Monday, October 24, 2011

I Get Itchy Legs When I Wear Blue Jeans And Never Did Before? What's In Jeans?

396545383 I never had this problem before just a few years ago. I'm fine all winter and then I put on my jeans and they start to itch so bad. I'm wondering what's in them. I know there's the blue dye, but is it cotton? Is denim something other than cotton? Is there something like an organic blue jean? I have no problem with shirts and never get itchy on my upper body. The only thing that's helped is not wearing jeans(which stinks) and also using an allergy cream. Any thoughts, ideas, solutions would be great. I've been tested for allergies, but nothing I remember had to do with jeans. Is there something I can be tested for? I am allergic to nickel, but nothing other than that and it's not the buttons that cause my lets to itch...it's the fabric. Oh and I know it's not just the weather being dry in winter as it starts to happen during the fall when it's very wet out. Also, not the detergent, as I wash my shirts in the same stuff and have tried different things just to see. Must be the fabric. Thanks!!
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  1. rebesOctober 24, 2011 at 10:02 AM

    kay - The blue dye is "indigo", and it can be from natural or synthetic sources.

    Traditionally, denim was 100% cotton, with tightly twisted blue warp yarns and lightly twisted undyed cotton. Take a look at a frayed hole in an old pair of jeans, and you'll see what's going on with the fabric structure.

    Modern jeans can be made of denims that may have polyester, nylon, spandex, metallic, rayon, tencel, cotton... any of a number of fibers. So that might be something to look at in the tags for your jeans.

    If your jeans are all cotton, like your shirts, AND the problem is confined to the jeans, the next thing I'd look at would be how well the fabric is getting rinsed in your washing machine. Try running a load of jeans, not stuffed in hard, just loosely filling the drum, and washing them with no detergent or softener. Stop the machine during the middle of the wash cycle and grab a sample of the wash water. Does it feel soapy? If so, that's detergent that was left in your jeans. You're using too much, or overloading the jeans into the washer, or the machine has a problem with efficient rinsing.
    Compare samples of wash water and rinse water...
    you shouldn't be able to feel soap in the final rinse water. Try wearing a pair of the washed-without-soap jeans and see if you react. Denim is heavier than, say, cotton shirting, so it's going to hang on to more detergent if the machine is overloaded or not rinsing well.

    Another possibility is that you're sensitive to one or more of the fibers in modern denims. If you don't react to all cotton denim, but do react to blended fiber denim, then you've got an answer.

    Yet another possibility is that jeans, especially fashion jeans, have been treated with any of a number of different chemicals to produce special finishes, coloring, etc. Some of the stuff they use to do this is downright nasty. If you're reacting to fashion jeans, but not the plain old stiff blue jeans from the farm store, that's another possibility.
    See: http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/premium-denim-sustainability-levis/ and http://www.fashion-incubator.com/archive/denim-laundry-contractor-pt-2/

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