"Hickey's" or "The Bite of the Latex Lover"

[paulthenurse]

So both Ishouldknowbetter and I both have a red ring around our neck. I noticed a defintite irritation during my dive yesterday and had a red ring aound my neck where the latex seal was sitting. She felt no irritation at all yesterday but has a bright red hickey midline on her neck. Now, while I'm not at all bothered by the prospect of showing up to work tomorrow night with a major hickey on my neck, she is of a more modest cut than I, and feels somewhat less than professional showing up to work looking like she just crawled out of the back seat of a 78 Ford Fairlane. (Am I sharing just a little TOO much of my past here?)

So what gives? I have a slight latex allergy. It only bothers me at work if I use powdered latex gloves and those have gone the way of the dinosaur. As best she knows, she is not at all latex allergic.

Hints? Suggestions? Lurid personal details?

Paulthenurse

[RIOceanographer]

Sounds like it could be an allergy. Assuming you have latex wrist seals, how do your wrists look? If it were an allergy, then a neoprene seal would be the way to go.

It might also be that the seal is too tight and needs trimming. Hard to say without seeing it, but DUI has a decent guide to trimming seals on their website:

http://www.dui-online.com/how_to_trim.htm

[airsix]

Somebody makes a neck-seal sealing aid that is some kind of rubbery/gel-like non-latex sleeve you wear on your neck (it's a tube you slide over your head). Then your neck-seal contacts this sleeve instead of your neck. Someone who knows what I'm talking about please post a link. Thanks.

-Ben M.

[airsix]

Here it is.

-Ben M.

[RIOceanographer]

Assuming you didn't already try this, another thought would be to try using a little unscented talc on the seal to reduce any chafing.

[AlaskaDiver]

I can only laugh and sympathize with your wife. My skin is pretty fair and I get the red ring around my neck too. My seal is perfect, but it is that irritation from constriction shows easily. All Ihave to do is touchmy neck and I look like I have a big red scratch there. Two things I'd recommend; do not use moisturizer on your neck before the dive- this just makes you stick even more... trust me on that. Use Pro-talc or in desperation, some pure cornstarch on the neck seal. Pro-Talc is wonderful.

[paulthenurse]

Interstingly, neither one of us has any sort of hickey on our wrists. Hmmmm? Could our neck seals be too tight?

(I like to think that I'm as kinky as the next guy but I'm not into wrists.)
(Not that there is anything wrong with her wrists. I rather like them.)
PTN

[minigirl]

I have a very similar reaction - after a few weekends of diving I look like I tried to hang myself and failed! :-)

Try applying a thin layer of KY Jelly on your neck before putting the suit on. I use it everytime I don my dry suit..and it's a great conversation starter on the boat!

Avoid using other moisturisers as these may contain oils which will perish the latex seal.

It may also be worth talking to an allergist - my allergist issued me an epi-pen after talking about this reaction as a latex allergy can quickly progress.

I've also thought about getting the Apollo Bio-Seal but never got round to it.

good luck...!

[Snowbear]

I used to have the same issue, except instead of hickies from the latex lover, it was ligature marks from the latex strangler :11:

I guess neck skin is more sensitive than wrist skin? I dunno. One thing that helped was using Seal Saver instead of talc.

What has cured the problem is replacing the latex neck seal with a neoprene. I find it more comfortable, definitely warmer and less leaky (contrary to some reports?).... $123 VERY well spent IMHO

[JohnL]

I have used silicone lube on my neck before with my paddling drysuit. I could go four or five days without a problem where as it would show up in only a few hours without the lube. Same type of seal so it should work fine...I haven't had much of a problem diving yet.

Diving silicone, KY (not the warming), astroglide... anything latex friendly should work fine.