I feel the same about laundering your clothing before wearing it. I find that if I launder my clothing, it gets rid of many harsh chemicals that tend to irritate my skin.

Another thing that helps is to use an organic detergent. It's more gentle on you and your clothing than the typical big box brands.

I notice that my irritation with certain things (hair in my face, stray hairs in my shirt, dirt on the bottom of my bare feet, etc.) gets worse with my levels of anxiety. Going Paleo has definitely helped overall (about an 80% reduction in anxiety levels), but I still get spikes of trouble occasionally.

I find that dealing with this is akin to having any other difficult ongoing issue. It takes constant monitoring and adapting. Mindfulness training has been very helpful to me, both yoga and meditation. Understanding that we can't control everything, including the #$%@damn hairs that fall into my shirt, is key.

I wish you luck!

I agree with some of the other comments. Sensory perception disorder. Sensitive to noise, smell, skin sensitivity, taste. A host of things really. My daughter suffers from almost all of those and I from some.

I've seen a difference with the Paleo diet and lifestyle especially. Every thing natural from cleaning products, toothpaste, no over stimulation (no tv, noise, etc)........no artificial fibers, soaps.

For my daughter finally no more constant itching. I never even think about buying her blouses, high collars, I cut all the tags out, No WOOL, Grock forbid polyester.

Cold water for washing hands- a no go. Everything mild!!!

And I don't agree you need to learn to tolerate some things. You need to listen to your body more, respect it and get back to nature.

Why force your body to do what it does not want to do. So you can slide nicely down hill with the rest of the world?

Clothing always needs to be washed prior to wearing the first time because of the chemicals used in manufacture. (My mother-in-law would get a bad reaction just folding shirts in her retail shop.) Hypo-allergenic "clear" detergent can help but also the trick is to cut way back on the amount of detergent used. Unless you get your clothes muddy there's no reason to use as much as the corporations claim you need to get your clothes clean.

Is this something you've always had or is it a new issue? My son has a form of autism called asperger's syndrome and along with that is something called sensory processing disorder. He's very sensitive to fabrics on his skin and at 15 only wears more than shorts if forced to. He's also sensitive to sound (noisy restaurants, screaming babies etc) bother him more than the average person. As far as fixing the problem, I don't believe there is a fix, you just learn to tolerate these things that annoy you.

Roderick Usher was hyperesthetic. I don't know if that's good company or not. Tactile hypersensitivity might explain the general Paleo aversion to shirts.

I usually just walk around my house naked. But tolerate clothing while out or at work.

Sensitive skin, I have it too. If a tag is touching it can drive me to madness. If you can find a super soft T to wear underneath it helps. But the problem is in the skin, could be over dry or just so irritated it feels like pins and needles.

Some relief from aquaphor, an over the counter ointment applied daily.