I play Minecraft with my family regularly, but now whenever we host a game in 1.7.9 the hosts skin defaults back to "Steve". The host can see his own skin though, I can see everyone else's skin just not the host's.
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Start a LAN game.
2. Get someone to join.
3. Look at the hosts Skin.
Cannot confirm. Are you using a resource pack, or are you using the default textures?