Why are your hands slippery when dry, get “grippy” when they get a little bit wet, then slippery again if very wet?

Question

Why are your hands slippery when dry, get “grippy” when they get a little bit wet, then slippery again if very wet?

In: Physics

Answer 1

Water sticks really well to lots of things, so a little bit of it makes things grippy / sticky, BUT it doesn’t stick to itself nearly so well so too much of it makes things slippy.