Ringworm spreads through direct skin contact, contact with infected animals, and touching contaminated surfaces or objects. Preventing it comes down to three things: keeping your skin clean and dry, avoiding shared personal items, and disinfecting surfaces where the fungus lives. Here’s how to do each one effectively.
How Ringworm Spreads
Despite the name, ringworm isn’t caused by a worm. It’s a fungal infection caused by dermatophytes, organisms that feed on keratin in your skin, hair, and nails. The fungus spreads in three main ways: human to human through direct skin contact or shed skin cells on surfaces, animal to human through fur or skin, and indirectly through contaminated objects like towels, brushes, or gym equipment.
The fungus thrives in warm, moist environments. Locker rooms, pool decks, shared showers, and sweaty athletic gear are ideal breeding grounds. It can also survive on surfaces and fabrics for extended periods, which is why indirect contact is such a common route of infection. Cracks or cuts in your skin make it easier for the fungus to take hold, and excessive sweating creates the damp conditions it needs to grow.
Daily Hygiene That Actually Matters
Shower promptly after exercise or any activity that leaves you sweaty. Use liquid soap rather than a shared bar, since bar soap sitting in a wet dish can harbor fungi. Wash your hands frequently with soap and water, especially before and after sports or gym sessions.
Keep your skin dry. Fungi need moisture to grow, so towel off thoroughly after bathing, and change out of wet or sweaty clothes as soon as possible. If you’re prone to sweating in specific areas (groin, feet, under the arms), moisture-wicking fabrics help. Avoid full-body or cosmetic shaving of your chest, legs, arms, or groin if you’re in a high-risk environment like a wrestling team, since razor nicks create entry points for the fungus.
Cover any open wounds, scrapes, or scratches with a proper bandage until they heal completely. Even small breaks in the skin give the fungus an easy way in. Don’t pick at or squeeze any existing skin sores.
Stop Sharing Personal Items
This is one of the simplest and most effective prevention steps. Never share towels, razors, hair clippers, combs, brushes, or soap with others. Hats, helmets, and headbands that touch your scalp are also risky if shared, particularly among children and athletes.
If someone in your household has ringworm, keep their laundry separate. Wash contaminated towels, washcloths, bedding, and clothing on a regular cycle (hot or cold water both work) and dry on high heat. The key is not to overfill the washing machine, because a packed drum reduces the mechanical agitation that actually removes fungal spores from fabric. Clean the lint filter after every load of contaminated laundry.
Combs and brushes that may have been exposed should be soaked in boiling water for ten minutes, or scrubbed with a household disinfectant and hot water.
Protect Yourself in Public Spaces
The fungus that causes ringworm (and its close relative, athlete’s foot) can live on floors in gyms, locker rooms, pool areas, communal showers, and hotel rooms. Wear flip-flops, shower shoes, or sandals whenever you’re walking in these spaces, including in the shower itself. This single habit significantly reduces your risk of picking up a foot infection that can then spread to other parts of your body.
Avoid using whirlpools or communal tubs if you have any open wounds or scratches. Sit on a clean towel rather than directly on locker room benches when possible.
Cleaning Surfaces and Equipment
If you use shared gym equipment, wipe it down before and after use with an EPA-registered disinfectant. Athletic programs should be cleaning and disinfecting locker rooms and shower areas daily, and wiping shared equipment after each use, letting it dry fully before the next person touches it. Wrestling mats and similar high-contact surfaces need disinfection after every practice session.
At home, if someone is infected, focus on surfaces they touch regularly. Bathroom floors, shower walls, and doorknobs are priorities. Any equipment with damaged surfaces that can’t be properly cleaned, like a mat with exposed foam, should be repaired or thrown out.
Watch Your Pets
Dogs, cats, and guinea pigs are the most common animal reservoirs for the type of ringworm that jumps to humans. The tricky part: animals can carry and transmit the fungus without showing any symptoms at all. When pets do show signs, look for patchy hair loss, scaly or crusty skin, or reddened areas, particularly around the ears, face, or paws.
If you suspect your pet has ringworm, take them to a vet before the infection spreads through your household. Wash your hands after handling any animal you don’t know well, and avoid prolonged skin contact with stray or unfamiliar animals. If your pet is being treated for ringworm, clean their bedding, toys, and any fabric they’ve touched using the same laundry guidelines: wash separately, dry on high heat, don’t overload the machine.
Who Faces the Highest Risk
Athletes in contact sports like wrestling, judo, and rugby face elevated risk because of the combination of skin-to-skin contact, shared equipment, excessive sweating, and warm training environments. The CDC specifically flags excessive sweating as a risk factor for ringworm in athletic settings.
Children are another high-risk group, largely because they share items freely (hats, brushes, headphones) and have close physical contact during play. Scalp ringworm is especially common in kids. People with weakened immune systems or those who spend time in crowded living conditions also face greater susceptibility. If the fungus gets into cracks in your nails, it can cause a stubborn nail infection that’s harder to treat than a skin infection.
Humid climates and seasons make ringworm more common because the fungus grows faster in warm, moist air. If you live in a tropical or subtropical area, or it’s the middle of summer, being consistent with drying off and changing out of damp clothes matters even more.