My fiancé, his 3 siblings and I were in a swimming pool for about 3 hours. Everyone’s feet and hands were pruney but mine didn’t get wrinkled at all. Why would that be?
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This can happen for many reasons including nerve damage.
Many people have the common misconception that finger pruning is from the skin absorbing water, but of course that isn’t true. Not only is skin not that permeable (otherwise your internal juices would be leaking out, right?) but also the skin would swell up and be pulled tight if it was absorbing something. No, what is actually happening is a reflexive response to being exposed to fluid which is speculated would increase your grip in damp conditions. It happens due to blood vessels shrinking.
But people with nerve damage don’t get the signal to wrinkle their fingers so it doesn’t happen. There are some other things which can prevent vasoconstriction though, such as alcohol ingestion. This is why many people will flush when drinking as their blood vessels expand to allow more blood to flow into their face. If you were pounding back the alcohol during pool time then you might have been more resistant to pruning fingers.
Otherwise there is a whole list of stuff that could cause vasodilation. Chronic inflammatory conditions, altitude (your veins will dilate as your body tries to keep up oxygen supply to tissues), various medications aiming to treat high blood pressure, etc. WebMD will be able to serve up a whole slew of things to worry about if you like.
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