When we stay in the bath too long, why do only our hands get wrinkly? Why not the rest of our body?

Question

I can understand why our hands and sometimes feet get wrinkly after being in water too long, but why doesn't the rest of our skin, on our arms and legs and chest for example, get wrinkly as well?

Answer 1

I've thought about that question myself not so long ago so I did a little research. From what I found out there is an oil on our skin called sebum which is responsible for waterproofing our skin. When our bodies, specifically our phlangies (fingers and toes) are in water for too long the sebum is washed away and our skin starts to absorb the water. When our skin starts to absorb water the deep tissue in our palms and heels begins to swell but the tougher skin in that area withstands the swelling of the tissue and remains taunt but the skin of the fingers and toes which is not so firmly attached to the deep tissue wrinkles.

Answer 2

The reason why fingers get wrinkled is because of diffusion, or osmosis. If you were to put a little bag of some sort filled with 100% fresh water into a cup of 50% fresh water and 50% salt. The water in the bag will diffuse out to equal it self out so there is an equal amount of fresh water n the bag and in the cup.And since the bag was a 100% fresh water it will get smaller because it releasing water.

So the same thing happens with our bodies, I'm guessing our fingers, hands and feet have more "fresh water" than the water we bath in. the rest of our body probably has equal concentration.

I hope that made sense. If not, sorry. I tried the best I could.

Answer 3

You MUST be a girl lol. Seriously, the skin on our hands has to be loose in order for us to move them as much as we have to. The skin on the other body parts you mentioned is tighter and the wrinkling doesn't show as much.

Answer 4

actually just the finger tip gets wrinkly, i think because it has just a small skin there, have you notice that our toes get wrinkly too??