Why do towels absorb the water off your body after a bath?

Towels comprise lots of tiny fluffy fibres made out of a material that attracts water, such as cotton.

Because these tiny fibres have such a large surface area, you can get loads of water stuck to a towel instead of yourself.

As a rule, water tends to move from areas of high contentration to areas of lower concentration. A wet body has a relatively high concentration of water. When this is transferred to a towel, the large surface area of the towel fabric distributes the water molecules over a much greater surface area, so the relative concentration is lower. As such, the water is encouarged to move from the higher concentration on your skin to the lower concentration on the towel, and you get drier...