When should you not wear your engagement ring?

Congratulations! You're engaged! And chances are you never want that ring to come off. You're excited and can't help but marvel at the band that fits snug around your finger. 

Here's where I break the bad news to you.

Don't wear your ring all the time.

It isn't indestructible— and neither you. This guide is designed to take the guesswork out of the question "Should I wear it?"

Why you should trust me: I'm somewhere between a jeweler and a blacksmith. I make everything from standard rings to wedding bands. I pound hammers into the steel while they're on the surface of an anvil. I've beat the living **** out of most of my rings to test their limits. Exposing them to corrosive agents, extreme forces, and impact tests designed to break, chip, and wear them down. I've worked with my hands while they were still on my fingers (we'll get to why this is a disaster waiting to happen). And I've done my research. Not only asking professionals in various fields (construction, medical, and food service, etc) what rings they can wear, but diving into the available research on injuries that people have sustained while wearing their ring.

If you want to keep your ring (and finger) in good shape, I'm your guy.

10 Things You Should Never Do When Wearing Your Engagement Ring:

The mantra: Remove your ring— protect your ring

1. Working Out:
   
   However we identify, we all have days where we don't want to get hit on. Fight the urge and leave the ring at home. Every metal on the planet will scratch when it meets something harder than it is. With materials like gold, silver, and even stainless steel— hand weights and bars will eat that finish faster than any of us want. Fitness is important, I know. I used to weigh 250 pounds and have been at a fit 170 for over a decade. I go stir crazy when I can't train. But unless you're doing a resiliency test of your ring's finish and gemstone settings, take your rings off before your sweat session.
   
   
   
2. Cleaning the House/Washing the Dishes:
   
   Household cleaners and bleach are really rough on gold and precious metals. Scratch that. Most metals. Not only are rings generally uncomfortable when you have your cleaning tools in your hands, neither your hands nor your precious jewelry should be exposed to those harsh chemicals. Just think about a diamond ring sitting in some bleach. The last thing you want is some cleaning agent reacting with the metal or the diamonds. Wearing gloves is a great alternative (though I hate the feeling of having a ring shoved into the webbing of my fingers), but in all honesty, it's better to find a safe place to leave your ring until your done cleaning.
   
   
3. Messy Crafts and anything around power tools or machinery:
   
   DIY boomed hard in the pandemic, and for good reason: it's fun to make things. Especially when it comes to your wedding. But stow the rings somewhere safe before you get started. I've gotten a whole container of E6000 adhesive on a ring before. The glue wouldn't come out and I just kept squeezing till boom. The gemstones on that ring were covered. All the cleaning products in the world couldn't scrub that gunk off.
   
   Machinery and jewelry is a recipe for disaster. I could go into detail about dislocated fingers, full amputations, and something called degloving— but I won't. Don't test your luck. This is something you should never do while wearing fine jewelry. Take off your engagement ring before you go near them.
   
   
4. Playing Sports or Swimming:
   
   Either leave your ring at home or find a safe box so you can stow in your gym bag. And always lock up your belongings.  No one wants to see their diamond engagement ring fly across the floor or court. And if you're a swimmer, all I can do is cringe thinking about the salt or chlorine getting at your ring. Plus your have to worry about the cold water causing your fingers to shrink. This results in your ring size temporarily shrinking and you may lose your ring at the bottom of the pool. Water activites and rings are not a good match. Take off your ring.
   
   
5. Moving or Lifting Heavy Furniture:
   
   I like to think of it this way. Would I wear an expensive decorative watch? When it comes to moving? **** no! Take it off. Put your ring in a safe place, and put it back on when your done. The bumping and scratching just isn't worth it when you would be looking at your ring later that day.
   
   
6. Gardening:
   
   The dirty truth about gardening is that dirt can get lodged in the smallest crevice and settle beneath your stone. Believe me, you'd be amazed at how one dark spot can throw off the appearance of your precious ring. Rocks and other hard objects commonly found in soil can also scratch the ring itself. Leave the ring in the house until you're done playing in the mud.
   
   
7. Washing Your Hands/Taking a Shower:
   
   Water, soaps, and chemicals in your cleansers will eat away at your ring. Soap and hard water make your ring dirtier rather than clean. I know that sounds off— but I've experimented with a lot of different cleaners and detergents with my jewelry. Some are downright awful. Generally, the less concentrated, the better. Soaps will often leave a film that dulls the finish of your ring. Plus the ring gets in the way of achieving clean hands. Bacteria gets stuck in crevice between your finger and ring. It's why you can't wear them in food service or any other envionment where you need to wash you hands all the time.
   
   
8. Putting on Lotion:
   
   Be sure to take your rings off before slathering the beauty products on. Not only can the chemicals in lotions eat away at your ring, they also result in your diamonds and the metal losing their sparkle, especially if you let the lotion residue sit for a long time. Is it hard for a professional to get that gunk off? No. But rememeber, your ring is not indestructible. It's the little things that add up over time. Be diligent and remove your engagement ring before your self-care routine.
   
   
9. Sleeping:
   
   I highly recommend that you don’t sleep with your rings on. Two words: Battle wounds. It's not hard to scratch your partner or slap them across the face (by accident of course) in the middle of the night. It's also common to scratch up and tear your sheets if one of the ring's prongs catches the fabric the right way. Put the ring in a safe spot and get some well deserved rest.
   
   
10. Doing Laundry:
    
    I understand that laundry isn’t necessarily a heavy-duty job (for most), but I wanted to throw this in. I always take my rings and watch off before throwing anything in a washing machine or dryer. I recommend exercising caution when loading & unloading. It's really easy to whack your ring along the rim of the drum or scrape it down the side while reaching for the wet clothes. Not only that, you don’t want to accidentally snag it on clothes you love while folding.

 

Bonus: Wearing jewelry in the workplace. How wearing your wedding ring at work is a hazard that puts you at risk for ring avulsion injuries.

Believe it or not, our rings can put us at risk for sufferring serious, irreversable injuries.

It's more obvious in industries where someone is around machines powerful enough to rip their arm off. But what about employees who move boxes, or work from behind a desk? Are they at risk of serious injury while working and wearing a metal ring around their finger.

Metal rings are troublesome from a safety standpoint, especially when we consider that wedding bands are usually an item that's worn a lot. With most rings being thin (3mm to  5mm), the danger usually lies in the ring getting caught.

Feel free to search for ring avulsion out of morbid curoiusity. There are many horror stories where someone slips in their kitchenand in an attempt to catch themself, they reach for the counter only to catch their ring on the edge and do some horrible damage to their finger.

The force causes the ring to be removed from the finger.

Except the ring doesn't come off.

Which means the finger is what gives. Sometimes all the skin is ripped off (degloving). Other times severe tissue damage occurs as one side of the ring digs into the finger and is forcefully wanked away from the hand. It's not uncommon for amputations to result from the injury as the damage can be severe enough that the finger can't be saved.

I've seen workers in industries that should not be wearing jewelry. I myself only wear my rings and jewelry out for special occaisions.

Injury Prevention: Wear your wedding band when you go out to eat, but not when you go to work.

This is what I recommend: If you work around machinery, leave it off. Wearing a ring (or wearing rings) while you work with your hands is almost always an OSHA violation. I worked construction and food retail before. I wore rings at times doing both. I'm lucky to still have all my fingers,

Rings and wedding bands are symbolic and carry an important meaning for most of us. But it's too easy for a ring to get caught on something. Work environments are hazardous and workplace accidents happen. Metal jewelry around our fingers puts us at risk for a serious injury that is entirely preventable. Even while moving boxes, you can try to catch something heavy, only for the box to catch the ring and do some serious damage to your hand.

Don't put yourself at higher risk.

Leave your jewelry at home.

The Research

If you're like me and can't stand someone spouting information with little to proof, this part is for you. Here's what the available research on ring avulsion injuries has to say.

In a study done using cadavers, it was determined that the force required to induce a class 3 invulsion injury was 154 N (the force required to induce a class 1 injury was 80 N). the n stands for newtons and a quick conversion to something more recognizable in the west puts our required force at 34.6 pounds of force (class 3) and 17.9 pounds of force (class 1).

It's important to understand a few things from this study. First, it was done on cadaver fingers. Second these numbers are averages. There were instances in the study where a force less than 40N (8.99 pounds of force) resulted in amputation of the finger.

Some other information to help you draw your own conclusions:

• A hook was secured to the inside of the band on the inside of the finger. This simulates the most common way in which the ring will get caught outside of the lab. This hook was secured to a load cell (what measured the force)and the data was fed/ processed by a computer.
• The way the researchers produced force was by attaching a 30 lb weight to the ulna of the cadaver arm. The weight fell 23 cm before putting any force on the arm.

The link to the full article can be found here.

What about silicone bands?

Silicone bands have become popular in recent years as an appropriate replacement for people whocan't wear rings at work.

Another study took a look at these bands to determine if the public perception is accurate.

These ressearchers determined that the failure force (when the band broke) for silicone rings average 53 N. This is drastically lower than the 495 N average where the metal bands broke.

This study also used cadaver fingers. Instead of pulling the arm away from the ring like in the previous study, this one fixed the forearm to a custom fixture. they preloaded (applied 2 N of tension) to the ring before placing the test forces upon it.

If we compare these numbers with those of the previous study. The force at which the silicone rings break on average is below the threshold required to cause a severe ring avulsion injury. This means they may help reduce or prevent injury.

My take based on the available data.

I'm not entirely sold on the silicone bands. First, if something catches on them, they aren't going to break away before pulling your hand with it.

This means no chance in hell am I wearing them around powertools.

Second, the second study reported no deglovings (when all the skin is pulled off), which is promising.

But for me, I just don't see the point in wearing them. While I'm horrified at the idea of losing all the skin on my finger because a metal ring caught, I'm also worried about my ring ctaching and through shear force rupturing blood vessels, nerves, and all the other soft tissue.

I work with my hands, and need them to survive. I don't want to undergo multiple surgeries because I thought I was safe wearing a silicone band, when it turns out I wasn't and they still held up under enough force a seriously **** up my finger.

At the end of the day my recommendation stays the same.

Unless you're going out to dinner, hanging out with friends, or taking it easy— Just take the ring off. Protect yourself and your ring.