Imagine going to the doctor because of pain in your legs and being told to start wearing pantyhose. You might laugh, or stalk out in indignation, but the reality is that your doctor’s advice is sound. Male pantyhose can help many physical complaints of the leg.

Women have known for a long time that support hose feel good on their legs, and in fact support hose are what make it possible to spend the day on four-inch heels without crying. Why should women be the only ones to enjoy the benefits?

Male pantyhose are specially made for men, usually with a fly and proportions that fit the male anatomy properly. Most men who try on a pair are very surprised at how good they feel! Support hose are made with varying amounts of elastic to provide compression and support. Some makers even make graduated compression hose, where the degree of compression gradually decreases as the stockings rise toward the heart. This kind of hose helps the blood flow back up from the legs so they don’t swell and ache.

Other health benefits can be found in wearing male pantyhose. Men who have to sit for a long time have reported that wearing support hose helps make it more endurable. A transatlantic flight for example, is absolutely certain to leave your feet puffy and painful when you stumble off the plane. Support stockings with feet can make a huge difference, enabling you to collect your baggage and find a taxi without feeling like you’re walking on rubber legs and feet.

Men whose feet are perpetually cold will also benefit from wearing male stockings. They may not need to wear the complete pantyhose; perhaps just knee-high stocking would be sufficient to give their feet an extra layer of warmth under the socks and slacks. Stockings do provide a surprising amount of warmth, yet are so thin they don’t add a bulky layer that makes the shoes tight. Some stockings and male pantyhose can be found that are made with special thermal material that makes them even warmer. Men with Raynaud’s disease will especially benefit from wearing male pantyhose.

Fortunately, men don’t need to wait for a doctor to prescribe male pantyhose in order to wear them. Since many athletes have started wearing hose and tights, they are slowly becoming more and more socially acceptable. They are available without a prescription, and can be ordered online from the privacy of your own home.

Men have been wearing tights for centuries, and really only in the most recent century has there been a stigma associated with wearing tights for men.  Indeed, nowadays only athletes can get away with wearing them in public, and only when actually playing their sport.  Yet the benefits of wearing tights extend far beyond the playing field. For one thing, tights are arguably the most comfortable garment ever invented, as is evidenced by the fact that men have been wearing them for so long.

During the time of the Italian Renaissance, paintings from the early 16th century depict men wearing what appears to be the equivalent of pantyhose. Some men wore codpieces over their private parts; others wore close-fitting knee-length pants. This fashion makes sense actually, considering that riding horses was the main method of transportation in that era.

In the 17th century, the practice of wearing male stockings continued, were called “cannions.” The men wore “paned” or “pansied round hose” on top, which reached from the waist to about mid- to lower-thigh and were full at the bottom, close fitting at the top. As the century drew past its midpoint, the round hose turned into breeches, which ended just at the knee or just below it. The cannions became known as stockings and usually ended at the knee and were held up with garters that also held the breeches closed.
This fashion continued until the early 1800’s when breeches finally were replaced with trousers. It’s uncertain whether men continued to wear stockings under their trousers, perhaps for added warmth, or not. Regardless, the advent of the trouser spelled an end to the social acceptability of tights for men. Not even when swimming were men pictured in tights. Of course circus performers and ballet dancers wore tights, and even as late as the 1950’s saw boys in Europe wearing lederhosen, but as far as mainstream dressing goes, tights for men were gone.

After that, it’s extremely difficult to find any reference to a man wearing tights in public for any reason other than to dance on a stage, until 1979 when soccer player Keith Weller wore a pair of his wife’s tights during an FA Cup game because he was suffering from groin strain. Since then, more and more athletes have been wearing sport tights during game and practices, and if you stroll around a large city park in the autumn, you might see some men shooting hoops wearing tights for extra warmth.

As the fashion cycle rolls slowly around back to its beginning, tights for men are showing up on runways and in metropolitan areas, although it will take quite a while longer for men’s tights to become mainstream fashion again.

While many women’s rights activists have fought hard so that women can be treated as equals to men, any attempt to fight for equivalent male rights has been trounced soundly. Therefore men have yet to achieve the right openly partake of all things “women,” up to and including men’s tights.

The term “metrosexual” male was originally coined to refer to heterosexual men who are concerned with their appearance and therefore might be considered by other men as being aligned with the homosexual lifestyle. However, more recently it is coming to mean the ability of men to take care of themselves any way they want…not just in stereotypical male ways like working out, getting buzz cuts and shaving in the shower to save time.
Why wouldn’t a man want to have soft, itch-free skin? Why shouldn’t he be entitled to have an attractive hair style that requires use of hair products and a blow dryer? Why can’t a man spend hours shopping for a flattering outfit that makes him look good?

In short, he can’t because it makes him look gay. Unfortunately for all men, the need to disassociate themselves with all that is gay is still a real force in what is socially acceptable for a man to do. The metrosexual revolution is slowly changing that, especially in the more metropolitan areas of the U.S. and Europe.

Men can now get their hair “done,” get manicures, facials, pedicures and more without too many other men or women looking askance. Men can also shop at the myriad of stores that cater to metropolitan males without sneaking in the back door, but he probably can’t enjoy a latte with shopping bags at his feet unless he has a female companion. Change moves slowly.

The clothing a man wears is also still firmly anchored in the past. Women are free to wear anything and everything that a man can wear, but let a man put on a skirt or a pair of men’s tights and he is instantly labeled as a cross-dresser or transvestite. Why is this? Men can enjoy and benefit from wearing male hosiery just as much as women. They keep your legs warm, they feel good, they’re comfortable; why shouldn’t all men be allowed to wear male tights?

A mirdle is another clothing item in hot contention. It is male version of the girdle that women have been wearing for centuries to improve their figures. Just about any women will tell you that a flabby stomach on a male is singularly unattractive, but let anyone discover that a man is wearing a girdle and he is cast out of that warm group of socially acceptable males.

From lotion to hair mouse to mirdles to men’s tights…the men of the world should be allowed to wear whatever they want, wherever they want without fear of being outcast or humiliated by public shortsightedness. Men of the world, unite!  Be free from dress codes that are moribund. Wear what you damn well please.

Ever wondered why some men look so good in those skin tight jeans? It’s not because they are wearing them against their skin! Many men have turned to wearing male tights as slimming underwear because of the support and body sculpting they offer. Like womens lingerie, male tights shape the buttocks, the thighs and help control the distribution of stomach fat. Is this the end of the rugged male? Hardly! Men have been wearing mens tights for centuries!

Male tights are not a new phenomenon and have been seen in several cultures going back for several centuries. European fashions dictated that men wear tights going past their knees as this was the dress of aristocrats. Portraits of English and French kings and queens show what appears to be knee and thigh high male tights. Men in India also wore the precursor to tights, called “churidar”, which are super tight fitting thin cloth pants. These pants are typically worn in very formal social occasions and had synthetic fibers been available, would have been incorporated in the style of the dress. Of course, there are those who wear male tights to cross-dress but male tights have been a part of the mainstream fashion scene for many centuries.

Male tights are not only fashionable but comfortable and even healthy. Diabetics also wear tights to increase blood circulation and prevent blood from pooling in the legs. Male tights protect the skin, shape the legs and promote better lower body circulation by compressing the feet. They provide additional warmth in cooler climates and serve as great insulation. The compression of the fabric on the skin protects against loss of moisture and also protects errant hairs. The fashion industry predicts sales of male tights and similar underwear garment to rise as runners and athletes look for light flexible legwear with good insulating properties.

The main reason though, for growth in sales for male tights, is that it has become socially acceptable for men to wear tighter clothing. From shows like Queer Eye for Straight Guy to Lance Armstrong popularizing biking to football players, tights are in. Men no longer have to wax and shave their legs to fit into tighter, less comfortable fabrics. Some women also prefer men who wear male tights as it serves as a form of male lingerie.

Pantyhose were introduced in this country in the women’s market circa 1959. However, there are now some companies who market male pantyhose, otherwise termed as “mantyhose”. Many men have found that pantyhose provide them solid support, although a lot of gentlemen today still prefer to wear them incognito, although not all.

There are those fellows who utilize male pantyhose when hunting, camping, or riding horses, the latter to reduce chafing. Also, some sports figures, such as football players, will sometimes wear them, particularly under their uniforms, when the weather is cold. Also, some scuba divers will don them, as protection from both jellyfish and cold waters. Then, too, there are the guys who wear them to relieve varicose veins or other circulatory problems. Of course, there are always those men who wear pantyhose because they enjoy cross dressing or fetishes.

So, there are now a number of companies who market openly to men. Frequently, a sales pitch here could include the desired qualities of comfort, compression, and energizing tired or painful leg muscles. Sheer comfort is often emphasized in these cases, with respect to male pantyhose.
In addition, when it comes to male pantyhose, one can find opaque, sheer, and various colors, as well as the tights variety. Some men’s nylons are also made of very substantial material, in order to assist with vein disorders like thrombosis and lymphedema.

Men or women buying for their men should consider some aspects during their purchases. To shave or not to shave? Remember that hairspray and clear nail polish may be employed to stop runs in mens hosiery, just as is the case with females and their pantyhose.

And for those men who are still resistant? Well, they can readily turn to history, for cases of men wearing pantyhose! For example, during the heyday of the Roman Empire, workers frequently wore pants as tight as any hosiery! And, during the Renaissance, men of all classes wore hose that were tighter than any pants. Generally, the tightest ones were often the most expensive, and considered also the most manly! Furthermore, women were never allowed to wear such garments. So, it’s actually safe to say that maybe the male pantyhose were around, long before those pantyhose designed specifically for females!

To many people tights for men evokes memories of the the Robin Hood Men in Tights movie. But you no longer need to go to the local renaissance fair to see men wearing tights, as tights are making a move into the fashion mainstream.

Over in Europe and the UK, men wearing tights is a common scene. There are manufacturers and stores that cater to the men in tights movement. In face, this fashion trend never really disappeared, but it seems to rise and fall about every ten years. The European tights for men fashion scene is at its height and ready to spill over to the United States.

In the United States, the tights for men fashion craze is much more subdued. While you may not see men on the street wearing the thinner footed tights, the heavier tights and legggings designed for the sports market and extremely popular. Case in point is the Underarmor craze.

Underarmor makes a line a spandex leggings, tights, and tight fitting shirts for specially designed for athletes. You can often see baseball and football players wearing these products. The reason why the technical fabric is so popular is that in the summertime the lightweight tights and spandex shirts move moisture away from the body, keeping you cool. In the wintertime, heavy weight tights for men keep you warm by creating a warm air barrier between you skin and elements.

Seeing pro athletes wearing tights has a positive impact on men wearing tights. Tights are an excellent clothing choice for weight training and cardio exercises. The material in the tights compresses the muscles, reducing fatigue and giving support during exercise. Tights for men is also an excellent clothing choice for yoga and stretching exercises. The material is very flexible and gives you unrestricted movement while providing excellent coverage during demanding yoga routines.

If there could be a downside to wearing tights it would be public acceptance. Tights for men is still a slightly unusual sight in public, although the trend is catching on and more and more men can be seen wearing tights. People easily associate runners and bikers with wearing tights, but when they can be seen worn casually in public, then you will know that the mens tights movement has hit its stride.