My inner thighs have always touched. I’m not overweight, my legs are just close together. All my adult life, wearing skirts when I’m going to be walking any distance is not comfortable because my thighs rub together and chafe. Recently I discovered a runners’ lubricant called Glide that helps greatly, but it would be nice to be able to just throw on a skirt and leave the house without worrying about it.
I was talking to a friend the other night who claims her thighs touch and wearing skirts just doesn’t present a problem for her. She’s very active and skirts are her attire of choice when backpacking in countries with squat toilets. It never occurred to her that some women would have issues with it. Also, women have been wearing skirts forever, long before glide was invented, presumably with some level of comfort. But I know I’m not the only woman with this problem.
So my question is, how long does it take to go from tender inner thighs to this not being an issue. If I eschew pants in all my normal activities for a week, will my skin toughen up? A month? Skirts can be really convenient and cute, and I’d wear them a lot more if this wasn’t an issue. Any tips?
This is a problem for me if I spend any extended amount of time walking around in a skirt. I normally just pull on a pair of biker shorts or wear boxer briefs when I wear long skirts and worry that might be an issue.
I know what you mean, though. I’m a size six or eight, but what weight I do carry tends to be concentrated at the tops of my thighs, so they touch a little. It’s not normally a problem, but it can be if I’m doing a lot of walking, or on an especially humid day.
Glide is great, and hardly an inconvenience. I spent a few minutes shaving my legs, I can spend ten seconds applying some Glide.
Another option is, as **MissMossie **mentioned, bike shorts or some sort of Spanx type garment. They’ve come a long way with those things. They’re pretty comfortable, and they’ll not only solve your chafing problem, but they’ll smooth everything out under tailored skirts, and stop jiggle cold.
Pettipants? Wow. I haven’t even thought of pettipants since the '60s. I agree with DianaG that a thigh-length garment is the answer, if you don’t want to use Glide.
In Spain and without some sort of full pantyhose, “cyclist”-style underoos or pettypants, no. I love skirts: full skirts manage to point out where my waist is without at the same time putting up a neon sign for “here, hips” and “look, cellulite bump only it’s not cellulite” (my thighs are extra-wide on the outside too, even when cellulite-free). But I can’t wear them without chafing within minutes or feeling like my legs were eaten by a boa constrictor (one boa per leg).
I love Glasgow weather because here “net” pantyhose is enough. Yay! I’ve bought new skirts for the first time in over a decade! And I’m wearing them! Hooray!
Mom buys “summer pajamas”, uses the bottom as pettypants and gives me the top to wear around the house.
I am plus sized and for a long time I avoided skirts and dresses for this very reason. I am still a big fan of bike shorts being worn underneath dresses and when my wedding day comes you can fully expect that under my floofy dress there will be a pair of shorts of some kind to prevent chafing. However, I have noticed that it isn’t the thighs rubbing together that is a problem, it is the thighs *sweating *and rubbing together. I don’t believe in wearing clothes at home so I am running around pantsless for many hours of the day and my thighs don’t chafe here so my best guess is that the chafing is directly related to the sweating. A bit of baby powder on the thighs before you go out makes a world of difference (except for if you are doing something that would cause you to sweat a lot or if it is really hot out, in those situations you should probably use glide or wear shorts.)
Pantyhose really helps, which is why I will not be following the current bare-legs trend except for the most casual of situations. I second the petti-pants (which are so hard to find sometimes) or a shapewear option. It is the sweat that gets me…I currently don’t have any pettipants, but I almost always wear a half slip, and sometimes find myself tucking it between my legs when things get unexpectedly bad.
Ha, yeah, that would be me too (well, but I am kinda overweight). I’m fine usually, but if its hot and sweaty its a problem.
Not a suggestion, just an anecdote: I did one year of high school at a girls school with uniforms, it was actually SOP for us to wear boxer shorts under our skirts (yes, over our regular underwear). This is back when Joe Boxer just came out, it was something of a fad for girls to wear boxers as shorts and PJ bottoms. So that’s what I did on non-pantyhose days. Still do, sometimes.
No, and I’m pissed about it because I cannot believe nobody has yet been able to come up with a solution to this problem. I’m moderately overweight (size 12) so it’s certainly more of an issue now than when I was a size 8 in high school/college, but it’s not like I’m some monstrous weight - this affects millions of women. Anyway.
Gilde? I haven’t tried it and it sounds like a good idea, but I can’t really believe that it survives over a long, humid day. Why has nobody managed to market a lightweight, thigh-covering undergarment? What I want is exactly like regular girls cotton bikini panties, but a “boxer briefs” version. If this exists, please please let me know where to find them - I’d wear skirts a lot more often. If I could sew, I’d make them myself. Men’s boxer briefs are all the rage - when do we get ours? And no, ‘boy shorts’ don’t count. If anything, they make the problem worse.
Right now I make do with American Apparel cotton bike shorts which are a decent compromise but still too bulky for my taste, plus I don’t feel comfortable wearing them without underwear, so that’s yet another layer (double-plus ungood in summer humidity). Spanx are just way too constricting and too much effort to get on, completely counter to the just-throw-it-on appeal of a skirt in the first place (though nice for special occasions). I’m not sure what patty-pants are but I imagine they are silky, nylon or the like, which results in the kind of sweat-factory I’d rather not think about. Seriously, why is this so damn hard? :mad:
The best I found was a pair of Calvin Klein yoga shorts. They are very lightweight, low-waisted, with a wide but not tight waistband. They stay put, and besides being dark brown (unfortunate for light skirts) they are invisible under clothing - no lumps and bumps! Unfortunately I only found ONE pair (at a discount store, several years ago) and could never track down anything like them since.
Pettypants: a pettycoat is a light cotton skirt you wear under your skirt (normally because the skirt itself is somewhat see through), a pettypant is a light (cotton) trouser you wear under your skirt.
Pettypants have been around for a long, long time; think Victorian underwear, only it’s actually been around for a lot longer. I’d link Girl Genius but can’t get the proper addy at work.
Babypowder helps unless it’s an exceptionally hot and sweaty day. But I’ve started wearing bike-short length tights that I’ve started seeing in the stores, and that works great!
I have seen old-fashioned sort of “trunk panties” somewhere, which might be a solution to the thigh rub problem. Speaking for myself, the only time I haven’t had the thigh rub was in childhood, and I wore dresses all the time. I always wear bike shorts under my skirts and dresses now, or a bike-short style shapewear pants thing which is actually more comfortable because it’s thinner and doesn’t make me so warm.
I found these and these but I must warn you, they’re uber-granny-panties.
Whenever I’m large, as I am now, my thighs rub together and if I’m just wearing pantyhose or if I’m bare-legged, they chafe and get red and bumpy and irritated. But I wear what I guess could be called pettipants, and they work just great. So I’m completely comfortable in skirts.
Okay, I’m a dude, so I’m not exactly the target audience here, but I have a suggestion: have you looked into Under Armour?
I’ve recently started walking for weight loss purposes, and because my thighs rubbed together, the first few outings were extremely uncomfortable. I don’t think the skin on inner thighs is the sort that ever “grows thicker” or becomes in any way tougher if you expose it to more abuse; in my experience, raw and red from rubbing leads only to more raw and red from rubbing.
Anyway, after that initial discomfort, I bought a few pairs of Under Armour compression shorts, to wear underneath my regular walking shorts. I know, the word “compression” sounds like you’re being squeezed, but to me it feels more like a second skin. They’re pretty amazing, I must say, and they’re comfortable enough that I’ve even slept in them. To date I’ve bought four, two are knee-length and two hit me mid-thigh.
On warm days I use antiperspirant on my inner thighs. After putting on my undies, but before putting on my skirt, I apply a little clear gel antiperspirant, same stuff I use on my underarms. It doesn’t take much, I only apply it to the first 4 inches or so, and it keeps me from chafing on all but the hottest/humidest days.
