You are not contagious 24/7/365 with oral herpes. It's not a reason to stop kissing folks, it's a reason to be informed about what you are infected with and take any precautions with a partner you both think are necessary. Just avoiding kissing when you have active symptoms, really does go a long way.
Don't just use chapstick, slather your lips with good ole vaseline at bedtime and use chapstick during the day. Loads of other more pricey products out there too to try but vaseline is cheapest.
grace
This also means if I did indeed get HSV-1, I can't kiss others unless I want to risk the chance of infecting them with HSV-1. I'd say that's the worst part besides not know what is going on with my lips.
Thanks for the replies. I personally hope but don't think it's just chapped lips. I've had chapped lips many times before and they never burned. There's been a few times they've been so chapped they'd bleed. A little bit of chap stick always fixed that problem. With the recent things on my lips, chap stick only has moisturized them that's it.
I'm 26.
It sounds more like you just have chapped lips. If you think it's more than that, go and be seen and get properly evaluated.
The number of cold sores someone has had and how often they get them has no bearing at all on the likelihood of contracting hsv1 from them. the virus is still active periodically in between obvious cold sores too.
Not sure how old you are but by the time we are in our late teens, early 20's, about 1/3 - 1/2 of us have hsv1 orally whether we can recall obvious cold sores or not. You can also inquire about a type specific herpes igg blood test for yourself too to see if you already have hsv1 and never knew it.
grace
I don't know a ton about this but I would say don't worry about it too much. HSV-1, from what I have read, has infected 90% of American Adults, most get the virus during childhood and it can be spread from kissing, sharing utensils, etc. Getting it really isn't a big deal, from you describe though it seems as though you just have chapped lips.