Nickel allergy?

[Invisible Woman]

tried the safety pin test several times, no reaction.

It also might depend how and where you placed it.

It might bring need to be in very close contact with your skin for the whole time you wear it rather than just brush against it.

As others have mentioned, where you place it might be important - maybe taping it to your skin under the waistband of your trousers might produce a reaction where simply being pinned to the inside of a tee shirt, especially if that tee shirt isn't a really snug fit, won't.

Also worth double checking the safety pin you use is nickel coated - I think most of them are.

 

[Sly Saint]

As others have mentioned, where you place it might be important - maybe taping it to your skin under the waistband of your trousers might produce a reaction where simply being pinned to the inside of a tee shirt, especially if that tee shirt isn't a really snug fit, won't.

it was pinned to the underside of a tight fitting t-shirt at the waist, where it is under the waist band of my "skinny" jeans so definitely close contact for several days, roughly for 12 hours at a time, left a few days and tried again.

 

[ladycatlover]

I used to get problems under the button on the top of jeans. I used to sew some cotton across the bit on the back of the button. It did help somewhat. Once the EU made it illegal (?) for nickel to be in clothing products my life just got a whole lot better! Still need to cover the back of buttons on my really old jeans though.

 

[Ebb Tide]

In a former job we had to wear 'key safes' where your work keys are attached to a retractable chain in a metal unit that hooks over a belt.
Unfortunately women's clothing doesn't necessarily come with belts loops so I just had to hook mine over the waist band.
I'm guessing the skin problems I developed may have been a nickel allergy.

Eventually I made fabric patches that I could velcro to the inside the waistband of my trousers for some protection.
Although it may have stopped it getting worse my skin didn't clear up until quite a long time after I left that job.

 

[Arnie Pye]

If there's a favourite piece you want to wear for a short period (if you were if you well enough to see a friend for lunch & covid didn't exist) and want to avoid a reaction then coating the surface the comes into contact with your skin with clear nail varnish or wearing some microtape on your skin underneath might help you get away with it. I wouldn't push my luck with that though.

It's been over 30 years since I last wore earrings. I doubt that my earring holes would still be viable, and it makes me squeamish just thinking about trying to force an earring through a hole which might not go all the way through.

 

[Invisible Woman]

It's been over 30 years since I last wore earrings. I doubt that my earring holes would still be viable, and it makes me squeamish just thinking about trying to force an earring through a hole which might not go all the way through.

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend that!

I had the usual ear piercing, in those days the jeweller did it for you. Naturally, as a teen, one in each ear simply wasn't enough for most and my friends and I gave each other an extra piercing in just one ear. Well, it was the eighties!

I shudder to think of it now. A darning needle, "sterilized" by either a quick dunk in vodka or in the flame of a cigarette lighter, probably the latter as vidka was a bit to precious to waste.

Even I ended up with another piercing and I only ever managed to wear earrings for an hour or so before they got very sore. I suspect cider was involved in the "decision" making process.

 

[Wits_End]

I over took some lanolin-free barrier cream,

Ooh, barrier cream! I've been looking for that for ages (Boots no longer seem to sell it) - it's really great for stopping shoe polish from penetrating into the skin and then being a real pain to get out again. Can I ask what it was and where you got it - and if it was actually called barrier cream, or whether they've changed the name, which is why I can't find it anymore?

 

[Sly Saint]

minor update;
the garden is proving to be a minefield.
I have 'discovered' that in addition to bamboo plants, conifers, and fig tree sap, that courgette (and other similar plants eg cucumber) also cause a bad reaction. In fact any plant that has little hairs on it seems to also be a danger, as I found yesterday when trying to tie back hollyhocks that had fallen over in the storm.

(I nearly always wear gloves but sometimes forget particularly when its hot.)

 

[Invisible Woman]

Ooh, barrier cream! I've been looking for that for ages (Boots no longer seem to sell it) - it's really great for stopping shoe polish from penetrating into the skin and then being a real pain to get out again. Can I ask what it was and where you got it - and if it was actually called barrier cream, or whether they've changed the name, which is why I can't find it anymore?

Sudocream is a good barrier cream but also contains lanolin if that's an issue.

Amazon have a couple under brand names like DermaCare & Gloves In a Bottle. You'd need to check the ingredients though.

Otherwise shops that sell incontinence products might also stock barrier creams.

 

[Invisible Woman]

the garden is proving to be a minefield.

Yep. Hydrangeas can irritate the skin too.as I learned the hard way.

I also have a rather invasive shrub that I think looks pretty. Lovely feathery foliage that turns bright scarlet in autumn. When we moved house I took a cutting with me and keep it in a pot.

Referred to by IM as "that weed of yours", if you get the sap on your skin it irritates too.

 

[CRG]

minor update;
the garden is proving to be a minefield.
I have 'discovered' that in addition to bamboo plants, conifers, and fig tree sap, that courgette (and other similar plants eg cucumber) also cause a bad reaction. In fact any plant that has little hairs on it seems to also be a danger, as I found yesterday when trying to tie back hollyhocks that had fallen over in the storm.

(I nearly always wear gloves but sometimes forget particularly when its hot.)

I have very poor peripheral attention which means I'm always mashing up my hands, and in the garden that means infected cuts which then take ages to heal. I'm also forever taking off heavier gloves because there's some fiddly thing I can't manage with them on, and then of course I either forget about the gloves or can't find them.

I now double glove with thin nitrile gloves as a base layer and something more protective for scrabbling in the dirt or dealing with sharp things , on the face of it not very ecological but I a save fortune in antiseptic creme and plasters. Nitrile is very sweaty but I just change them regularly and keep cycling through a stash of them. I now just need to figure out how to stop ripping up my forearms without having them armour wrapped.

 

[Helene]

Not found a watch I could wear for about 40 years

I too had this problem for about a decade and gave up trying. Then I got a Polar 370 watch for heart rate monitoring a couple of years ago and have worn it daily without any problems. Only metal - skin contact is the clasp which doesn't bother me.
Edit - typo