Hygiene: How Often Should A Guy Change His Underwear

The issue of how often underwear should be changed has become a popular topic of discussion for both girls and guys. However, in this post, we are going to see how often a guy should change his boxers.

Guys tend to use underwear like underpants, socks, and undershirts for multiple days in a row. So it is difficult to say what the ideal thing is.

A survey carried out among American men showed that 45% of men use the same underwear for more than 2 consecutive days. 13% admit to wearing the same undies for a whole week!

Another study conducted by the University of Maryland in 2015 found that 28% of men believed that wearing the same underwear for two days in a row was completely fine.

That being said, is it healthy to wear your boxer underpants more than two days in a row? How often should you change your underwear? Is there a health risk associated with wearing underwear multiple days consecutively? And if yes, what are they?

In this post, you will learn more about when to change your underwear as a guy.

Know the Types of Men Underwear

Knowing the different types of underwear will help us to more objectively answer the question of when men should change their underwear more. The types of boxers and the materials used in making them can increase the likelihood of getting contaminated following multiple consecutive usage.

1. 1. Boxers: While many people call different types of men’s underwear boxers, not all of them are boxers. Boxers are loose-fitting underwear similar to the shorts worn by boxers, hence the name. They are normally made of pure cotton and often designed with a button fly, to sit on your hips and reach over the tops of your thighs. Boxers are generally fine to wear under loose trousers like a suit or anything loose or high-waisted.
   2. Boxer brief: Boxer briefs are a variation on the original boxer but are made from stretch fabric – often cotton with a touch of elastane, or alternatively modal, which is softer, with a silkier touch, and again with a touch of elastane. They are generally fitter and worn higher on the hips to show off the waistband, sitting between the middle and the top of the thigh.
   3. Brief: The briefs, instead of a straight front with two parallel legs on both sides, have a Y-front design resembling the shape of regular women’s underpants. They are made from stretch cotton, or modal with a touch of elastane. It offers more view of your upper thighs than the boxer brief and gives you a good opportunity to showcase your thighs if you have recently been working on them in the gym.
   4. Trunk: The men’s trunk (also referred to as hipster) offers the best of many worlds: a pouch for comfort and to hold everything in place; a shorter leg, so there is no uncomfortable bunching; and a lower rise, meaning the waistband sits below the hips, all the better to show off your six-pack.
   5. Thongs: The men’s thong is part of the skimpy-brief family that includes the jockstrap and the G-string popularly used by women. They are generally made from cotton with elastane added for enhanced comfort in the pouch in front. The thongs sit low on the hips and have just a narrow strip of fabric at the rear, providing a great avenue to showcase your entire thigh if you are in for a body-builders contest.

To learn more about these men’s underwear types above in more detail, read pantsandsocks.com. You will also see which underwear types is/are suitable for your body type and how tight and loose underwear affects your sperm count as a man.

Why change your boxers/underwear regularly

Underwear needs to be changed regularly because they have direct contact with your skin. They absorb moisture (sweat), dead skin cells, and dirt from the skin. These can form a rich nidus for bacteria and fungal organisms.

Bacteria are normal flora of the skin, that is they are normally seen on the skin surface without causing any disease or infection. Using underwear for a very long time can cause these bacteria and fungi to build up in the material of the underwear in contact with the skin to cause skin infections.

The underwear is also prone to getting dirty following prolonged use. Accumulation of dirt also comes with its own health consequences similar to the build-up of micro-organisms on the skin.

In addition to that, underwear may get accidentally soiled when residual during trickles down the urinary tract in males after voiding urine.

Last but not least, you also don’t want people to see you in dirty underwear in emergency cases when you need to put off your trousers, maybe at the beach, or when you need to take a tailor’s measurement for a new pair of trousers.

How long should you use your underwear before changing?

On the question of how often a guy should change his underwear, some sources generally recommend every day. Objectively, however, it might depend on the type of underwear in question, the material used in its production, and the hygiene condition of the user.

It is best to change your underwear every day but this can be cumbersome for many people. You can wash it every night after the day’s activity. While you wear lighter shorts and your pajamas.

Also, wear underwear made from good quality ‘cotton’ material. Synthetic fabrics like polyester, nylon, etc., are not a very good choice for a man’s underwear.

Two to three days in a row is not going to be too long for boxer underwear because it is loose-fitting and has minimal contact with the skin or genitals. However, more than a day or two days use without changing a boxer brief, brief, trunk, or thongs will be unhygienic, predisposing to itching skin and skin infections.

Suggesting that a guy changes his boxer underwear every day may seem unrealistic but it is the best thing to do if you can afford to do so. However, using your underwear for two days in a row doesn’t seem to pose any serious health risks to you.

It is, however, recommended that you change your underwear immediately after you have engaged in a strenuous exercise that made you sweat a lot, or that made the underwear damper than normal. For sportsmen who wear briefs, thongs, and trunks, changing their underwear every day is the ideal thing to do.

Health risks of using dirty boxers for a long time

Using your underwear as a man for two or more days in a row may not cause significant health risks to you. By that I mean, it may not lead to death or disability. However, poor hygiene reflected in the habit of using underwear for too long can result in skin itching and persistent offensive odor.

These can affect your self-esteem in public or might make people avoid your company.

Some people do the “sniff test” to know whether or not their underwear is dirty or not. This way they objectively know when their underwear is dirty and due for a change.

If you are unable to tell when your underwear is dirty and due for a change, changing your underwear every day will be the safest thing to do.

In addition to the social effects like low self-esteem, dirty damp underwear can cause bacteria overgrowth resulting in urethritis and urinary tract infections. Fungi can grow in the perineum and these can cause itchiness in that area.

These effects may be slightly milder than those expected for ladies with overused undies because of the differences in the genital parts between both sexes. Males have a longer urethra and acidic urine and prostate secretions.

Why most people use their underwear longer than normal

To say you need to change your boxers or underwear every day as a man would be quite a difficult thing to say, especially in regard to the mild risks involved.

Most guys would prefer to use their underwear as long as they have not started experiencing any itchiness or bad odors from it. The reasons are not far-fetched.

1. Some guys have just a few pairs of underwear to change.
2. Some guys are too busy to wash underwear every day.
3. They don’t see any serious consequences from wearing their underwear for a whole week.
4. Nobody has died from using underwear for an entire week.
5. No hard-coded facts on the number of days to use underwear before changing.