Laurie...

It's not the skin that is rendering slowly... it's the SSS that slows things to a crawl. Are you using Snarleygribbly's EZSkin? If not, get it. It takes care of all skin related issues, including my favorite: gamma correction.

There are three modes offered: Draft, preview and final. Use preview for all renders except closeups. You'll never see the difference, and it will save loads of render time.

Also, under "Advanced Options," set SSS Quality to 40%. Again, unless it's a closeup, you'll never see the difference, and it'll bost your render times by about 50%.