So, when’s the last time those jeans were washed?
If you asked Levi’s CEO Chip Bergh how often you should wash a pair of jeans, he’d enthusiastically reply, “Never”—all in a pursuit of a well-worn look that washing machines just drain away. (He told the Independent he “spot cleans” stains with a toothbrush.)
But do any health risks lurk in that soiled denim?
It’s no dirty secret that men wear jeans multiple times before tossing them in the wash: 63% wear jeans at least four times before washing them and 23% admitted to going at least 10 days in a pair without a trip to the laundry, according to a Men’s Health Twitter poll.
But even if dirty jeans are littered with bacteria, our skin acts as a strong barrier against bacterial infection, said Dr. Steve Xu, an instructor in the dermatology department at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, despite the average person shedding 40,000 skin cells a day.
But that doesn’t mean you’re fully protected from some embarrassing fungal infections, according to Dr. Adrienne Haughton, director of clinical and cosmetic dermatology at Stony Brook Medicine.
Between 15% to 25% of people have athlete’s foot, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. So, if you don a pair of dungarees with bare feet, the fungus can hop onto the jeans and spread to whatever it touches. “The fungus is just going to keep growing,” Haughton said.
