Cure/prevention for butt chafe?

[Turk6177]

I just got the worst case of chaffing I've ever had. It's not my thighs. It's right behing my scrotum, basicly where my butt cheeks start, and rub together. IT's actually blistered and feels terrible. anyone experience this?

Body Glide is what I use every morning when I hike. At night I use an alcohol hand wipe or baby wipe to keep clean down there as well.


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[George]

if it gets going, you ultimately get some infection from the compromised skin - best / quickest cure for that - silver sulfa diazine creme (silvadine)

it is a script med

[RangerZ]

Yes, this thread was good for a laugh or three. Ten year old thread, but good stuff.

Keep it clean.
After a movement, clean. A half hour later, clean again if necessary. If you are gassy, clean periodically. Before bed, clean. The "wet ones" seem to do an excellent job, and claim to kill 99.9% of germs.

The anti monkey butt powder is great because it has calamine powder in it.

If you buy Gold Bond, make sure it's not the extra strength or heavy duty or whatever they call it. You'll feel like Gollum with the Elven rope tied around him. (nerd joke) It burns! If you buy generic gold bond, read the ingredients. Gold Bond is .15% menthol. I had a bottle of generic (that did not say extra strength) that was 1% menthol! Seven times as much!

The Gold Bond foot powder (green bottle) is 1% menthol. Use it as a body powder and you'll be stepping faster. It's a great way to start the day.

[Sarcasm the elf]

Wear whatever you want ...they key is keeping the salt residue from your sweat from drying and rubbing you raw. Period, paragraph, end of subject.


'Slogger

Whelp, this is an olr thread, but since it's back up, the advice above is on the money.

The last two years I've started carrying a cheap dish sponge and small plastic cup and taking a nightly sponge bath on trail, paying close attention to any place that is prone to chafing. Using enough water is key in this process as there needs to be a sufficent amoubt to disolve and wipe away the salt crystals that are dried on the skin, this is also why wet wipes never worked for me, they aren't nearly wet enough. After the sponge bath, any place with early signs of chafing gets wiped down with a liberal amount of purell. In the morning I repeat the purell step before hitting the trail. These two steps have made a night and day change to my hiking and reduced my on trail chafing issues from terrible to almost non-existent.

[rocketsocks]

Wear whatever you want ...they key is keeping the salt residue from your sweat from drying and rubbing you raw. Period, paragraph, end of subject.

Start carrying some "wet wipes" of some sort (make sure they do not contain alcohol) and wash yourself off at various times during the day.

'Slogger

I hear this a lot, gotta remove the salt. And I'm not saying you're wrong, you're prolly right! But I'm a curious critter so I need to be sold. What say the scientists around here? Are salt crystals forming and cutting and cafing on some Å not seen by the human eye? Are our underarms super saturated? What's goin' on here?

[blw2]

I hear this a lot, gotta remove the salt. And I'm not saying you're wrong, you're prolly right! But I'm a curious critter so I need to be sold. What say the scientists around here? Are salt crystals forming and cutting and cafing on some Å not seen by the human eye? Are our underarms super saturated? What's goin' on here?

great question!
only theorizing here.....I'm a mechanical engineer so not scientist that would know a lot about this sort of physiology..... I'll look forward to more knowing folks' answers too!

but something sure does serve to make those areas sticky. sweat is water carrying impurities, right? Water alone isn't going to do that, so it must be the impurities...As I understand it, sorta like pee in that regard....so the salt isn't necessarily sodium chloride, but it's something. Probably some oils in there too that attract dirt. And who knows what that attracts bacteria. The bacteria probably irritate the skin on many levels, even by leaving their own secretions....
By bet is , the "salt" statement is an over simplification. There's probably a lot of stuff going on in that chemistry.
Point sums up well though, to clean it off.....

[Heliotrope]

By "butt chafe" I mean between the cheeks of my buttocks, not my thighs. I'm 5'9" and 142 pounds with extremely little body fat, so losing weight is not the issue. Wearing tight fitting shorts/underwear does NOT help, it makes it much worse. I don't know what the solution is,
maybe I need to stop being a wuss and just chafe away until I have tough, leathery buttocks.

Wipes are a good idea, I think the issue may be salt residue as someone mentioned. Maybe I just have salty sweat. Before I resort to carrying a product just for my ass, I think I'll try flushing the area with water a few times throughout the day to keep salt from accumulating. Thanks for the suggestions folks.

Last year in the 100 MW I had to get off trail bc of this. You can get past this. Don't despair!

Salt residue and friction is the bottom line like slogger says.

1. Hydrate to minimize the salt in your sweat
2. Wear clean underwear each day
3. Wash yourself at day's end
4. Use wipes if necessary
5. Use body glide or similar on area preemptively




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[Turk6177]

Body Glide every morning and wear compression shorts under your hiking shorts. I use underarmor our or exofficio. Additionally, at night, I generally wipe the nether regions with a baby wipe at bed time to keep the areas clean. It seems to work for me, although my longest trip so far has only been 22 days.

[rocketsocks]

great question!
only theorizing here.....I'm a mechanical engineer so not scientist that would know a lot about this sort of physiology..... I'll look forward to more knowing folks' answers too!

but something sure does serve to make those areas sticky. sweat is water carrying impurities, right? Water alone isn't going to do that, so it must be the impurities...As I understand it, sorta like pee in that regard....so the salt isn't necessarily sodium chloride, but it's something. Probably some oils in there too that attract dirt. And who knows what that attracts bacteria. The bacteria probably irritate the skin on many levels, even by leaving their own secretions....
By bet is , the "salt" statement is an over simplification. There's probably a lot of stuff going on in that chemistry.
Point sums up well though, to clean it off.....

Agreed, cleanliness is key. I was also thinking the materials we used these days in shirts, I don't recall chafing in days gone by while wearing cotton, but the polyesters of today are virtually indestructible scourering pads, like 3M's scotchbrite. Many of wicking shirts also have what I'll call an aggressive knit with hooves and lands like a heat synque to provide an abundance of surface area exposed which facilitates evaporative cooling...anyhow, these are my thoughts, fun to think about.

[AllDownhillFromHere]

Has anyone found a correlation between butt chafe and body hair (quantity, type, etc?).

[Sovi]

I hear this a lot, gotta remove the salt. And I'm not saying you're wrong, you're prolly right! But I'm a curious critter so I need to be sold. What say the scientists around here? Are salt crystals forming and cutting and cafing on some Å not seen by the human eye? Are our underarms super saturated? What's goin' on here?

Ever worn a ball cap and seen the sweat dry on it leaving the white lines? Makes the hat stiff and rough? That is salt residue. Same thing happens to the tops of boots if your socks aren't tall enough. Salt is crystalline, whether in it's original state or dried from being mixed with sweat/water. Very abrasive and the description of sandpaper is spot on. Lubricating the affected area is a good preventive, but keeping the areas clean/dry is also effective. Only need mediated post chafe to encourage healing.

[smoovoperator]

Go commando, it works great!!