study demonstrated a nearly identical immunohistochemical profile for both follicle types concerning their cytokeratin, trichohyaline and lectin binding pattern in the sebaceous gland. In particular, we found expression of the cytokeratins CK 5, 7, 13, and 14, CK 7 and CK 14 in well differentiated sebocytes and CK 1, 4, 5, 7, 10, 13, and 14 in the sebaceous duct of the sebaceous gland of the facial vellus hair follicle. The subaceous gland of the frontal scalp terminal hair follicle showed an additional expression of CK 10 mainly in the basal and early differentiated sebocytes. Positive stainig of the basal, early and well differentiated sebocytes was found with the lectins SBA, DBA, PNA, Con A and WGA in both follicle types, whereas in the sebaceous duct additional binding sites for UEA-1 were found.In conclusion, the sebaceous glands of the vellus and the terminal hair follicle differ in their expression of CK 10, a marker for terminal epidermal differentiation, suggesting that lacking of CK 10 in the basal and early differentiated sebocytes in the facial vellus hair follicle might predispose these follicles to develop disordered keratinization in acne.