Last Updated on 14th September 2023 by Caroline Haye
Why my favourite brand labels are the ones in my waste bin!
I have had problem skin (in the form of vitiligo) virtually all my life. As a result, I have had ample opportunity to notice how my skin reacts to certain fabrics and other materials. One of the most annoying irritants is the horrible, scratchy brand labels and washing instructions that manufacturers virtually weld into all their garments. I never realised at the time that the locations of many of my vitiligo lesions were not random. They developed at sites that regularly came into contact with garment labels, becoming itchy and inflamed before losing their pigment. In short, I was unaware that itchy clothing tags can trigger vitiligo.
What the research says
My five decades worth of first-hand experience has conformed, by and large, with the scientific and anecdotal information I have read over the past several years. But I came across some historical research (from 1984) the other day that surprised me. So I would be really interested to know how many vitiligo friends out there share my surprise at these findings.
The research in question concluded that a vitiligo sufferer’s white patches are less sensitive to allergens than their normal skin. This strikes me as counterintuitive. Not least because depigmented skin is more sensitive to UV light and certain chemicals than normal skin. In addition to which it is more prone to oxidative stress. So why, I wonder, would it be less sensitive to irritants and allergens? Mine certainly isn’t.
My white patches always reacted more dramatically to insect bites and stings than the rest of my skin too. And they would often itch and turn red when in contact with certain fabrics or threads. The most common irritants for me included car seat belts, rubber gloves and boots, nylon thread, underwear elastic and bra fastenings. (I’m sure the latter is the reason for a large vitiligo patch I had on my back at this exact spot.) But the one that always struck me as the most unnecessary was clothing labels. Naturally, the response to these irritations was often to scratch the itch, which I now know probably made matters worse. I now realise that contact with these substances exposed me to multiple vitiligo triggers: firstly, the direct depigmenting effect of the chemical constituents themselves and, secondly, the Koebner effect that scratching can cause, in turn triggering vitiligo.
Avoiding clothing-tag-irritation
Some irritants are simple to avoid. For example, the only bare skin that routinely comes into contact with car seat belts is around the collar bone when wearing a lower neckline. So I always make sure I have a cotton scarf in the car to place between the belt and my skin. Labels are relatively easy to tackle too. The first thing I do with any new clothes is to cut off all labels. At first, I used to try to unpick the stitching so I could remove the entire label but most clothing manufacturers seem to be so keen for their name to remain in the garment that they make them bomb-proof. So scissors are sometimes the only answer. The remnants of the label may still cause irritation though, so these tips on removing labels completely might come in handy.
Comments on this forum suggest I am not alone in my sensitivity to certain fabrics, threads and labels. But, since it has only ever affected my depigmented skin, I have always taken this as proof that vitiliginous skin – contrary to the research I referred to at the top of this post – is, in fact more reactive to irritants and allergens, not less so. It would be interesting to find out just how typical this actually is. So feel free to let me know what your experiences are.
Tagless garment labels
In any case, some clothing manufacturers have cottoned on (sorry!) to the fact that a significant proportion of the general population dislike scratchy tags next to their skin and have started to use “tagless labels” instead. This is good news, of course, but these brands are still in the minority. And there is no guarantee that just because a garment is tagless it is also going to be free from other irritants like dyes and threads.
This is why I decided to feature Dermasilk undergarments on Vitiligo Store which are mercifully free from scratchy labels and irritating elastic and nylon thread. They are made from a therapeutic dermatological silk that minimises friction and maintains healthy moisture levels. And they have a permanent antimicrobial effect built in to the fabric and they provide a protective barrier between your skin and the garments worn on top… Which means that you don’t have to worry too much about what vitiligo triggers may or may not lurk in your everyday clothing. Â
(For further reading on this topic, see Your clothing may be to blame for your vitiligo.)
2 thoughts on “Itchy clothing tags can trigger vitiligo”
This is interesting Caroline. I’ve always had sensitive skin, but never noticed my clothing bothering me at all. It is interesting to me after reading this study that the non depigmented skin is sensitive. But once pigment is lost, the sensitivity goes away along with the pigment. My white patches never turn red in the sun, and I never burn….even though am getting lots of freckling. So this seems to apply to me. But we are all very different, so who knows for sure?
That really is interesting, T.J. Your experience certainly seems to bear out the research, whereas mine is the opposite – but with one rather strange exception. I always used to be able to feel all my white patches burning as soon as I was exposed to hot sunshine (almost as if acid was being poured onto them) But, there was one exception … the tops of my feet, which never turned pink or felt sore, no matter how long they were exposed. So it seems as if this whole question might be more complex than I first thought!