Did anyone ask Scott for his BMI? Height & Weight, Chaff is a result in "extra areas" sometimes part of the solution is a calorie reduction.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
Whenever I read these chaffing threads and I read about all the goupy junk people are apparently putting in their crotch I am amazed. Who wants vasoline, body glide, bag balm, or anything else in their crotch all day? Then you go to bed with that? You use your hand to put it down there in your sweaty crotch area? Gross.
I am overweight, my inside thighs touch and rub. The only thing that is going to help is good fitting (no wrinkles, no seams on the inside) synthetic boxer brief style shorts or compression shorts. I don't like the compression shorts because they are thicker, hotter, usually don't have a fly hole. Synthetic boxer briefs are the same but usually thinner, cooler, have a fly hole. I have tried Underarmour ($30), Target C9 ($10.99 to $19.99, the Wal-Mart brand were I think $9.99 for two pair but they did not fit me right. The fit is important you want it firm, no wrinkles, not so tight it cuts off blood flow but not loose so it moves around.
If you get the right fitting shorts you shouldn't need any lubricants down there.
Good luck. I feel your pain. I have had it so bad before that I could not walk.
Very true. Loosing 40 pounds would probably solve my problem but barring that, proper fitting synthetic boxer briefs is what will do the trick.Originally Posted by Wise Old Owl
BTW, I forgot to say...sythetic meaning polyester, maybe some polyester with spandex mixed in usually like 95% polyester 5% spandex. NO COTTON!
BTW another things...
I think some of the people suggesting a little bag balm, body glide, etc are thinner people or people who have not experienced the full brunt of chaffing. The time I got it the worst we were in the NC/TN mountains all day during the summer. It was raining/drizzling all day but it was hot so we just stayed wet, didnt try to fight it. I was wearing loose fitting, regular coton boxers so between the sweating and rain they were all wet and bunched up all day rubbing back and forth. I was wearing cotton shorts with a seam in the crotch area that was kind of sharp or stiff so that was in there rubbing back and forth all day. We started before sun up, finished after dun down. When we got back to the cabin I took over grilling and didnt change, everyone was so hungry I started dinner, drinking beer and didnt worry about the slight stinging down there.
The next morning I could not walk...literally. I had SEARING pain down there. I am no wuss either typically I will just push through things, never even mention it. This was pain you could not ignore. If my thighs even touched slightly it felt like someone was branding me with a hot iron down there. I didn't cry per say but it made my eyes tear up with the searing pain. I tried to put some warm vasoline on the area and just touching it with the vasoline was like firing up a jet engine and aiming it at my thigh...no...freakin...way that was going to help or work. Eventually I had to lay on the floor with a fan blowing up there, eventually I put some gold bond on there, everyone else loaded up the car and I limped to the car and sat with legs spread open. Took 3 days to heal completly. Had I been backpacking I don't know what I would have done to get out.
I don't think most people suggesting body glide or gold bond have experienced this sort of thing. If you were not wearing the proper underwear and you tried to prevent this with body glide of vasoline you would be putting handfuls of the stuff down there every 30 min to an hour which of course is not practical. Plus you would be walking around with squishy, nasty globs of lubricants in your pants and stuck to your hands. What you have to do is prevent the skin from touching by putting a barrier in there....the firm fitting, no wrinkly, synthetic underwear. Hike it up so that it is all the way to the top of your crotch, I grab each leg with both hands at the butt and front and kind of hike each leg up in there nice and good then adjust the waist to a comfortable/normal height. Since I started this I have had 0 chaffing, not one incident.
If the chafing is from underwear rubbing, why not just remove the underwear together. Many hikers hike commando. Then no need for balms, goop, and/or compression underwear. An added benefit is increased air circulation in that area as well as a better avenue for sweat to leave the 'region' and carry its salts with it.
Pair of running shorts with a net brief inside works best!
GA - NJ 2001; GA - ME 2003; GA - ME 2005; GA - ME 2007; PCT 2006
A wise man changes his mind, a fool never will.
—SPANISH PROVERB
The following will help:
getting more fit/leaner
frequent washing with water (every hour or two if needed)
a more intense form of body glide (I use sportshield) applied as needed
some form of lotion at night (diaper cream?) that you then wash off in the morning before you apply the sportshield
hiking in colder/drier weather
The following has helped for me:
kilt!
In response to what others have said,the balms/goops won't solve your problem alone, but they can be part of an anti-chafing strategy
I would like to follow up on TyTy's last post. I too had an incident very similar to his. A Trail Angel picked me up at Watauga Lake and took me to the local CVS Pharmacy in Elizabethton. I bought a cheap tube of A&D Ointment. It is a miracle medicine for about $3 per tube if you purchase the store brand. I applied the ointment and resumed hiking to Vandeventer Shelter without difficulty. By morning the chafing was healed. I applied more about twice the next day as a preventive measure and it worked. Yes, I was overweight then and I am certain that was the cause. I'm thinner now.
I'm a fan of the Underarmour stretchy boxer briefs and the Exofficio ones also seem to be good. Whenever possible, clean with soap and water, put on clean briefs for camp/sleeping, and wash out the ones you wore on the trail today and hang up to dry. In the damp East, you will probably need to pin them to the outside of your pack the next day while hiking to finish drying. Do this every day if you can. Two pairs of briefs that you wear alternately is all you need.
Now, if you start to feel a chafe despite this, immediately apply some bacitracin ointment, or similar petrolatum-based ointment. If you keep hiking without doing this, you may well regret it. I've seen numerous folks have to get off trail due to chafing.
Heard on trail last year, as expressed by a guy trying Gold Bond powder to treat/prevent chafing:
"All I'm doing is making gravy". LMAO when I heard this, one of best quotes ever.
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I am overweight, and Body Glide solved my chaffing problem. I was already wearing boxer briefs, but got chaffing so bad I couldn't walk and the chaffed areas were RAW. By the way Tyty, Body Glide comes in a stick form like stick deodorant so you're not getting "handfuls" of it to apply. It doesn't come off so you aren't reapplying it every 30 minutes. It's NOT like Vaseline.
"You're a nearsighted, bitter old fool."
If I went commando I think I would still get chaffing from the pants or shorts I was wearing. Even if I wore I kilt I think I would still get it from the hairy skin rubbing against itself all day although I have never worn a kilt so cannot testify to that specifically.
Get a Brazilian........
Fear ridges that are depicted as flat lines on a profile map.
Doesn't it get all over your briefs then? I understand it comes in sticks I was more thinking about the vasoline, bag balm, etc on that comment.
This is way TMI but I will sometimes get chaffing on the edge of my cheeks down there even with boxer briefs but the boxer briefs, so far, have stopped all chaffing between the legs. Maybe body glide would be just the ticket for the edge of the cheeks issue.
I also agree if you can wash at the end of the day, get the areas clean and dry with dry clothing before bed that will allow the skin to recover. To me Gold Bond is not a preventative to put on while hiking, it is a healing medication to apply to a clean area before bed. In fact the way I use Gold Bond is clean/shower and wash the area (ouch, stings) then pat dry, apply medicated (green) Gold Bond. Now, wait because it is about to start BURNING holy CRAP! Sometimes I will hold over a fan to speed up the intensity of the sting but shorten the duration. Put on dry, loose fitting boxers and go to sleep and typically the next morning it's all better or a lot better than if I had gone to bed without the above treatment. I don't believe in using Gold Bond during the activity to absorb sweat or whatever. Not sure how you sweat but I sweat a lot and no poof of Gold Bond would have any impact or absorption of the amount I sweat.
I learned to never mess with the hair down there by reading a short story that has bounced around the internet for some time. Note: This is not me, I did not write it...but it is funny and has always reminded me to leave things alone down there.
http://leedeth.wordpress.com/2006/12...your-ass-hair/
That's pretty darn funny,though I could have done without the mental imageI'm scared for life.
I use Body Glide. You can get it at Sports Authority and Dicks. It took care of my chafing problem.
Well tyty some of us are a "little" more experienced and the lubricants are a good temporary solution..even if its gross... Hey there are worst things to talk about, there are stories of infected sweat glands, bleeding internally of hips, limpoma, liposarcoma, herniated rectum, and anal bleeding.... wrap your mind around that one. Welcome to hiking.
Dogs are excellent judges of character, this fact goes a long way toward explaining why some people don't like being around them.
Woo
I can see using Body Glide in a stick form like deodorant but for me, I would try basically anything before I put vasoline or bag balm in my crotch. I can see that globbing up in clothes, all over your hands, sticky, gathering dirt when you sit down, getting in my sleeping bag, gumming up....I would try anything before that. When I am out for days without a shower the last thing I want to do is add and apply sticky, greasy, lubricants and lotions that is going to get all over my hands, body, and gear.
I see proper fitting synthetic boxer briefs as a permanent, cleaner solution much like wearing a long sleeve shirt with tall collar combined with a wide brimmed hat in my opinion is a much more reliable, cleaner, easier solution that coating with sunscreen. To each his own, but this is my preference.
If your crouch is too gross for you to touch your self...something must be very wrong.
OK.... so I'm one f those not fat people and don't have consent skin rubbing skin...I rarely get chaffing, usually after walking wet for more than a few days.
I have good luck with shorts with micro liners or if they are long enough no liner at all.
Still I always carry a small amount of Balmex, it doesn't take a "handful", just enough to make a protective moisture repellent layer until I can get aired out. Sometimes carry the same supply for a year and never use it, but glad it's there when I need it......on a small area. Sometimes handy on a long road bike ride if the butt gets a bit of road rash.
The rare time I wear underwear when hiking is to sleep in, and they are still Coolmax or something like that. And if I'm alone not even then.
The trouble I have with campfires are the folks that carry a bottle in one hand and a Bible in the other.
You never know which one is talking.
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