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No-one wants to walk around with a camel toe, where the woman's pants are tight enough to show the outline of the privates. Yet this is something that none of our friends or co-workers is probably going to bring to our attention. After all, who wants to acknowledge that they've been looking at that area?
Rest assured there is plenty you can do to avoid camel toe. Let's get started.
1. Always try on yoga pants or other tight pants before buying
This sounds obvious, but try on anything tight before buying it. Many change rooms have poor lighting though, and what might look like a perfectly smooth crotch area in the change room suddenly is a camel toe in the bright lighting of pilates class. Aaargh! To avoid this problem, when you bring the item home, keep your receipt and don't remove tags and wash it just yet. First try it on again in an area with plenty of light. If you catch a camel toe in your well-lit area of the home, then at least you'll be able to return your item since you haven't removed tags or washed it yet.
2. Buy tight items in dark colors
Even the slightest hint of a camel toe is always going to be way more obvious in light colors. So steer clear of white and light gray. Instead aim for black, navy blue, or dark gray. This is especially important when you want to avoid camel toeing in leggings.
3. Use a specialty product designed to hide a camel toe
Fortunately, there are a range of products for concealing camel toe on Amazon.com. Most of these are concealer pads that go inside your underpants, such as the well-known Cuchini pad. If you're not fond of the idea of a re-usable pad next to your skin and cleaning it, you may prefer this underwear with a built-in concealer pad. The pad is between two layers of fabric so it's not right next to your skin. Just throw the underwear in the washing machine as normal.
4. Use a pantyliner
Pantyliners are a cheap and easy way to prevent camel toeing in workout pants, leggings or other tight pants. I'd be willing to bet that most camel toes could be fixed easily with a pantyliner - when a woman has a strong camel toe, she's probably not wearing a pantyliner.
But be aware, pantyliners are not 100% foolproof: super-tight pants that ride up are going to be no match for your pantyliner.
5. Listen to your body
If an item doesn't feel comfortable between your legs, odds are you probably have a camel toe going on! Don't accept discomfort in that area - this approach will go a long way as a camel toe solution.
6. Shop around for different styles and brands of tight pants
What better reason to go shopping than to stop a camel toe? A different style of yoga pant or leggings in the same brand may be the welcome change you need. Or maybe trying a different brand altogether is the ticket for you.
Even if you don't have a full camel toe going on, you'll still want to avoid a v shape in leggings and other tight pants so it's worth shopping around. I recommend the leggings and yoga pants from Athleta.com because there are so many different styles and shapes available. You also have lots of colors to choose from - and as an added bonus Athleta is a lot more affordable than Lululemon.
7. Be careful with one-piece swimwear
The worst situation for camel toe is when the bottom part of your one-piece or two-piece swimwear rides up.
This is going to be way more likely to happen with one-piece items, especially if they're a little short from top to bottom. Yes, it's easy to think that a one-piece swimsuit is modest. But switching to a good bikini may actually provide more modesty in terms of preventing a camel toe because the bottom part of a bikini is less likely to ride up.
There is a lot of difference in how each item will work for you depending on its styling and shape, so your best bet is to try on different items in one piece and two piece.
8. Consider a longer length top
If you can wear a hip-length top with tight pants, that's going to help conceal a camel toe. Of course, depending on what you're wearing, you might not want to have a longer top. Understandably, certain types of gym activities just aren't going to work with a long top. For example in core exercise you'll want to make sure you and the instructor can see the position of your body with a short tight top. But if that's not your situation, then a top that skims the hips is going to really help ensure that the area isn't so readily visible to everyone.
9. Take a tip from models
Models who wish to avoid camel toe will often use a pantyliner, but not the regular way. So if wearing a pantyliner doesn't work the ordinary way as described in step 4, wrap it sideways in the crotch of your underwear, not long-ways. Place it a little more toward the front of your underwear, not right in the middle.
10. Go a size up if an item is a bit too tight
Don't feel bad about going a size up if something is a little too tight. After all, which is going to be more embarrassing for you: a) wearing a pants size tag one size up from your usual, which no-one will see, or b) camel toeing, which everyone will see?
Bonus if you like to show off your body
For exercise wear or swimwear, you'll certainly need to shop around and be careful what you wear to avoid camel toe. But outside of that, you're not relegated to baggy pants and shapeless tops! If you like to flaunt what you have, consider wearing more dresses and skirts. You can show off a great leg line without needing to wear tight pants. There is no way you can get a camel toe in a dress or skirt, so wear those more often.
Conclusion
Above we covered how not to have a camel toe, with 10 different strategies that you can use. All of these are very do-able. Now you know how to prevent camel toeing.
If you love wearing leggings or yoga pants, you might also like our article about occasions you can wear ballet slippers if you're not a dancer - they are girly and comfortable!
