I have a feeling there was actually a thread about this in the last year or so, but I can’t verify it – I apologize if this is repetitive.
I was reading this thread yesterday when it dawned on me that I’ve never had a bloody nose, and somehow, in my twisted head, this got equated with the fact that I also never use chapstick. Ever. I live in Los Angeles, which is a reasonably dry climate, and people around me use it all the time. My wife thinks I’m a freak because I never need it, but my lips just don’t get dry.
So am I alone? Are there others of you who never need chapstick? Any theories as to why some people (within the same type of climate) might need it while others don’t?
Do you lick your lips? I find that if my lips start to get chapped and I don’t have any chapstick that licking them is the wrong thing to do and they will just hurt worse. But, if I can ignore the chappedness for awhile, it will go away on its own.
I have some in my purse that I use maybe once or twice a year. Only in the winter. Sometimes the cold and dry really gets to me - my lips will end up bleeding, my knuckles crack and bleed - I HATE winter.
I don’t like it. I never needed it when I lived in Maryland or in California, but this year my lips have gotten horribly chapped during the winter. So I might start using it, but I won’t like it.
I live in Florida, where it’s humid most of the time. I don’t lick my lips. I keep properly hydrated. And I still need chapstick or some kind of lip-treatment all the time. I don’t get it.
I have some in the medicine cabinet that gets used primarly if I have a cold or something that makes my lips worse than usual, but that’s it. My girlfriend on the other hand will make us stop if she leaves the house without a tube and she puts it on every half hour or so. It’s my idea that Chapstick is like nasal spray. Once you start using it all the time you have to keep using it or everything goes to hell.
I must use some sort of lip stuff. That’s probably due to having been an oboist for decades. I think I permanently removed a layer of skin or something.
I don’t use the waxy crap (another hold over from playing a double reed, waxy stuff plus reed equals non-working reed), but I do use the ointment version of Blistex.
I’ve never really used it except for here and there. Never needed it either. The only exception to that is if I take a long, read week or more, motorcycle trip, then the wind dries out my lips and they crack really bad. But Chapstick works really well and they heal quickly. I only had to find that out the hard way once.
No, you’re not alone (as I am sure you have figured out already!). I don’t use chapstick. I haven’t used it in at least 23 years. Seriously, the last time I remember using it was in junior high. I don’t use it because I noticed (in junior high) that when I did use it, I needed to use it, but if I just dealt with my lips being a little dry for a few days, it went away unassisted. It’s one of those cyclic things IME – if you use it, you will need it, if you don’t, you won’t.
I never need to use it except when I visit my company’s office in Utah, when I have to put it on several times a day or my lips crack like the Grand Canyon. My nose doesn’t exactly bleed, but little bloody bits come out when I blow it there.
I’ve lived mosts of my life in the very humid southeast US. If I go west for more than a few days, I need chapstick or my lips turn to fire. If I go north in the winter time, the same thing happens.
Which makes me believe it’s an issue of acclimation.
If I didn’t use it here I think I wouldn’t have lips left. Even with it, I still get to points where I can peel bits of dry skin right off. It’s kinda gross. I also use more lotion than I ever have in my life, my skin just soaks it up.
Better than living in a swamp, though. My skin may like swampy weather but I sure don’t.
