Persistent, Mild Redness

Strap in, you’re in for a long ride.

What’s really difficult to know is whether or not your glans or foreskin inflammation is from friction and chafing, irritants or infection.

In general, inflammation of the glans is called “Balanitis”. This is just a textbook or clinical term for inflammation of the glans penis, but it doesn’t explain the why or the cause of it.

This is similar to the word Dermatitis, except this means skin inflammation, not glans inflammation. Balanitis is more specific for the penis but is ironically a generic term applied to a mucosal membrane tissue experiencing inflammation without a known cause.

If you’re uncircumcised and DON’T have an infection, and are dealing with a general, persistent redness on your glans, it’s likely due to the glans being too dry.

At some point, somehow or another, you either did something or experienced something that removed enough lipids from the skin of your glans and started to experience water loss or moisture retention.

This is called Transepidermal Water Loss or TEWL for short.

Oil in general repels water. So by knowing that, it can also seal in water in the skin, too.

The difference here is, the layer of oils on or in the glans before they are disrupted or removed are extra thin. Due to how thin they are, this allows the skin to have a revolving door—with regular gentle hygiene (rinsing with a gentle stream of lukewarm water daily, and no soap), it blocks excess moisture, irritants and microbes from penetrating the skin, but is also light enough that it allows the skin to release excess moisture and dead skin when it needs to cycle.

Put simply, this is the skin “breathing”—the glans and inner foreskin remain healthy through a delicate moisture balance.

The minute something like a build up of smegma traps too much moisture underneath it, it creates a miniature greenhouse effect. You have to realize what’s happening.

In this example, you have your foreskin + a thick, dried smegma layer covering the glans. The trapped moisture begins to weaken the skin below the smegma layer. The skin starts to macerate and breakdown, and the whole system gets fucked up. Instead of regulating moisture by breathing, the body classifies this as damage and inflames the area by sending in the troops—more blood and repair cells to replace the damaged skin.

The reverse is true: strip the lipids from the skin from soaps, scented shower gels or chafe the glans from rough sex that was a little on the dry side—and bam, you end up with a glans that can’t seal in moisture and the result is dryness.

This makes it more vulnerable to friction, irritants and microbes because the spaces between skin cells are wide open for invasion. Think of a brick wall without mortar in between each brick.

The sucky part is, even though the glans has Tyson glands to bring a small amount of lipids over time, they are way too slow compared to the rate of how quickly opportunistic microbes like fungus and anaerobic bacteria invade damaged skin. These microbes will penetrate and proliferate in the skin over the course of a few days—well before you may even notice!

The reason why is, mainly for fungus is, candida fungus is always present in human skin but it’s kept in check by good bacteria. This means that with a healthy presence of good bacteria, they out-compete all other microbes, preventing them from overpopulating. Not only do they do that, but they also maintain a slightly acidic pH of around 5.5. This balances this delicate micro-environment under the foreskin similar to the inside of a woman’s vagina except, it’s less acidic by comparison.

Here’s another kicker:

In order for good bacteria to live and survive, they need skin oil aka “lipids”. Without the oil, bacteria don’t have a home!

This is one of the reasons why soap is effective at keeping your hands clean—it breaks down and removes the oil that picked up germs and bacteria’s from the environment.

So, what is the point of me explaining all of this?

The point is:

If you don’t have an infection or any sort of serious skin condition such as eczema, BXO, or Lichen Sclerosis and are experiencing just a mild, persistent redness on the glans—it is likely barrier damage, dryness and a lack of water retention.

The answer to this is using targeted, thin film patches of barrier ointment such as VASELINE or AQUAPHOR, on a temporary basis.

These ointments, by themselves, have no actual “active” ingredients that treat skin medicinally.

What they do is provide what’s known as occlusion at different degrees or percentages.

Occlusion is the degree at which an ointment seals in moisture and doesn’t allow gas or moisture to escape.

Vaseline is 100% occlusive, acting as an impenetrable wall.

Aquaphor is semi-occlusive at around 41%. It seals, but allows some gas exchange to occur.

Now, either one is good to use on a temporary basis over 24-72 hours, applied 1x daily.

It’s difficult to say which one is better to use because everyone’s skin reacts to different things. You have to see what your skin tolerates and what it doesn’t.

The way to apply either one is:

RBA is the first step. RBA stands for: Rinse, Blot dry and Air Dry

More specifically:

• Use a gentle stream of lukewarm water to rinse your glans and inner foreskin. No soaps, no gels, no harsh rinsing (like blasting your glans with hot water). Lukewarm water rinsing without rubbing, soap or gels is standard hygiene for uncircumcised men.

• Blot or “pat” dry gently using a soft bath towel, toilet paper or paper towel. Never towel rub or cause friction.

• Air dry for 2 minutes. (Air drying is open air exposure, not the use of forced air from a blow dryer. Standing 3-4 feet in front of a gentle fan breeze is OK, though.)

• Take a rice grain sized amount of either ointment and rub it between your fingers so it flattens out and forms a thin film.

• Apply that thin film to the red affected area, NOT your entire glans. (Remember: delicate moisture balance. You don’t want to occlude your entire glans if it isn’t necessary!)

• After applying, free-ball in loose cotton shorts to maximize air flow and moisture control from sweating. Sleep in them or sleep naked.

• The way to safely remove Vaseline or Aquaphor is by using a drop or two of Jojoba oil (100% organic, cold pressed). What you do is, spread it over the ointment and gently move it around with your finger tip without using a lot of pressure.

• After the jojoba oil pre-soak, RBA again and repeat this process.

I hope this helps you.

Good luck.