It has been the focal point of fashion of both men and women for the past few years. Some people love them, some people loathe them. But most everyone has squished and wiggled their way into a pair of them at one point or another. Skinny jeans are a point of contention between a lot of people who consider themselves fashion forward. How tight is too tight? Should men really be trying to fit everything they have in a pair of skin tight pants? Do they flatter all shapes and sized? Now hipsters are tossing and turning at night with the new findings that skinny jeans can actually be dangerous for your health! Here's why...
In the 60's there was bellbottom jeans with patches of little flowers and peace signs. In the 70's there were polyester flared pants. 80's rocked the neon tights and the 90's made way for extra loose fitting and baggy jeans. In the 2000's Paris Hilton and crew gave us super extra low rise thong showing jeans, and now here we are. Squeezing our butts into skinny jeans for more than a decade.
Celebrities have really been the ones who have helped us all go gaga over these form fitting pants. They strut themselves down the streets doing everyday things like we all do, wearing these adorable tight pants and looking incredible. We can't help but want to wear them too.
When the hipster fashion movement started to take the skinny jeans to a whole new level was when we all started to question their place in our everyday fashion. Men's legs turned into little toothpicks with their packages on display for everyone to see and we back peddled a bit. Maybe these aren't the end all be all jeans.
But then fashion designers did something amazing. Instead of use having to suck in and squish our bodies into these paint on pants, they added spandex, and stretch to jeans to make them feel more like pajamas but still fit in that tight all over suck your in type of way.
We all felt like we had a good compromise. Skinny jeans were not just for the ultra thin and fit all typed of bodies. Men learned that a good boot cut is just as flattering as a super skinny pant, and even though we had a little rough patch (the pajama jean took things a little too far) we were on the right path.
Some recent news has come to light about the health dangers of skinny jeans that has made peoples heads turn. Some skinny jean wearing individuals have had to visit hospitals to seek emergency care after donning a pair of the super tight pants for a whole day.
What could possibly be happening that is causing people to have to be rushed to the hospital? Have hipster trends finally become fatal? Are the skinny jeans turning on us? Doctors have the answer and it is a bit alarming for those of us who proudly sport the tight jean look on the daily.
The disorder is called Merlagia Paresthetica and it is a disorder that occurs when one of the nerves that runs along the outer part of the thigh gets compressed from wearing the super tight pants. Sufferers of this disorder reported feeling numbness in their legs and pain in their thighs.
What happens is when a woman is going about her day, doing normal activities, like walking, standing, sitting or squatting, her tight jeans compress onto her tight, pinching in the exact places where the nerves are, causing the pain and the numbing sensations.
In some cases the pain become so severe that women wanted to be rushed to the hospital because they couldn't bare it. In other cases the numbness created a feeling of "floating" in women where they had no sensation in their legs at all. Thankfully all of this is reversible once the pants are off.
To make matters worse, when women wear high heels they even exacerbate the problem by putting even more pressure on the nerves in the legs that is causing the pain and numbness. One woman's legs began to swell because of the inflammation caused by the nerve pain and had to have her jeans cut off her body.
Men can have these same issues as well when they are wearing skinny jeans. They have to worry about the nerve pain as well as the numbness and on top of that they need to be careful that their cortch area is well ventilated. If they crotch becomes too hot due to the compact nature of the jeans, they can do damage to their sperm.
Some things to do to help alleviate the health risks associated with wearing skinny jeans is to make sure you are buying jeans with some stretch to them, the more stretch the more that the muscles can expand in the jeans leaving room for the nerves and helping them not get pinched.
You can also buy jeans that are another size up, this way when you are sitting or squatting, your legs have plenty of room for movement. If you feel like this would lose the effect of the skinny jean fashion statement, wearing fashionable leggings is another way to achieve that look.
Thankfully all of the damage done by the pinched nerves while wearing skinny jeans can be reversed, But that doesn't mean the questions of whether continuing to put our bodies at risk for this fashion is worth it? Can the hipsters find a new more comfortable trend? Pajama jeans don't seem that bad anymore.
