On Thursday, Travis and I will be celebrating 9 years of marriage. In a way it went super fast, and in another way it’s difficult to remember life without him by my side. We got engaged in February of 2007, got married in October of 2008, had Jack in February of 2012. Boom, boom, boom…life races by.
It should surprise no one that I picked out my own engagement ring. I’m pretty darn picky and if I’m going to be wearing a piece of jewelry for the next 60+ years… I wanted to make sure I loved it. I ended up choosing a solitaire design in palladium with a little twist on either side. I loved the palladium because it was nice and shiny, while still being super lightweight. When it was time to decide on a wedding band, I went for a plain palladium band.
For our fifth anniversary, I added a little bit of bling with an anniversary band. Instead of getting a palladium band, I got one in white gold to save a little money. It looked basically the same and was more affordable so we figured it would never be an issue.
It became an issue in less than 4 years.
I first noticed it at the beach. Instead of taking off my rings each night, I’d leave them on while sleeping. After a few days I’d have a red rash on my finger. I did a little research and found that it was most likely “wedding ring rash” which is pretty common. It could be due to any junk (sand, sunscreen, etc) getting caught in between the rings and rubbing my finger. Or, it could be due to a nickel allergy.
I had never been allergic to any sort of jewelry before, so I just cleaned my rings and gave my fingers a few days off. I also used a little cortisone, which cleared the rash right up.
This happened on and off throughout the summer and then it started happening on regular days too. Whenever I’d wear my rings for a few days (taking them off each night while I slept), I’d end up with a red and itchy rash. It got to the point where I’d only wear my plain wedding band because anything else was irritating my finger.
After some trial and error, I figured out that it was the anniversary band that was causing the issue. So I did some google sleuthing and found that many people will paint the insides of their rings with clear nail polish as a barrier to stop the rash. So, I tried that… and within a day or so it totally flaked off.
As a last ditch effort, I decided to find out how much it would cost to have my ring rhodium plated. With white gold rings, they tend to yellow over time as the plating wears off. So, you can get the re-dipped to put them back to their former glory. I figured it would be expensive though, so I had been putting it off.
I called up the jewelry store where I purchased my ring. Over the phone, they told me that to have a ring “dipped” or rhodium plated, it would coast between $40 – 75 depending on the design. This was WAY cheaper than I expected, so I decided to stop by ASAP to get this issue (hopefully) fixed. When I got there, they said that since I purchased my ring from the store, the first time it is dipped is actually FREE. Well, okay then!
I dropped my ring off on a weekend and picked it up a few days later. For the grand total price of $0 my ring looks as good as new. Even better, I’ve been wearing them every day and haven’t had even the hint of a rash!
So, as your little PSA for the week… if you’ve been putting off re-dipping a ring because you think it’s going to be super annoying, inconvenient and expensive, DO IT! It felt so good to check something off my ongoing list and now I can wear my rings again… just in time for my 9th anniversary!
Have you had “wedding ring rash” before? How did you deal with it?