Need shorts suggestions

[allie]

I'm breaking out in hives after I ride -- they start on my legs, so I think that there is something in my shorts that is causing a reaction. I've been tested for different things from both an allergist and a dermatologist, and the only thing they've come up with is a sensitivity to nickel.

I am searching for something to ride in - or even some type of liner - that might be anti bacterial, organic, bamboo, whatever - that maybe will not cause me to break out. I am willing to try almost anything!

Any suggestions?

[jessmarimba]

Do your current shorts have those rubber gripper things on the leg openings? Could be something in the rubber?

A few companies make wool bike shorts. Something to think about, unless the chamois is what you're allergic to.

[TsPoet]

Sweat? Lots of people get rashes from sweat. If so, then you just need something wicking.
Good luck.

[Eden]

My thoughts are wandering the same direction as TsPoet's - could it be heat/sweat. I've only had hives once in my life and it was from heat in a sauna. I broke out in honest to goodness big itchy hives on the tops of my feet, behind my knees and in the crooks of my elbows after having spent some time in one.... It took a couple of hours for the hives to show up and then the next morning.... I had a beautiful reaction on my face - all around my eyes was all swollen up, I looked scary....

[ny biker]

Exactly where are the hives? Are they in spots where the shorts cause the most pressure, like around the leg grippers and under any seams?

I had several allergic reactions to food last year that manifested as a kind of combination between hives and dermatographia. The problems with dermatographia lingered for several months afterwards.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/Dermatographia/DS00755

Basically I would get red, itchy, inflamed skin -- sometimes distinct red circles, other times just big patches of red skin -- from a combination of pressure and seams or wrinkles in my clothes. And the rashes usually appeared after the pressure was gone. For example, I would be lying on my side while sleeping, then turn over, and then the skin on the side I had just been lying on would start to itch where the pajama seams were, or where the fabric was wrinkled and creased under me. And there would be red marks from the seams/wrinkles.

Scratching made it worse, and made the rash spread. Antihistamines did help.

It has mostly gone away now.