Dry, wet lips?

August 20, 2005 11:54 AM

Why is it that when I drink lots of water, my lips become (or at least feel) dryer?
posted by sd to Health & Fitness (4 answers total)

You're washing away the mucus from your spit, which normally covers your lips. Lick your lips and you'll be back to normal.
posted by Rothko at 12:36 PM on August 20, 2005

When the moisture on your lips evaporates, it will include not only the water you've just consumed but the natural moisture that was already there. The water possibly quickens the evaporation. Though licking them will provide immediate relief, the saliva on your lips will evaporate, too, and it becomes an aggressive cycle of lick-dryness-lick-dryness-etc. I would recommend locking in the moisture on your lips by using lip balm or petroleum jelly instead.
posted by Lush at 1:12 PM on August 20, 2005

repetitive soaking-then-drying of the lips will exacerbate the washing away of natural skin oils with repeated expansion/contraction of the skin of your lips, which causes cracking - and it's the cracking you're noticing, not the dryness itself.
posted by scarabic at 11:53 PM on August 20, 2005

It's dryness in my case.
posted by bat at 2:17 AM on August 21, 2005