I know a lot of the boys tossed their skivvies. Some never put them back on as they found there were additional benefits once in a night club or on the way home from the pub
Jungles, as we called them were our DPM issue jungle warfare uniforms. They were a polycotton with 10%(?) synthetic. This gave the extra wear/strength/rot proofing to last a jungle period. Modern kit doesn't last that long compared to the heavy duty campaign uniforms of yesteryear. Thats why you have a QM that can right off the stuff. "Jungles" dried fast especially if there was some wind. We liked them so much that we would wear them in Wales where it was gale force nine. They took ten minutes to dry so long as you were out of the rain. If you want dry clothes for the night then wear your spare clothes. Change back into your wet kit in the morning.
If you are working you are going to get wet anyway. I know that some of the more advanced civilian sythetics proclaim their superiority both for thermal qualities in the cold and wicking in the hot but to my mind their real advantages are in weight and robustness. Many sythetics are too hot and don't allow you body's sweat to work correctly. Cotton does, even with a small persentage of sythetic. However, I do like fibrepile next to the skin for working in when its cold outside. Wet Cotton next to the skin in the freezing cold can kill.
Most skin problems I put down to two things. Climatitisation, where an individual has not had time to adjust to the conditions; this includes being unused to being dirty and dustier. Most of us are just too clean. Bugs and bacteria that thrive on you differ from place to place and your body needs to be given time to adjust.
The other reason is cleanliness when you have got smeggy. A week is about as long as you can go before you start growing stuff that you don't want. Less if its hot and wet. So personal hygene, even if its only your collar and cuffs in a mess tin, needs to be carried out. Salt washed out of your clothes helps too. Just think of how much fluid your body is pumping out, gallons of the stuff. Once the rot has set in its difficult to shift.
Your body has a brilliant, tough, waterproof outer called skin. Give it a chance; clothing is just fashion. Cotton works just fine, but you might have to change your shirt a few times a day to keep smart.
Lastly, sythetics do have more fire retardants in them than before. Just watch it that you don't get too close to that camp fire or that stove in your tent whoooof!
