Lip Balm Addiction

Lip balm addiction: myth or fact?

Becca Dargatz

Staff Writer

Lip balm addiction can start off very innocently, one morning you wake up only to find out your lips are a little chapped. You make your way into the bathroom, searching through a drawer until you find a tube of lip balm and carelessly apply it to your lips. Sounds okay right?

For some people, it is not a huge problem. You simply apply it when needed, and put it away until you need it again. The other people however, who find that they need to apply it obsessively compulsively have a problem. Chap Stick, a world wide known brand of lip balm, entered the mainstream consumer market in the early 1970s, Carmex, Blistex, and Vaseline are Chap Stick's biggest competitors. In an article entitled Ð''Why Chap Stick is Addictive,' Sabah Karimi states Chap Stick may have some addictive properties, but likely just requires constant reapplication. If a constant Chap Stick habit is taking over your life, some believe it may classify it as an actual addiction. According to American Heritage Dictionary, addiction is defined as: compulsive physiological and psychological need for a habit-forming substance; the condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or involved in something.

Senior Alex Robertson and junior Liam Culhane, both students at Watertown High School stated that they apply some form of lip balm approximately three times a day. Lindsey Hirsch and Nicole Carter stated that they can apply it up to seven times a day.

"My favorite lip balm is from Bath and Body Works, the mint kind (in the green tube), I only apply it a few times a day, but my friend Travis Loof, constantly applies Chap Stick." Robertson said.

On a recent internet survey it was found that most women enjoy lip gloss over lip stick, and will only use lip balms when their lips are dry or chapped. Most males, however, use plain lip balms.

"I prefer the plain Chap Stick," Culhane said.

Jared Leighton, a grad student at the University of Nebraska Lincoln does not use lip balm very often, approximately every two days and does not believe that lip balm can be addicting. Brent Konvalin, a teacher at Watertown High School, believes that lip balm addiction is completely