Why do toes and fingers get pruney in water?
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You get wrinkley fingers and toes because your skin is soaking up water. Our skin has a "waterproof oil" that's called sebum and is the reason why water usually kind of just rolls off our body when we get wet for a short amount of time. But if we stay in the water for too long, the sebum washes off our skin and and our skin soaks up the water. This causes it to swell in some places of our fingers and toes. Only our toes and fingers can get pruney because there's no hair on them, and our hair follicles create enough sebum so that it doesn't wash away in the water. Hope I helped you understand! Good question by the way!
Your skin absorbs water and that makes it swell. It happens mostly in the pads of fingers and toes.
your skin produces a natural oil, this oil keeps your skin moisturized and soft. water is a natural solvant for everything, so being in water too long will wash away most of the natural oil on your skin that is at the surface of the skin, so from the lack of the oil, the water softens the skin, making it pruney.
well from what my anatomy and phis. prof told was that you skin absorbs the water, but parts of your skin is held to the muscle. So when you start to absorb the water your skin will swell only in places that it isnt attached thats why you get the ripples. Also where the skin is attacthed is where we get the indentions of our fringer print. So im pretty sure that is right...hope it ansered your question...
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