Why do fingers get "pruny" when they've been in water too long?!
Question:
Why do fingers get "pruny" when they've been in water too long?
Answers:
The outermost layer of the skin swells when it absorbs water. It is tightly attached to the skin underneath, so it compensates for the increased area by wrinkling. While a person is in the pool or a bathtub for a long time, the dead keratin cells absorb water. This absorption causes the surface area of the skin to swell, but the outer layer is tightly attached to the living tissue. So, to compensate for the increased surface area, our skin wrinkles.
So why does this happen to hands and feet and not to other parts of the body? Because the hands and feet have the thickest layer of dead keratin cells. Our hands and feet are subjected to a lot of wear and tear.