It is the beginning of spring semester at colleges all across the nation. Students once again are tasked with moving back in, buying new books, figuring out new schedules, and adjusting to new classes. As an undergraduate student, when UT Austin got back in session, these tasks were my top priority. I was overwhelmed with my new schedule and already struggling in one of my classes. Spring semester was off to a busy start.
Thankfully, by the end of the week things finally started slowing down a bit. At least that’s what I thought before I woke up on Friday morning to discover I had developed 2nd degree chemical burns under my armpits. I was utterly baffled as to how this happened. At first I thought maybe it was eczema so I went to CVS and bought myself some eczema cream and hydrocortisone. However, to my dismay these things only seemed to make the burning, red patches of skin beneath my arms even worse. That is when I decided it was time to research. With google as my weapon of choice, I took to the internet to discover whether or not others suffered from spontaneous underarm burns. After a little while searching, I came across a page where people had posted pictures of their underarms with rashes that resembled mine fairly closely. They claimed their chemical burns were the result of the popular Procter & Gamble product “Old Spice Deodorant.”
All of a sudden everything made sense. That night before I had woken up to pain under my arms, I had applied Old Spice deodorant. Old Spice was the cause of my agony. Apparently a series of people had also received 2nd degree chemical burns from various Old Spice products, some 12 year old children even had to be taken to the emergency room to get their burns treated. There is even an ongoing class action lawsuit against them because of how many people have suffered because of their products. All in all, Old Spice is not safe to use nor is it ethical for them to continue selling their products without warning of potential chemical burns. I can honestly say the healing process has been horrendous. My arms burned, oozed, and blistered for about a week. I could barely lift my arms up. Simple tasks like putting on a shirt or brushing my hair soon became impossible. My skin has started to peel off in chunks so as to make way for the new healthy skin taking the place of the burns. Old Spice is not worth this misery, save yourselves. For further information about the Old Spice chemical burns and class action lawsuit, check out this link https://rare.us/rare-news/across-the-u-s-a/old-spice-lawsuit/.