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Friends don’t let Friends get a nickel allergy!
As many of you know you can BECOME allergic to nickel through extended exposure.
If you have kids please point them away from cheap jewelry and watches towards nickel-free alternatives. This way they won’t have to suffer later in life.
For your friends tell them about nickel allergy and of course feel free to point them to nickelallergyfree.com – so they can stay nickel allergy free!
Friends don’t let friends get a nickel allergy!
Nickel-free headphones and earbuds
Having failed to actually find anybody advertising specifically nickel-free earbuds I looked for some inexpensive ones which were likely to be nickel-free. I chose the plastic Sony MDR-EX10’s. I picked the white ones figuring that they won’t have any metal in the paint given it’s not a metallic color.
I found a lot to like about these headphones – the sound quality is good and the provided soft cups fit my ears well, block out a lot of background noise and give good bass.
But are they nickel free? Turns out they are. Even the metal 2.5mm connector is – I scraped it in case there was some coating to wear away and expose nickel later. The plug tested negative (i.e. no nickel).
So there’s a recommendation for earbuds.
If you’re looking for full size headphones then Marshall’s specifically state that their headphones are made with nickel-free metals. These are much pricier than the Sony pair I bought; they sell earbuds and headphones.
The Sony MDR-EX10’s are available from Amazon.
Marshall’s headphones and earbuds are available from marshallheadphones.com
NickelAllergyFree Holiday Competition – $170 in Nickel Allergy Free STUFF
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Really, use gloves for washing up?
My dear wife still gives me a hard time about this. But yes, I use gloves for loading the dishwasher and washing up. If you have sensitized skin why make it worse? If you have a sore area from your nickel allergy why aggravate it?
I use the food handling ones for loading the dishwasher and nitrile for washing up (since they are stronger). See gloves for more detail.
Site re-launch
Welcome to the updated nickelallergyfree.com! The site is refreshed and relaunched in the WordPress framework. Welcome back!
Getting a Nickel Allergy Under Control – How To Stop The Itch-Scratch Cycle
The three steps to getting a contact-skin allergy under control
First, find out what is causing your allergy
The first step has to be figuring out what you are allergic to. Without this, you will try many options, expend effort, energy and potentially many doctors fees with no results. For contact allergies (with the most common symptom being eczema), the most effective method is the patch test – your dermatologist can test you for allergy to multiple allergens including nickel. Find a good dermatologist – he or she will look at your condition, listed to your experience and recommend next steps – which for a likely contact allergy will include a patch test.
Second, remove the allergen!
This can be the most challenging part of the process. It is also the most rewarding as you make discoveries and see improvements in your skin and a reduction in the itching and scratching. For a nickel allergy, it’s fairly easy to test many of the objects you use in your daily life for the prescence of nickel. For each object you find, replace it, throw it away or give it away as soon as you can!
In some situations, the best way to remove the allergen (from contact) will be to use gloves – see my page on “protecting your hands”. This may be the case if you come into contact with nickel outside your home – where you have less control – for example in your job.
Third, looking after your skin
In addition to removing as much contact with the allergen as possible, as your skin heals you should find a barrier cream which you can use to help keep your skin moisturised and preferably also act as a partial barrier to further occasional nickel contact. (Your dermatologist may recommend steroid cream or ointment to get your skin under control but use of these is not a safe or effective long-term solution).
My personal recommendation is Neutrogena hand cream to be used every time you wash your hands. It’s available in miniature tubes as well as the regular size – the miniature tubes are great for keeping in pockets. Keep a tube at work, at home, in the medicine cabinet, in the car. Use it every time you wash your hands to keep them from drying out and to keep that barrier present at all times. No excuses!
A note about steroid creams or ointments.
Your dermatologist may prescribe steroid cream or ointment to help get a nickel contact allergy under control. In short bursts, steroids can be safe to use but cannot be used continuously. Firstly, your body gets used to the steroid and it becomes less effective. Secondly there can be side-effects from continuous usage. Your dermatologist may prescribe small amounts of steroid to keep handy for potential flare-ups after your exzema is substantially under control.
Shopping for Protective Gloves
Lightweight gloves
I use lightweight food service gloves to protect my hands for numerous chores. These are fairly easy to get hold of if you know where to look… Costco have them in handy boxes which can be stashed around the house for easy access.
Heavier gloves
I recommend you try more than one type before settling down on a regular purchase. Rite-Aid carry a selection of different types of gloves. I settled on nitrile gloves because they don’t contain latex – since I’m also mildly allergic to latex and don’t want to make it worse… think first before using latex gloves regularly – you may also add a latex allergy to your woes.
I use gloves without powder since I’ve found that bothers my hands.
Nickel In Metals
Many metals are alloyed with nickel – alloying improves the properties of the base metal – for example increasing it’s hardness or strength. For example, gold rings made of more pure gold (eg 24 karat) are weaker, softer and easier to scratch and bend than (for example) 9 karat rings. However this alloying can come at a price if you are sensitive to one of the alloying metals. I aim for these pages to help you in your jewelry metal choices and to help you in the decision-making process. You will see, there are no obvious cut-and-dry simple answers when it comes to avoiding nickel in jewelry.
Your best friend is accurate information but that this can be difficult to come by. My personal recommendation is that you find a jeweler who you can trust and have them find you gold with zero nickel. Expect to pay more for accurate information – a jeweler who plays fast and loose with purities may not charge as much but you may end up paying the price twice over later on.
Comments welcome
I couldn’t find a good summary of metals information on the web but did see a lot of assumptions and heresay so I compiled these pages to aid my understanding and hopefully help you too. If you have any comments, additions or corrections, please feel free to contact me.