when ur lips are chapped, why does licking them make them worse?
In: Biology
Two things screw up your lips.
One is that the moisture is evaporating. How fast that happens is a function of how much moisture there is. So when you lick them you add more moisture, which ends up sapping even more moisture out of your lips.
Another is that your saliva’s meant to help a little with digestion. So if your lips are already a little damaged this doesn’t help.
The reason lip balms help is they’re made out of oils and other things that don’t evaporate quickly. It’s kind of like you’ve sealed off your lips. Since air can’t get to them, moisture can’t evaporate out, so your lips can heal the damage and get back to normal faster.
This is the same reason you can’t really moisturize your hands with water. You need a lotion or a balm to seal off the skin and stop evaporation from happening or else it gets worse. Keep in mind both chapped lips and dry skin indicate damage has already happened a little: your skin’s supposed to prevent this from happening but sometimes things go wrong. Once it’s a little damaged, wetting the skin can make a little problem become a big problem.
Latest Answers