Chamois Butter

[Eden]

Well - the supple chamois thing is really a throw back to the days when they really were made of chamois leather. If you didn't want your "pad" (it wasn't so much padding as a non seamed surface) to get stiff and hard you had to use a chamois cream all over. Now-a-days the creams/lotions/sticks, are for creating less friction between your body parts and the pad in your shorts, as synthetic pads don't have the problem of drying up or hardening.

Personally when I use a cream, and I don't all of the time - I apply it to my body, rather than the chamois and only in the places that are subject to rubbing - rather than slather all over the pad as it can be hard to wash out and get into places where I may not care to have it. I've used all kinds of stuff from creams made just for cycling to bag balms or zinc oxide and I've never had any irritation or infections from any of them, but I'm not prone to those types of things either (never had a UI or yeast infection).