Engagement rings and wedding bands are beautiful reminders of your love and devotion to that special someone you chose to spend the rest of your life with. These rings are likely the most stunning and valuable pieces of jewelry you own and something you wear with great pride and adoration. Traditionally, these bridal sets should be worn every day for the rest of your lives together. Yet, this does not mean you should never take the rings off. Your engagement ring and wedding band need special care because it is figuratively and literally precious – figuratively, it is precious to you due to its deeper meaning, whereas literally, it is made of easily damaged precious metals and stones. Therefore, you should proactively avoid wearing this valuable jewelry during situations that could easily cause you to lose or damage it. So, that leaves us with an interesting question, when should you remove your engagement ring?
Sweaty Activities
Bridal sets are perfectly sized to fit snugly on your ring finger, but this does not ensure that the rings will not fall off. With enough moisture, any ring can become loose. When combined with lots of movement, your precious ring could then slip off. Activities like working out, hiking, sports, and dancing are all perfect opportunities for this disaster to take place. To make matters worse, these activities are also typically done in large public areas and natural environments – places where it would be nearly impossible to retrace your steps to find your lost ring! And nobody wants that to happen.
Straight halo engagement rings like RQ9887W are much more likely to slip off during sweaty activities. Thin bands have less surface area to hold onto your finger with and the heavy head creates a stronger gravitational pull when your arms are swinging around. Additionally, due to the soft malleability of gold and platinum, this delicate band could easily bend and dent during weight training workouts or rock climbing. When bands lose their structural integrity, the prongs could bend, causing diamonds to come loose and fall out. So, for these heart-pounding activities, we suggest leaving your ring at home in your jewelry box. It is best to keep this valuable symbol of love safe and secure. Besides, it will be ready to be put back on once you’ve returned and showered.
Water-Based Activities
We all want to show off our engagement rings to friends and family during fun outings, or for playful social media posts. Unfortunately, the potential attention and photo-ops are often not worth the risk. First, cold water can shrink your finger size, making it much easier for your already wet and slippery ring to slide off. Second, a shimmering ring like R1053W might be easy to see on hard dry surfaces, but it will camouflage and disappear forever in the glistening waters of lakes, rivers, and oceans. You can even lose your ring in a pool because it could get sucked down a drain. And if you only lose the center stone, you are even less likely to find it than if you lost the entire ring while swimming. Third, both chlorinated water and saltwater can tarnish and discolor the gems and metal of your ring. So take our advice: Just have fun in the sun without the extra touch of sparkle and shine on your left hand. And if you really want a gorgeous engagement ring photo from one of these swimming spots, have your photo shoot before you go into the water, and then safely place your rings back in a cushioned jewelry box.
Messy Activities
Some water-based activities are also dangerous because they are messy, like washing dishes, cars, or pets. Wearing an engagement ring while cleaning is unwise because the sand, dirt, and grime you are washing away will get lodged in between the prongs and beneath the diamonds. Due to the delicate nature of engagement rings and wedding bands, it takes a long time to clean this gunk out of a ring. And we doubt anyone would want to risk banging or catching their rings on cars, dishes, and hairy pets – that is also a recipe for disaster!
Just think of all the nooks and crannies grime can get stuck in on a ring like RQ9901WP. Any ring with stylized diamond shanks have a lot more places to get dirty. Every accent diamond, split in the shank, golden spiral or crisscross, and milgrain or filigree accented detail are all prime candidates for getting very dirty. And depending on the substance getting stuck in your ring, the difficulty cleaning it could be even harder! For example: Gardening, cooking, arts and crafts, and DIY home improvements can get fertilizer, plant life, food, paints, wood, drywall, or stain wedged in the grooves of your rings – drywall might clean out easily, but paints will not.
And if you think wearing gloves will help avoid damaging your rings, think again! Gloves are often tight and made of materials that can attach to and pull the prongs and diamonds. Anyways, it wouldn’t be comfortable wearing a big diamond ring under a glove. So, we suggest that if you plan on getting down and dirty, don’t wear your glittering diamond and gold jewelry.
Self-Care Activities
Primping yourself is almost as damaging to your rings as primping your home or garden. Whether you are getting ready for bed by using cleansers and moisturizers or getting ready to go out by using hair products and perfumes, you are putting your ring in harm’s way. These products are made with chemicals that might be great for our hair and skin but will tarnish and corrode all our fine jewelry, not just our engagement rings. These products also get stuck in the nooks and crannies of rings just like dirt does, dulling the diamond’s sparkle and clouding the metal’s shine. Imagine how sad this twisted pave-diamond halo ring would look covered in lotion and hairspray. R1006W would lose almost all its stunning luster, at least until you found the time and products to properly clean it. Even soaps can harm your ring, so when showering, you should take your bridal set off, whereas you typically don’t have to remove it for washing your hands unless you are using an exfoliating hand soap. But remember to place the ring somewhere safe while you are getting ready. Many people have had the great misfortune of placing their ring on the sink, then knocking it down the drain, never to be seen again.
Another self-care activity that you might not consider dangerous for your jewelry is sleep, especially if you toss and turn a lot. Your sheets, blankets, and pillows are all very comfy and cozy but are made of fibers that easily catch the prongs and stones on your engagement ring and wedding band, just like gloves. If you move a lot in your sleep, you increase the chances of having your ring lose diamonds in your bedding. It simply isn’t worth the risk, especially since you cannot even appreciate your rings while sleeping anyways. And without a doubt, you will wake up on the wrong side of the bed if you arise to find a bunch of side stones or the glorious center stone missing from your ring. Pave-set rings like R162W are defined by the ocean of accent diamonds along their shank. This puts this style of ring in greater risk of losing all those sparkling side stone diamonds during the night, which would be heartbreaking. So, to be safe, make removing your bridal set part of your nighttime ritual before you go to bed.
Follow this simple but vital engagement ring mantra passed down through the generations: your engagement ring should be the last thing you put on before you leave the house and the first thing you take off when you get home. Unless you are leaving the home for any of the dangerous activities we’ve discussed of course, because then you should not wear it!
Final List of Activities
Even though this list of activities not suited for wearing engagement rings seems long, do not worry! The number of situations that ARE perfectly suited for wearing an engagement ring is much larger and more common. In fact, you can wear it, show it off, and bask in its sparkling glory for most of your waking life! For example, your bridal set is perfectly suited while at work, driving, going out to eat or out on the town to see a show, shopping, hanging out with friends, or even just sitting on the couch with the one you love. The most important thing is that you make sure to take your engagement ring off at the right moments to avoid the hassle of having to clean it later, or even worse, the having to replace it later. Treat your rings with the delicacy and care of the everlasting love it symbolizes, so that is can last a lifetime.
For a quick overview, here is a list of activities that are dangerous for your engagement ring and wedding band. So, before doing any of these fun, healthy, and essential tasks, we suggest removing and safely storing your engagement ring and wedding band. And with that, we wish you, your love, and your precious bridal set a long and wonderful life together!
Sweat-Inducing Activities:
- Working out, especially cardio and weight training
- Hiking
- Dancing, especially in crowded places like clubs and bars
- Playing sports
Water-Based Activities:
- Swimming in natural and chlorinated water
- Going to the beach
- Cleaning the dishes
- Washing your pets
- Hand washing your car
Messy Activities
- Gardening
- Cooking
- Arts and crafts
- DIY home improvement projects
- Anything that requires gloves
Self-Care Activities
- Sleeping, especially if you toss and turn
- When applying soaps, perfumes, hair products, lotions, or other chemicals to your body with your hands, like when showering or getting ready to go out
- Dying or bleaching your hair
