Waxing / Shaving advice: sore backside

[Roaders]

Hi All

First things first: I am a guy not a girl and have never waxed anything or shaved anything (other than my face).

I commute to work on my bike 3 days a week. It's 18 miles each way (36 a day) and my fitness is well up to the task. Most of the time the ride is easy and enjoyable.

What is stopping me enjoying it though is getting a sore backside. I don't get what I believe is described as saddle sore but I get hard boils that take a long time to go away and are very sore to sit on.
I am a big guy and I get sores where my pin bones are, right where the most amount of weight is.

I think that this is due to hairs breaking off then becoming ingrown and getting infected.

I know that this is an amusing topic but it really does cause me a lot of discomfort and is the limiting factor as to how much cycling I do!

I am considering waxing my backside to get rid of the hairs. Will this work? Should I shave?

Thanks

 

[coffeejo]

The most pain free method I can suggest are hair removal pads like these - I get mine in Superdrug for a quid, but can't find them on their website. Whether or not they'd work on your* backside, I do not know, but I'm wibbling at the thought of shaving cuts

. And I'm not even contemplating waxing...

*ETA: by "your", I mean anyone's...

 

[BentMikey]

OOoooh!!! <<----- Points at low flying deckchair

I think I would try a bunch of different saddles, as I think there's a problem with the way your current saddle fits your own sitbones.

 

[MacB]

Don't do it you'll still get the boils and possibly make things worse, I had similar problems and it turned out to be my saddle was misaligned. so:-

step1 - get your bike setup sorted, saddle height, setback and reach to bars
step2 - don't assume that any old saddle is fine, try a few and find one that works for you, harder was better for me(18.5 stone), measure between you sitbones to see what width of saddle should suit
step3 - make sure you have well fitting padded shorts with a pad that suits you

the above should sort out the future but to clear up the current:-

18 miles each way for a big guy means lots of sweat, cleanliness is vital, I did 20 miles each way and did the following:-

quick wash in morning, apply sudocream(I use Udderley Smooth) and put on clean cycling kit
arrive at work and change and shower immediately, can use a little bit of sudocream if sore
change into another clean set of cycling kit for ride home, doesn't have to be everything but definitely shorts/bibs, plus sudocream
shower and change as soon as you get home

Things do toughen up etc but those hard sort of boils won't get better by toughing it out, that was my first response, result - shorts gunked up with blood and pus and quite a bit of pain.

 

[oldroadman]

Almost certainly a combination of wrong saddle, clothing, lack of atention to the area!
As has been said, try a bike fitting session, ensure the saddle actually supports your pelvic bones (you may need wider or a cutout one, depending on the pressure points), use Sudocrem (excellent and as good as any "chamois cream"), proper shorts as a base, and keep very clean. The boils might need a bit of medical attention. Even profis get them at times, and the treatment (at least a while ago) was fairly brutal and effective. I'll not go into details but it is not recommended as a hobby.

 

[coffeejo]

You learn something new everyday.

*thanks cycling gods for a well-padded arse and a good fitting saddle*

 

[400bhp]

vaseline is good

 

[snapper_37]

You could have hydradenitis suppurativa. I had a very similar problem which was not caused by cycling, but cycling didn't help. I'd just nip a long to the doctors just to make sure it's not this (or other disorder) causing the problem.

Sorry if it's TMI but you can never be too careful

 

[Roaders]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

I think I need to look at my saddle and maybe wear a clean set of undershorts on my way home.

 

[the snail]

Cautionary tale:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/lax/35274458.html

 

[coffeejo]

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

I started to get this problem recently and started to worry about really bad things (pilonidal sinuses, for example). However, I started being obsessive about washing the skin over my seat bones ("ischeal tuberosities"), have changed my saddle (only because I got a new bike), and I always put some tea tree oil on that area after my shower and also before putting on my cycling tights/shorts. Seems to have done the trick.

Don't shave or wax the area. The hairs are there to cut down the friction. If you shave them, then you may well get ingrowing hairs (sometimes known as "razor bumps"), which can lead to pilonidal sinuses. If you wax or pluck them , then they can come back stronger due to the damage you do to the follicles.

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

Cautionary tale:

Brilliant!

 

[numbnuts]

If you wax or pluck them , then they can come back stronger due to the damage you do to the follicles.

Old wives tales, they actully get finer

 

[MrHappyCyclist]

You could have hydradenitis suppurativa. I had a very similar problem which was not caused by cycling, but cycling didn't help. I'd just nip a long to the doctors just to make sure it's not this (or other disorder) causing the problem.

Oh, good grief, no. I wish I hadn't looked that up on Wikidedia!