Okay, this is probably a stupid question, but… why do we peel when we get sunburned?
I assume that it’s something along the lines of the first layer or two of skin in the area affected being dead. Is this right? If so, why is it only the first layer or so? Does this happen with other forms of burning? FWIW, I don’t remember peeling when I accidentally stuck my hand on a hot pancake griddle, but then, I was only 5 so maybe I did and have forgotten…
Right. The worse the burn, the more layers of skin come off. If the burn is all the way down past the first layers, resulting in blisters, then that’s a “second-degree burn”, and is much more serious, requiring more healing than just a simple peeling off of dead layers of skin.
Also, the thickness of the skin has a lot to do with it. The skin on the palms of your hands is thicker than, say, the skin on the backs of your hands. So if you burned the palm of your hand on the pancake griddle, in the microsecond it took your autonomous nervous system (your “reflex”) to yank your hand back, the skin wouldn’t have burned as deeply than if you burned the back of your hand by resting it against the edge of the griddle. In that same microsecond, you probably would have gotten a burn on the back of your hand that would have blistered.
Okay, that’s what I wanted to know, then. Thanks. Presumably, that means that the few other burns I’ve had over the years, none of which have peeled, weren’t serious enough to do more than redden the skin and hurt like heck.